WHL NOTEBOOK: Paddock enters the family business

If anyone was ever destined to work in sports, it has to be Max Paddock.

The 25-year-old Brandonite, who now serves as goaltending coach and director of hockey operations for the Western Hockey League’s Regina Pats, certainly comes by his management skills honestly.

His father, Russ, is the athletic director at Brandon University and coached the men’s volleyball team in the early years of the program.

In addition, his uncle John played and coached in the National Hockey League, and was inducted into the American Hockey League’s Hall of Fame in 2010. John joined the Pats in 2014, resigning as GM in 2023 but continuing as a senior advisor.

“Growing up, my life was normal, but my dad was coach of a university team, so Fridays and Saturdays I was at the Henry Champ, the old gym, and now the new gym, the (Healthy Living Centre),” Paddock said. “That was where I spent my weekends, and I never really thought of it as my dad was working. He was just coaching.

“It was the same thing with my Uncle Johnny. He was gone and he was coaching, and that wasn’t really work. Now that I got into university and started deciding on some job options and some career options, it really isn’t that different for me in this role of working weekends, working nights, long travel days, that sort of stuff.

“It’s not for everyone, but that’s the life I grew up in, and I don’t know what I would do working a 9-5. I feel like I would get bored.”

His playing career also put him in a position to succeed in the job.

At 16, he debuted in the WHL during the 2016-17 season with the Regina Pats, the team that drafted him in the 10th round in 2015. A year later he took over the starting job as the Pats hosted the Memorial Cup.

He played in the final in a 3-0 loss to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan and was a named tournament all-star.

He finished his pandemic-shortened WHL career with the Prince Albert Raiders after they acquired him from the Pats on Jan. 9, 2020, for Roblin product Jakob Brook and a pair of draft picks.

In 148 career WHL appearances over five seasons between 2016 and 2021, Paddock earned a 64-58-7-7 record with a 3.01 goals-against average and a .905 save percentage with nine shutouts.

Paddock used his WHL scholarship to play one season of hockey at Acadia University in Nova Scotia, and then spent two seasons in British Columbia on the volleyball court at Fraser Valley University. He still had two years of eligibility when the Pats parted ways with goaltending coach Daniel Wapple in April 2024.

“The way I looked at it, this job doesn’t really come available that often and I knew that it was something I really wanted to do,” Paddock said. “When the opportunity came to come back to Regina, where I played, it wasn’t a no-brainer — there was a lot of decision-making and a lot of back and forth — but at the end of the day, there’s a time when you have to move on with your athletic career and the rest of your life and set yourself up for the future.”

He was still living in Abbotsford, and reached out to newly appointed head coach Brad Herauf to express his interest. Paddock was actually with fellow Brandonite Reece Wilson when he sent the text.

(At the time, the pair were co-coaching a club volleyball team that finished third at nationals. Wilson is now an assistant coach at UFV.)

Paddock was officially hired as goaltending coach by the Pats in July 2024.

When he was growing up, there weren’t as many options for local goaltending coaches as there are now.

He would drive in to work with Dan Ferguson in Winnipeg, who served as the Ice’s goaltending coach while doing the job full-time at the RINK Hockey Academy. He usually ended up going in with his goaltending partners Josh Scott or Cole Bohonos every couple of weeks.

As he got older and could drive, he went in once a week.

That dearth of elite coaching for goaltenders has certainly changed. By the time the overwhelming majority of goalies get to major junior now, they’ve had at least some level of instruction.

When he worked during the summer with young goalies at the Western Canada Hockey Academy in Brandon, he had an extended period and could rebuild parts of the game. In major junior, they can make some adjustments early in the season when the schedule is lighter, but once things get going, it’s impossible because there isn’t time.

“Especially once you have a starting goalie who plays more often than not, he wants to keep his practices short,” Paddock said. “It’s more just managing what they’re doing. A lot of our work comes down to video work. As far as changing stuff, I don’t try to change too much, I just fine-tune some stuff and work with what I have with them.”

The position has evolved completely since goaltenders of past eras like Tony Esposito, Mike Palmateer and even Dominik Hasek played, but that transition is continuing at a rapid pace.

With that avalanche of information coming at him, he’s received some mentoring from Vegas Golden Knights director of goaltending Sean Burke and Mike Rosati.

“There is a lot of stuff out there,” Paddock said. “Everything looks fancy and exciting and you want to try a lot of stuff, but just being able to rely on those guys has been a big help for me, and a lot of that comes down to talking with our goalies and seeing how they feel about certain stuff.”

When the cutting-edge theory suggested a different arm position, he tried it with one of his goalies during a slow week, but after a few days they abandoned the experiment because he wasn’t comfortable. After all, the last thing you want during a game is a netminder thinking about anything other than the play in front of him.

