John Paddock

Alvin John Paddock (born June 9, 1954) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach and former player. Paddock is currently the Head Coach and Senior Vice-President of Hockey Operations for the Western Hockey League's Regina Pats.^[1] He is a former head coach of the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators. During his long career in the American Hockey League he won five Calder Cup championships (two as a player, three as a head coach) and was inducted into the AHL's Hall of Fame in 2010.^[2]

Playing career

Selected in the 1974 NHL Entry Draft by the Washington Capitals, Paddock only played 8 games with the Capitals before he was traded to the Philadelphia Flyers. He played a memorable role in the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals, scoring the tying goal to send game 6 of the Finals into overtime. Unfortunately for the Flyers, Bob Nystrom scored at 7:11 of overtime to win the Stanley Cup.

Throughout his career he had a difficult time trying to crack the lineup on an NHL team. Playing primarily in the minors, in particular the Maine Mariners, Paddock retired as a player in 1983–84 and moved to the coaching side.

Coaching career

Paddock began coaching with the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League. He later coached in Hershey, Pennsylvania, winning the Calder Cup as coach of the 1988 AHL champion Hershey Bears. He was named head coach of the Winnipeg Jets in 1991, becoming the first Manitoba-born coach of the franchise. Later he would also become general manager of the Jets, and would relinquish his coaching duties in early 1994. He remained as the general manager, even after the Jets relocated to Phoenix, until December 1996.

After two years as a scout with the New York Rangers, Paddock would return to head coaching in 1999, primarily in the AHL. He was head coach of the Hartford Wolf Pack from 1999–2002, winning his second AHL Championship in the 1999–2000 season.

Paddock joined the Ottawa Senators organization in 2002 as coach of the AHL Binghamton Senators from 2002–2005. In 2002, he was promoted to the assistant coach of the Ottawa Senators. When Ottawa head coach Bryan Murray was promoted to general manager in July 2007, Paddock became head coach of Ottawa, the sixth head coach in modern Senators' history.

Paddock's term with Ottawa started extremely well. In the first 17 games of the season, the club set records for the best start in NHL history, winning 15 of their first 17 games. In the 2007–08 season, Paddock was the head coach of the Eastern Conference team for the All-Star game as Ottawa had the best record in the East.

However it was not to last. On February 27, 2008, Murray fired Paddock after several lackluster performances by the team in February, and a generally poor record since the first 17 games of the year. Murray would serve as head coach for the remainder of the 2007–08 season and playoffs, with a 7-9-2 record. The Senators were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

Paddock did not stay out of work for long. In August 2008, Paddock returned to the Philadelphia Flyers organization. He was hired to be head coach to their AHL team the Philadelphia Phantoms, returning Paddock to the league where he has had his most success. On July 9, 2009, he was appointed assistant General Manager of the Flyers.

On June 18, 2014. Paddock was released by the Philadelphia Flyers organization.

On August 6, 2014, Paddock was hired by the Regina Pats as Head Coach and Senior VP of Hockey Operations. Following his first season behind the Pats' bench, Paddock was named the Dunc McCallum Trophy winner as the Western Hockey League's 2015 Coach of the Year.

References

External links

• Career statistics and player information from NHL.com, or Hockey-Reference.com, or Legends of Hockey, or The Internet Hockey Database
• Profile at hockeydraftcentral.com