The 2019-20 hockey season has been anything but routine for one Swift Current prospect, who's traded in sub-zero temperatures for palm trees, summer-time activities, and the southern California lifestyle.

In his first season after minor hockey, 2001-born forward Quinn Patenaude has spent the campaign lacing them up with the San Diego Sabers of the Western States Hockey League (WSHL).

The WSHL is a 20-team Junior A Tier II league spread over nine U.S. states (Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Kansas, Utah, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada), as well as one province (Alberta).

"I didn't really know what the league was going to be like," said Patenaude, adding the allure of the experience was hard to pass up.

"I was kind of looking around, debating on playing hockey - then I was like 'if I play hockey, should it be in Canada?'" he said. "I got people asking me if I wanted to play in the States. San Diego too, I was like 'hmm California? Playing in California would be pretty cool'. I just wanted to play and try it. It's been amazing."

Other than the temperatures, cool is exactly what it's been for the forward, though that has somewhat led to culture shock straying from the Canadian tradition of dealing with at-times miserable weather for the sake of the sport.

"It's very different, because I've been used to maybe having a blizzard outside going to hockey," Patenaude said. "But, here, all your free time in the winter's going outside golfing, surfing, it's pretty cool how you can just go out and enjoy the day other than hockey."

The Sabers are also home to players from five different countries (Denmark, Czech Republic, Sweden, U.S., Canada), allowing for different perspectives on the passion for hockey.

"I live with a Czech Republic guy and a Sweden guy, and their passion is strong about hockey - all their buddies love hockey," he said. "I was just thinking it was more of a big Canadian thing. California - a lot of it supports hockey (too)."

Patenaude suited up in 46 of the Sabers' 51 regular-season games this season - one of those absences in particular, though, was a bizarre addition to the injury report, and unique to the biome he find himself in.

"We had a day off, and I thought 'hey we should go to the beach and hang out'. I was in the water and I thought I just stepped on a rock or something. I got out of the water and I was bleeding, so I just got it checked," Patenaude said. "They said it was a stingray bite. I went home because they just said put it under hot water and the pain should go away - but the pain was there, and probably was the worst pain I've felt ever. I had to go to the ER to get some pain meds and get the pain to go away. It was different."

Though, once healthy again, Patenaude continued a regular-season campaign he finished off with eight goals and 23 points.

He came into this season riding the momentum of a provincial title with the Abbey Resources Midget AA Broncos, and noted that some changes needed to be made in his game to adapt quickly.

"Every time I'd move with the puck, I wasn't used to some big man trying to step up and hit me. Last year I wasn't really worried about that," noted Patenaude. "It's helped me grow a lot by keeping my head up always. My passing's gotten better - one thing, I just wish I could have maybe done more with the puck this year."

Time still remains for Patenaude to do just that though, as his Sabers are set to open the Western Division semi-finals tonight.

The second-seeded Sabers (31-18-1-1) host a best-of-three series against the third-seeded Las Vegas Thunderbirds. Games are slated for 8 p.m. PST tonight, 8:45 p.m. PST Friday and, if necessary, 7:45 p.m. PST on Saturday.

"Going into playoffs we're looking good. Some of us have caught the flu bug just now this week, so we have less people practicing, so hopefully we're good this weekend. We're looking pretty strong - we should be able to handle Vegas this weekend, then next weekend will be a tough test against Fresno," he said.

Should they win that series, then a matchup in the Division Finals against the aforementioned top-seeded Fresno Monsters likely awaits.

"We've beat them half the time in the year, so it'll be a good series. If we can win that, then we'll go to the finals and play the top teams."

The finals pits all four divisional winners and two wildcards against each other in a battle for the Thorne Cup.

A handful of games at the very least still remain in the 2019-20 campaign for Patenaude, and, though they're not the main focus at this stage in the season, the thoughts still exist regarding if he wants another kick at the can next season or not.

"I haven't thought it too far ahead, but I might be leaning on coming on doing another year," he said. "I wouldn't mind playing hockey another year, and I just don't know if I should just go to school. I think I'm kind of leaning towards coming back."

UPDATE: The 2020 WSHL post-season has been cancelled amid the COVID-19 outbreak.