“You have to be confident when you step into the crease,” Paddock said. “If you’re not confident, you’re going to make mistakes you don’t normally make and not give your team confidence. Whatever it is our goalies need, I’m there to provide it.”

Paddock is just 25, and graduated from the WHL just five years ago. As a result, he’s not that far removed from the player experience, which is useful.

“I think it’s a big factor in coaching them and mentoring them,” Paddock said. “I think that’s another reason why Brad and (former Regina GM) Alan Millar, who hired me, thought that I was a good fit, because I can relate to them and beyond that, relate to other players because I just recently went through the grind that they did … Obviously I don’t have the experience that some coaches might have but I do have the experience of recently playing in today’s era of hockey.”

While WHL dressing rooms tend to very tight, and the relationship between goaltending partners can be even closer, Paddock has had to remember that his role has changed. He admitted that keeping a professional distance isn’t easy, but it’s necessary to avoid making emotional decisions.

“That’s one of the more challenging parts that I’ve had to deal with in the past year and a half that I’ve been in this role,” Paddock said. “There are decisions to be made and at the start of training camp, we can only have two goalies on our team and this year, because of an injury, we had three goalies on our roster until trade deadline week.

“Those are hard decisions because you build relationships with these kids.”

Even so, he’s hoping his work in the game will last a long time.

Paddock was studying kinesiology at Acadia and Fraser Valley, but when he tried to transfer his credits to Regina, he discovered he would lose half his credits. As a result, he transferred to a general Arts degree. He finished it up and just recently graduated.

Last June, he took on another new challenge when he was named director of hockey operations. The job involves everything from serving as billet coordinator and school liaison to dealing with travel plans such as booking hotels and meals, some league paperwork, coding video during games for coaches to look at, pre-scouting the power plays of other teams and arranging player appearances with sponsors.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s really good in understanding how things operate,” Paddock said. “As a player, I didn’t think, ‘Who books the ice?’ It’s just there. “Now I’m understanding there is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and that’s me now.

“It was a lot at the start of the year, especially with juggling still being a full-time student, so that was a really big grind, but now that I’m done school, it’s going a lot better.”

THIS AND THAT

• QUIZ — Jayden Kraus and Filip Ruzicka have teamed up for three shutouts this season. When did they last have more than that? They also had back-to-back shutouts this season? Does that tie a record in the Internet era?

• WEEKLY AWARDS — The player of the week is 19-year-old Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Bryce Pickford of Chauvin, Alta., a Montreal Canadiens prospect who had four goals and three assists in two wins.

The goaltender of the week is Victoria Royals netminder Ethan Eskit, who just turned 20. The Calgary product and former Wheat King went 1-1-0-0 last week while making 60 saves on 63 shots.

The rookie of the week is 18-year-old Penticton Vees forward Jacob Kvasnicka of Burnsville, Minn., who had five goals and five assists in four games last week.

• SIN BIN — It’s been a busy weekend at the league office, with four players waiting to learn how long they’ll be sitting. The Wenatchee Wild and Tri-City Americans were both fined $500 for a multi-fight situation on Saturday. Also from that game, Wenatchee defenceman Brandon Osborne took a kneeing major and game misconduct, a former Wheat Kings defenceman Charlie Elick of the Americans was flagged with a checking to the head major and game misconduct.

In a pair of separate checking to the head major and game misconducts from Friday, Portland forward Nathan Brown and Medicine Hat forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov were also tossed.

• ALUMNI GLANCE — Carberry’s Carson Bjarnason, 20, is suiting up with the American Hockey League’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms in his rookie professional campaign, and has a .2.47 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 15 games.

He was an undrafted but listed player when he made the Wheat Kings at 16, and went on to appear in 156 regular season games over four campaigns with a career goals against of 3.14 and a .903 save percentage.

He was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers 51st overall in 2023 and turned pro after last season.

• THE WEEK AHEAD — The Wheat Kings visit the Prince Albert Raiders tonight and the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday, then return to play the Victoria Royals on Friday. That’s their final action in Brandon until Feb. 6 because they’ll be heading out on the road through the U.S. Division.

• ANSWER — The Wheat Kings posted seven shutouts in the shortened 2019-20 season courtesy of Jiri Patera and Ethan Kruger. Andrew Hayes and Jacob De Serres also had seven in the 2009-10 season when Brandon hosted the Memorial Cup, including three in a row by Hayes. He and Joe Caligiuri also had seven shutouts in the 2007-08 season.

As a footnote, it’s worth giving a stick tap to Josh Harding, who posted five shutouts in just over two months after being acquired from the Regina Pats near the deadline during the 2003-04 season.