TAMPA BAY LIGHTNING - EX-REGINA PATS TOD FEDORUK RETURNS TO REGINA

Regina homecoming for Tampa Bay Lightning and former Pats left-winger Todd Fedoruk

By Ian Hamilton, Regina Leader Post

September 21, 2009 - (Photo: taken by Leader Post - Roy Antal)

REGINA — Shauna Engelhardt acted like the prototypical proud parent Monday morning at the Brandt Centre.

Engelhardt beamed, misted up and beamed again as she watched her boy on the ice with the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning as the team prepared for Monday night’s exhibition game with the Ottawa Senators. (The score by the way was Ottawa 3, Tampa Bay 1)

Mind you, Lightning left-winger Todd Fedoruk isn’t really Engelhardt’s son. She was something of a surrogate mom to him during the 1998-99 WHL season when he played for the Regina Pats. The Engelhardts were Fedoruk’s billets for four months.

When Engelhardt was asked what it meant to her to see Fedoruk back in Regina, tears formed in her eyes.

“I can’t even say,” she began. “It’s awesome. A kid who played junior hockey in Regina who is just as normal as any kid walking down the street now is playing in the NHL. I can’t describe it. He’s like one of our own kids.”

Fedoruk, who hails from Redwater, Alta., spent the first 2 1/2 seasons of his WHL career with the Kelowna Rockets before joining the Pats midway through the 1997-98 season.

He moved in with the Engelhardts to start the following season — and made quite an impact. “Three days into living with us,” Shauna recalled, “he taught our oldest (Darien) how to drop his gloves and fight ... Todd was unbelievable. He was one of the softest-hearted people that I know for being such a tough kid.”

The Engelhardts’ willingness to open their hearts and homes to Fedoruk continues to resonate with him.

“Seeing them (Monday) is important to me,” said Fedoruk, 30. “These are families that put their lives aside to take in young kids who leave home at 15, 16 years old. There’s a lot of good hockey families in Regina and in Western Canada that take these kids on and basically are their parents for six months.

“It’s an important thing for the developing kid who’s under the pressures of playing at this semi-professional level and getting drafted. To have good people at home is an important thing and I was lucky to have Pete and Shauna.”

Dennis Fedoruk agreed with his son’s assessment of the Engelhardts — but for another reason.
“It was a little different with Pete and Shauna because at that age Todd needed a little bit of straight shooting and discipline and with Pete’s background (as a police officer), it was good,” noted Dennis, who watched the pre-game skate with his wife Maureen and the Engelhardts. “I told Todd, ‘You’d better keep ’er straight.’ It kind of straightened him out. He did well here.”
“These kids, for the most part, are great kids,” added Shauna, whose family has billeted Pats players for 12 seasons. “Some of them need a little extra help, but for the most part they just need a loving home and a hot meal — and Internet access and some cable TV — and they’re happy.”

Fedoruk played 39 games with Regina in the ’98-99 season before being traded to the Prince Albert Raiders. The rugged winger — a seventh-round pick of the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1997 NHL draft — began his pro career the following season, splitting the campaign between the ECHL’s Trenton Titans and the AHL’s Philadelphia Phantoms.

He has had NHL stops with the Flyers, Anaheim Ducks, Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, Phoenix Coyotes and Lightning — and the Engelhardts have followed him every step of the way.

He admitted Monday that he never thought he’d be back in Regina after his WHL career ended.
“It’s good for hockey, good for Regina and good for the hockey in Regina,” he said. “And it’s good for us to come out to the west to these small towns. It brings back memories.”

Fedoruk’s NHL career has had its ups and downs — the lowest point may have been a oft-viewed fight against Derek Boogaard in October of ’06 after which Fedoruk needed surgery to repair a broken cheekbone — but he said he “wouldn’t change a thing about it.”

He knows he’s what he called “a worker,” but he has had experiences which he’s now eager to share.

“You’ve got to teach the young kids how to conduct themselves and carry themselves in a professional manner and teach them how to work,” Fedoruk said. “That’s the way it was taught to me, so it’s come full circle.”