Mike Reagan waited 19 years to leave Flin Flon.
Not because he couldn’t.
Not because opportunities never came.
He stayed because he had one promise to keep.
He wasn’t leaving until the Bombers won an SJHL championship.
Mission accomplished.
After leading Flin Flon to an SJHL championship this past season, the winningest coach in franchise history is finally moving on. Reagan has accepted an assistant coaching position with the Kelowna Rockets, ending one of the longest and most successful coaching tenures in Canadian junior hockey.
The timing is bittersweet.
The Bombers will celebrate their 100th anniversary this season and raise a championship banner at their home opener. Reagan also won’t be there to accept his induction into the SJHL Hall of Fame. The ceremony falls the same weekend the Rockets open the WHL season in a home-and-home series against the Penticton Vees.
For a man who spent nearly his entire hockey life in Flin Flon, it won’t be an easy goodbye.
“I don’t think too many people were expecting this,” Reagan admitted to RocketFAN. “I think after that amount of time they figure you’re there for life.”
It’s easy to understand why.
Reagan played four seasons with his hometown Bombers before embarking on a playing career that included NCAA Division I hockey at Sacred Heart University and stops throughout the United States before finishing in Quebec.
At just 27 years old, with no coaching experience, he returned home.
Nineteen seasons later, he has coached more than 1,000 games, become the winningest coach in Bombers history, captured an SJHL championship and established himself as one of the most respected coaches in junior hockey.
He built all of it from scratch.
“I’ve been head coach from day one,” Reagan said. “I came in with zero coaching experience and tried to form my own path based on other coaches that I’d had.”
One of the biggest influences was legendary coach Gardner MacDougall.
Reagan has known MacDougall since he was 12 years old. Early in his coaching career, he spent two weeks living at MacDougall’s home while shadowing him during a national championship tournament at the University of New Brunswick.
That experience helped shape the coach he would become.
“I’m a very passionate coach,” Reagan said. “I like developing players. I think I’m a guy that brings a lot of energy to the team. I like a very fast, physical brand of hockey.”
His legacy wasn’t built solely on victories.
It was built on developing players, building relationships and creating a culture that made Flin Flon one of junior hockey’s most respected programs.
“This is a community that I grew up in and followed the Bombers and played for them and obviously coached them for a long time,” Reagan said. “It’s made me who I am today.”
He believes Flin Flon prepared him perfectly for the next step.
“We’re a hockey town. It’s one of the most historic junior communities in North America.”
For years, Reagan had little interest in leaving.
But after accomplishing the one goal that had eluded him for nearly two decades, the timing finally felt right.
“There was always the thought of, ‘What’s the next challenge ahead of you?'” Reagan said. “You want to grow as a coach and be put in situations that are going to help you do that.”
Winning the championship changed everything.
“We’d been so close for so many years. To get over that hump, it was one of those things. OK, let’s try something different and let’s look for a great opportunity.”
That opportunity came with one of the WHL’s marquee franchises.
“I couldn’t be happier joining the Rockets,” Reagan said. “It’s such a prestigious organization.”
His role will be different.
After 19 years running his own bench, Reagan now joins an experienced coaching staff led by Derrick Martin alongside fellow assistant Brandon McMillan.
“I’m not looking to step on any toes,” Reagan said. “I’m there to be a support system and help the players, help the staff. If there’s some things I can bring to the table that are beneficial to the team, I’m definitely going to do that.”
His focus is simple.
“I’m there to help Derrick in any way possible.”
Leaving Flin Flon, however, remains the hardest part.
There are lifelong friendships, countless memories and a community that embraced him as both a player and coach.
“It’s not necessarily goodbye,” Reagan said. “It’s see you later.”
His phone has barely stopped buzzing since the announcement.
“There has been a tremendous amount of support,” he said. “I can’t thank enough people for the support over the years.”
The emotion is understandable.
When someone spends nearly two decades behind one bench, people naturally assume they’ll never leave.
Even Reagan admits he never imagined the timing would unfold quite like this.
The championship banner will rise without him.
The Bombers’ centennial celebration will go on without the coach who helped write one of the greatest chapters in franchise history.
His Hall of Fame induction will happen while he’s hundreds of kilometres away preparing for another season, in a new city, with a new team and a new league.
“It’s a great honour,” Reagan said of the SJHL Hall of Fame recognition. “It’s probably something that when you’re done coaching you’ll be able to look back and be a little more proud of.”
There isn’t much time to reflect.
He’s juggling a move to Kelowna, attending a summer wedding, running a long-standing hockey school back home and preparing for his first WHL season.
“I work better under stressful situations,” he said with a laugh.
After 19 seasons, more than 1,000 games and one long-awaited championship, Mike Reagan finally kept the promise he made to himself.
He wasn’t leaving Flin Flon until he won.
Now he leaves exactly the way he always hoped he would: a champion.
And Kelowna just hired a winner.
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