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Flin Flonner Struch named Regina Pats coach

A former Flin Flonner will spend this season behind the bench of the Regina Pats. Dave Struch was named the new head coach of the club on June 28, assuming the post from outgoing coach John Paddock.
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A former Flin Flonner will spend this season behind the bench of the Regina Pats.

Dave Struch was named the new head coach of the club on June 28, assuming the post from outgoing coach John Paddock.

A Flin Flon native, Struch began his junior career with the Saskatoon Blades, playing four seasons with the team before embarking on a 13-year pro career that took him to Austria, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. Struch played four NHL games with the Calgary Flames in the 1993-94 season.

It will be Struch’s second hitch as a WHL head coach. After rejoining the Blades organization as an assistant coach in 2006-07, Struch was named the team’s head coach for the 2013-14 season.

The following year, Struch travelled down Highway 11 to Regina, where he joined the Regina Pats as an assistant coach. Struch also worked as an assistant general manager with the Pats for the past two seasons.

There are some similarities between Struch’s former position with the Blades and his new post with the Pats. In both cases, Struch was named head coach of a Saskatchewan WHL team after a lengthy stint as an assistant coach and got the position the season after the team hosted a Memorial Cup.

Struch has a tall order ahead of him this season. After loading up with talent last season in anticipation of hosting the 2018 Memorial Cup, several of the team’s top players have either aged out of the league or signed professional contracts. Five out of the team’s top six scorers from this year’s Memorial Cup are unlikely to return to the team next year.

“We’re going to be a different group this year,” said Struch to the Regina Leader-Post. “We’re going to have to really work on our play away from the puck and, because we’re going to be a hard-working team, our recovery and our rest is going to be important.”

Next year’s Pats roster has another tie to northern Manitoba. One of the Pats likely to return to the club next season, Jake Leschyshyn, is the son of Thompson-born former NHLer Curtis Leschyshyn, who played against Struch during his four-game big league stint.

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