Categories: WHL

Former Winnipeg Ice head coach James Patrick named Victoria Royals Director of Player Development

Last week the Victoria Royals announced that they had hired Winnipegger James Patrick to be their Director of Player Development where his “his primary responsibilities will be assisting in developing future National Hockey League players”.

Shouldn’t be difficult for the defenceman who played close to 1300 games as a pro with teams like the Rangers, Whalers, Flames and Sabres before retiring in 2006 and turning his attention to coaching. He joined Buffalo in 2006-07 as an assistant coach where he would spend seven seasons with the last NHL team he played for as a player. He moved onto Dallas in 2013-14 and would spend four seasons as an assistant coach with the Stars.

In 2017-18 he was named head coach of the Kootenay Ice of the WHL. His clubs didn’t have much success in Kootenay but after two seasons in B.C. they moved the team to his hometown of Winnipeg where they were re-branded the Ice and that coincided with the club turning things around on the ice. Unfortunately they lost the 2019-20 season due to covid and then had a solid bubble season the next year (.711 winning percentage). The last two seasons in Manitoba saw the club really take off(.816 and .846 winning percentages) as they set all sorts of records. However they weren’t able to get past two similarly outstanding clubs in Edmonton (2021-22) and Seattle (2022-23).

Photo Credit: Colby Spence (Illegal Curve)

In June of this year it was announced that the Ice had been purchased by David White and the team were being moved to Wenatchee, Washington. Other than the players on the roster the new entity didn’t take anything else with them including head coach James Patrick.

And Patrick isn’t the only Winnipegger who is going to be working with Victoria next season. The Royals also hired Jake Heisinger as an Associate General Manager after he held the title of Vice President of Hockey Operations and Assistant General Manager of the Winnipeg Ice.

David Minuk

Working hard on a daily basis to provide the latest Winnipeg Jets and Manitoba Moose news for our readers and listeners. I also appear on the Illegal Curve Hockey Show every Saturday on our YouTube channel as well as the Illegal Curve Post-Game Show after every single Jets game. And I occasionally jump in the play-by-play booth at Canada Life to provide colour analysis during Manitoba Moose games.

Share
Published by
David Minuk

Recent Posts

TSN’s Craig Button talks about the 2025 NHL Draft and some options for the Winnipeg Jets at 28th overall

TSN’s Director of Scouting shares his insight ahead of the first ever decentralized Draft.

5 hours ago

Winnipeg Jets winger Nikolaj Ehlers named to Denmark’s preliminary roster for 2026 Olympics

The dynamic winger will get another chance to represent his country.

6 hours ago

Winnipeg Jets winger Nino Niederreiter named to Switzerland’s preliminary roster for 2026 Olympics

The big winger will play for his country at the 2026 Olympics in Italy.

8 hours ago

32 Thoughts Podcast | Friedman with latest on Winnipeg Jets UFA Nikolaj Ehlers

Nothing earth shattering from the latest podcast aside from a reminder of a trade that…

8 hours ago

Winnipeg Jets Morning Papers

Keeping you up-to-date with all the latest pro hockey news in Manitoba.

1 day ago

Winnipeg Jets sign prospect Alfons Freij to a three-year ELC

The 2024 2nd rounder has his first NHL contract.

2 days ago