James Patrick recalled two vastly different bookend visits he made to Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre in his six seasons as head coach of the Ice franchise in the Western Hockey League. The first was a 10-1 blowout loss to the Victoria Royals when the Kootenay Ice missed the playoffs in his first two seasons at the helm. The other was last fall when he brought the Winnipeg Ice, which had moved from Cranbrook and matured as a roster, back onto the Island with NHL first-round draft picks Matthew Savoie, Conor Geekie, Carson Lambos and Zach Benson in tow in a 3-1 victory.
Patrick was asked about the parallels that seem obvious to the task that awaits him as the new head coach of the Royals — to build up a struggling franchise that has missed the playoffs the last two seasons.
“I hope so, yes,” replied the former NHL blue-liner Patrick on Wednesday, in his first media scrum since replacing the fired Dan Price as Victoria head coach.
“That’s one of the reasons I’m here. After having been thorough it once, I feel a lot more confident now than when I did when I went to Cranbrook. You can develop a culture and work ethic. It’s going to take time. I want players who compete at all ends of the ice. If you compete hard, you get to play a lot. If you don’t, your ice gets taken away.”
Patrick said he made the decision to step away from the game when the Ice franchise was sold at the end of last season to a group that moved it to Wenatchee, Washington, and renamed it the Wild.
“I loved every moment of the six years I coached in the league but the last two years [53-10-5 in 2021-22 and 57-10-1 in 2022-23] were really special,” he said.
“It ended so suddenly and was unexpected so I decided to take a little time off and reflect. My plan was to take the year off.”
But Patrick said he had a strong feeling he would eventually get back to coaching. The Victoria opportunity, however, “came a bit out of the blue” as Royals owner Graham Lee began retooling during the summer by hiring former NHL Arizona Coyotes manager of hockey operations Joey Poljanowski as the new Royals vice-president of hockey operations, Jake Heisinger as associate GM and Patrick as director of player development.
“I had to think it out and talk to my family [about returning to coaching],” said Patrick.
“Because once you do this, you dive in. You’re all in to give every ounce that you can. It’s an emotional and physical commitment. One practice in and I’ve already lost my voice.”
The Royals (9-7-1) defeated the Red Deer Rebels 3-2 on Tuesday night at the Memorial Centre with assistant coach Morgan Klimchuk as interim head coach following Price’s dismissal on Monday. Patrick will be behind the bench Friday night at the Memorial Centre when the Royals meet the defending league-champion Seattle Thunderbirds (7-4-1). Ironically, that was the last team Patrick coached against as his Ice were beaten by the Thunderbirds last spring in the 2023 WHL final.
“It’s an interesting coincidence,” said Patrick.
“It’s probably the [opposition] team I’m most familiar with. They are a much different team this season but they’ve still got a lot of good players.”
Patrick played 1,280 NHL regular-season games over 21 seasons from 1983-84 to 2003-04 with the New York Rangers, who selected him ninth overall in the first round of the 1981 draft out of the University of North Dakota, and also with the Hartford Whalers, Calgary Flames and Buffalo Sabres before concluding his pro playing career in Germany with the Frankfurt Lions.
The 60-year-old Winnipeg native also had extensive international experience for Canada. Patrick won gold and bronze at the 1982 and 1983 world junior championships with Mark Morrison of the WHL Victoria Cougars and played in the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Olympics with Victoria’s Russ Courtnall, placing fourth. Patrick also played for Canada in five IIHF world championships and the landmark 1987 Canada Cup with Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux.
Patrick was assistant coach in the NHL for seven seasons with the Sabres from 2006-07 to 2012-13 and four seasons with the Dallas Stars, and Victoria brothers Jamie and Jordie Benn from 2013-14 to 2016-17. He becomes the fourth head coach of the Royals since the franchise came to the Island in 2011-12 following Marc Habscheid (one season), Dave Lowry (five seasons) and Price (six seasons).
“I’m going to change some of the systems,” said Patrick.
“I want to get us in the mindset of playing a North-South game. You have to be strong on the puck and win battles.”
From what he’s seen so far, Patrick added: “This team can play with anyone.”
