SaskatchewanAfter making the playoffs in 2023, the Regina Pats have missed the playoffs the past two seasons with a combined total of just 38 victories.Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue steal headlines, but older core will have to leadDan Plaster · CBC News · Posted: Sep 19, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours agoRegina Pats head coach Brad Herauf runs his team through drills during training camp. (Dan Plaster/CBC)With the new WHL season approaching, CBC’s Dan Plaster is previewing every Saskatchewan team. Follow all week for a new story each day.The climb to the top of the Western Hockey League is slow, but the crash to the bottom can be swift.After making the playoffs in 2023, the Regina Pats have missed the playoffs the past two seasons with a combined total of just 38 victories. The end of last season stung the most. The team lost 17 of the last 20 games.Pats head coach Brad Herauf said the players who endured that misery and are back this year will be ready for the challenge.”I know our group is a lot more settled now. We have 19 returning players and we talked a lot about starting ahead of other teams, starting Sept. 1 with the returning players,” Herauf said. “We really believe a lot of the things we did in the last six weeks will roll into this season.”One of those continuity pieces is 19-year-old defenceman Kolten Bridgeman. The hometown Regina kid has been with the Pats the past two seasons and wants to be a big part of the march back to the playoffs.”That’s what the leaders that I learned from did for me. I think there’s always lessons to be learned, but hopefully, I’ll need a few less this year,” Bridgeman said.The Pats will rely on 19-year-old Regina-born defenceman Kolten Bridgeman this season. (Dan Plaster/CBC)Eight ff the team’s top 10 scorers from last season are returning to the lineup. This will be a large part of the effort to get into the win column early and often.But the future is on the shoulders of Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue. The first and third overall picks from the 2025 WHL Prospects Draft will each be able to each play 34 WHL games this season.Maddox Schultz taps gloves with his teammates after scoring a goal for the U18 Regina Pat Canadians in last year’s Telus Cup. (Hockey Canada)They are a big part of the future, but also want to be a part of the building process beginning this season.”Obviously winning. With this team, I think we got a pretty good chance to win a couple games this year, obviously do better than last year. I think that’s probably the team’s main priority right now,” Schultz said.”It’s just really exciting, you get here and you just want to start playing games, playing in the WHL,” Pue said. “It’s obviously a dream, so I’m eager to get going.”Rookie Liam Pue will be allowed to play up to 34 games with the Pats in 2025-26. (Dan Plaster/CBC)While Schultz and Pue dominated the off season headlines, there was one more important addition to the Regina Pats staff and that was the addition of Pats legend and former head coach Dale Derkatch as general manager.He too is excited for the chance to lead the Pats back into the playoffs but is preaching patience for everyone on and off the ice.”Like with the players and managing expectations, we have to be realistic, it’s steps we’re taking steps. We didn’t make the playoffs last season so a realistic step is to make the playoffs. We had the youngest team at the end of last year and now we are not,” Derkatch said.WATCH | Regina Pats look to turn off-season headlines into on-ice success: Regina Pats look to turn off-season headlines into on-ice successTwo potentially generational players will be suiting up for the Pats this season as 15-year-olds. Can Maddox Schultz, Liam Pue and a group of WHL veterans lead the Pats into the playoffs? This is where the building blocks begin with the Regina Pats. Managing the beginning of two potential star players in Schultz and Pue, relying on a large core of veterans that had to endure a difficult 2024-25 season and managing the expectations of a rabid fan base in Regina that so desperately want a winning team back on the ice.”We now are at a better spot I’d say for coaches, better spot for the fans and obviously the players too because no one wanted to go through that but it was necessary for us to get us to this point now and I believe that this is where the fun starts,” Herauf said.That fun begins this weekend as the Regina Pats head on the road to start the season in Swift Current on September 19 and then in Medicine Hat against the defending WHL champions a night later. The home opener is Friday, September 26 at the Brandt Centre against the Prince Albert Raiders.ABOUT THE AUTHORDan Plaster is a video producer at CBC Saskatchewan. He has more than 30 years of experience in TV, radio and digital media.
The Regina Pats’ slow climb back to the top begins
