Pats head coach Curtis Hunt getting settled again

REGINA — Curtis Hunt's return to the WHL's Regina Pats has been a moving experience.

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Having sold his house in Ottawa and transported his belongings to Regina on the weekend, Hunt is now in the process of shopping for a home in the Queen City — again.

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Hunt spent four seasons as the head coach in Regina before leaving last summer to become an assistant with the Ottawa Senators. Midway through the campaign, Hunt was re-assigned to Ottawa's AHL affiliate in Binghamton. After the season concluded, Hunt turned down an offer to remain as the head coach in Binghamton, electing instead to return home to Regina.

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"You get pretty good at it after 15 moves," said a chuckling Hunt, who has relocated nine times as a player and six as a coach. "It's a pain in the ass but it's fine. It's part of the business. We try not to keep a lot of extra stuff. You can't be a pack rat and be a hockey coach."

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While he works on finding a new home for his family, Hunt is also throwing himself into his work. The first priority is the upcoming scheduling meetings, which take on added importance for the Pats because they'll be temporarily evicted from the Brandt Centre over the holidays due to the world junior championship. After that, Hunt will turn his attention to the CHL import draft, slated for June 30.

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Hunt said he has already talked to "about 95 per cent" of the team's returning players. The purpose was to introduce himself to the ones with whom he's not familiar and to reacquaint himself with the players he already knows.

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Asked if he received any feedback on last season, when the Pats missed the playoffs and cost head coach Dale Derkatch his job, Hunt said it wasn't a focus of the conversations.

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"The real truth is, what happened happened and I don't want to belabour it," he said. "What are they going to say? I think it was just important to touch base, talk about the direction we want to go, talk about consistency, talk about pressure, talk about work ethic, accountability. And then generally again just re-acclimate myself, see how the training is going, how they felt their own personal year was. It's easy to look at the team but where are you (as an individual)? Where do you want to be? What are your intentions coming back? Where do you see us all fitting? How are you going to accomplish that? What are your fitness goals? What are your short-term goals? So, it's just trying to get a base for every player."

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Hunt said he plans to get together with GM Brent Parker this week to talk about the roster. He'll also do some homework on other teams, trying to cover all the bases.

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"In order to have success you have to stay on top of everything," he said. "I want to get into the office in the next couple weeks and get organized and get my names (from the Pats' roster) on the board and have a look at where other teams are at and pick (director of scouting Todd Ripplinger's) brain a little bit. To miss two summers and a winter, I think it's important to get to know not only our division but our conference as well."

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But first things first.

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"I'm looking forward to getting my family settled in," he added. "We're excited to be back and excited to get re-acclimated into the community. It's old but it's all new again. I don't want to wish the summer away, but I'm certainly eager to get going."

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NOTE: The Prince Albert Raiders have hired Derkatch as their director of player personnel. The Pats' legend, a former scout with the NHL's Washington Capitals, replaces head scout Dave O'Brien of Regina, whose contract wasn't renewed by the WHL club.

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By Greg Harder, Leader-Post

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