Paddock with wife Avril, daughter Emery, and son Calder. (Photo: Contributed)

By Regan Bartel

Cam Paddock: From fire power to grit

Two dominant seasons with contrasting styles

Aug 26, 2025 | 6:00 AM

Cam Paddock chuckles over the phone, thinking about one of the most common questions he’s ever been asked: which Kelowna Rockets team was better, the 2003 squad that captured the Western Hockey League championship, or the 2004 group that fell in the Western Conference final but showed its true mettle by winning the Memorial Cup.

Paddock, 19 on the 2003 team and 20 the following season, pauses, as if preparing to pick his words carefully. He’s been asked this question enough times to have a strategy.

“Oh, that’s a tough one,” he said, smiling at the memory of a team that won 51 games in 2002-03 before following up with 47 wins and the WHL regular-season crown.

“We had more scar tissue in 2004 after losing at the Memorial Cup in 2003,” he continued. “We were relentless in 04. We knew we were a good team and had a chance to win in that 2003 tournament. We dominated Gatineau in the semi-finals, and just couldn’t sneak one past their goalie.”

The Rockets’ first-ever Memorial Cup appearance in Quebec City ended with one win in three round-robin games, followed by a 2-1 semi-final loss despite scoring a WHL-high 311 goals that season. It was a reminder that hockey can be funny that way; sometimes you score more than anyone else and still go home early.

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“We could score from anywhere in 2003, and any time,” Paddock said. “In 2004, we couldn’t score, but we could defend and win games and so we found a different way of doing it.”

The team’s culture had been evolving even before that. In Paddock’s second season, 2000-01, the Rockets reached the Western Conference final before losing to eventual Memorial Cup champion Kootenay Ice.

“In my 18, 19 and 20-year-old seasons in Kelowna, as players, we didn’t need to say much to each other. The leaders were leaders. We expected a lot from each other. We could have honest conversations about our performance, and we always knew when we showed up at the rink, we were going to work hard. We were confident in our abilities.

“Instead of thinking we might win, you truly believe you are going to win. Good teams have that. We knew we were going to win. We trusted each other.”

For a player, the shift from 2003 to 2004 was stark, like trading a Ferrari for a reliable Chevy pickup. Paddock had scored a career-high 38 goals before being asked to throttle back and focus on defense to capture junior hockey’s ultimate prize. It was the kind of trade-off that makes sense in a coach’s playbook but can make a scorer groan.

“When I was 18, I had a chance to play on a line with Chuck Kobasew and Thomas Oravec, both super offensive-minded. When I was 19, we had Jesse Schultz, Kiel McLeod and Tyler Mosienko, all scorers. So going from that to the 2004 team was frustrating.

“While you get confidence from scoring, winning hockey games was more important, and we did that consistently.”

At the 2004 Memorial Cup, the team stayed at Lake Okanagan Resort, later destroyed in the 2023 McDougall Creek Wildfire. Paddock roomed with team captain Josh Gorges, commuting in and out for games along Westside Road.

“He was a good leader. The whole team looked to him for leadership,” Paddock said. “He was as stubborn as you could imagine. He put in the work all the time and was always ready for practice and games. He was super, super consistent.”

RocketFAN asked if anyone on the 23-player roster didn’t get the credit they deserved.

“I really think D.J. King,” he said without hesitation. “Just having his physical presence on the ice definitely gives guys more space. He was a great hockey player too. If someone didn’t get celebrated from that team a ton because he wasn’t there long, it was D.J., as he was an impact player for us.”

King had been acquired in a trade with Lethbridge, a move similar to the one the team made the previous season to grab forward Simon Ferguson.

Paddock and King reunited shortly after the Memorial Cup. Drafted by Pittsburgh but later signing with St. Louis, Paddock stayed at King’s apartment one summer while recovering from hip surgery.

He went on to play 16 NHL games, all with the Blues, often running into former tournament foes like Windsor Spitfires player Cam Jansen.

“I hung out with Cam Jansen in St. Louis,” Paddock said with a chuckle. “They [King and Jansen] had the only fight in the tournament. Cam, being from St. Louis, hung around that summer. I was hobbling around all summer on crutches, and he was my chauffeur.”

For Paddock, now a father of two, the debate isn’t about stats or trophies. It’s about the memories, the teammates, and the grind, and the stories he can still laugh about today.