The Lions de Trois-Rivières, ECHL affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens, was eliminated by the Norfolk Admirals in the sixth game of their first-round match-up on Sunday night, and with that their 2023-24 campaign came to an end. For those who followed the team all season, they know that the season was filled with highs and lows on and off the ice, but as the team prepares to clear out their lockers for the summer, there is a reason for a cautiously optimistic outlook for 2024-25.
It’s been a year
When Marc-André Bergeron and Pascal Rhéaume faced the media on the season-ending media day in April 2023, both men visibly wore the weight of a very difficult season on their face. Behind the scenes, Rhéaume was already planning on moving on, however, as fate would have it, Bergeron was let go and Rhéaume was offered his dual role of general manager and head coach of the Lions. Rhéaume accepted the offer, and immediately his impact was felt. Tapping his extensive network, player signings began quickly with big-name acquisitions in Andrew Nielsen for the defence, Matthew Boucher for the offence, big-time re-signings of Anthony Beauregard and captain Cédric Montminy who also had one foot out of the door, and the return of Justin Ducharme.
Rhéaume also strengthened the coaching team by adding coaching veteran Ron Choules to the mix to be his assistant. The outlook for 2023-24 was looking very promising, quickly waving away any lingering negativity left behind by the previous season. However, a mere two months into his new role, Rhéaume shockingly left the Lions for an opportunity with the AHL Bridgeport Islanders, leaving Choules to take the role of general manager and head coach one month before the beginning of the season. Alex Coussineau was promoted from goaltending coach to assistant general manager and assistant coach, and the coaching team added retired Lions defenceman Mathieu Brodeur as a second assistant. The team cautioned against any panic, but two prior seasons of rapidly sequential challenges wore the fanbase down, and they were wondering whether the team was in for yet another whilrwind season of high emotion.
Although Neilsen left for Europe days prior to the start of the season (yet another early ominous occurence), the squad seemed like it would be difficult to play against. It was filled with strong ECHL players, and plenty of players loaned by the Laval Rocket such as Nolan Yaremko, Jakov Novak, Alex-Olivier Voyer, Miguel Tourigny, Chris Ortiz-Merisier, Zachary Emond, Joe Vrbetic, Noah Laaouan, and John Parker-Jones.
The team came out of the gate with full force, posting a remarkable 11-2-0 start to the season, rubbing elbows with the top teams of the league heading into late November. The team was absolutely dominant, with Vrbetic putting up league-leading numbers in goal and Boucher scoring at a point-per-game pace.
That’s when the season inexplicably took a turn for the worst.
First, there was a road trip to Norfolk for a series of three games against the Admirals. Then the following week there was a ridiculous sprint of four games in five nights across three states where the Lions played in South Carolina on Wednesday, Savannah on Thursday, Jacksonville on Saturday, and back to South Carolina on Sunday. The Lions only won one of those games — two total across both weeks — and took a hit in the standings. Worse yet, they returned from this road trip a changed team, and concluded the calendar year going a mere 3-7-2. From a hot start to dangling from a playoff spot, it was a cruel fall for a team that needed more positives than negatives on the ice, as off-the-ice distractions began to loom over the team once again.
It came to light that Deacon Sports & Entertainment (DSE), who owned the Lions and the Newfoundland Growlers, had failed to pay rent for the Colisée Vidéotron, and the City was exploring its options regarding a near one million dollar amount owing. DSE was also delinquent in other payments, with the debtor list growing deeper. It was a dark continuation of a long-standing instability for the ownership group that already had a history of a contentious relationship with the City of St. John’s where the Growlers played, and a sense of unease grew with the City of Trois-Rivières. Rumours began circulating from the start of the season that the Lions were for sale, and that a new ownership group for the team led by Steve Leal would be taking over. The several stops and starts that dragged on for the duration of the season cast a large shadow over the team, adding additional anxiety on the players who were already dealing with on-ice challenges.
Enter Choules, a veteran coach who spent his career coaching at various levels of hockey in Quebec. However, this was his first go at professional hockey, and was immediately thrust into a difficult situation of having to steer the ship. Choules had a simple mantra to present to his team: you are privilidged to be playing hockey and you need you enjoy every single moment you’re in the arena. With that message and calm demeanour behind the bench, Choules empowered the team to become masters of their own shared destiny, and a strong bond began to form among all the players who realized that there are situations out of their control to brush off, and situations in their control that they could focus on. The players bonded over a shared desire to make the most of the situation they were in, but there was lots of work to do, as the team had to navigate through the difficult months of January and February putting up only 10 wins from the start of the road trip that flipped their season around in November until the end of February.
Thankfully, the blistering start combined with the downturn of some divisional rivals alongside the Lions meant that the Lions were never completely out of a playoff spot. They just needed an improbable month of March to climb into a playoff spot, and a spark to get them going.
That spark came in the form of goaltender Strauss Mann who was assigned to the Lions from the Rocket at the end of February after losing his back-up role to newcomer Kasimir Kaskusio. When he arrived, his impact was immediate with a shutout victory in his first game. The Lions had their own struggles in net, with Joe Vrbetic succumbing to the pressure of a long season after a blistering start. It was Vrbetic who allowed the Lions to have a stellar start to the season while Zachary Emond was recovering from injury, but as the season went on, Vrbetic found himself challanged by third-string goaltender Zach Bouthillier, and arguably losing his spot on the team. Mann’s arrival shored up the goaltending tandem with Emond, and Vrbetic saw essentially no game action from March onwards as the team went on a 11-6-2 tear to round out the season, finishing with a dramatic 4-0 win over the Worcester Railers to qualify for the playoffs in the final game of the season.
Amidst their playoff push came their biggest existential threat: an April 2 deadline imposed by the ECHL to Deacon Sports and Entertainment to either settle their debts or sell their teams.
As the deadline approached, there was obviously a sense of dread among the fanbase, but also a real by-product of abandonment, as the Colisée saw attendance figures collapse. There had been so much negative press coverage surrounding the Lions, basically since their inception, that the general public disassociated themselves from the franchise. All except a small ardent community of believers who never gave up hope and continued to boost the team, including a few road trips into the United States while the Lions were on the road. On the day of the deadline the terrible news came down that the Growlers would cease operations immediately, but that the Lions would be allowed to complete the season as there was a last-minute bidder who was negotiating with DSE while the league took stewardship of the team in the interim. On April 8, the sale was officialized by the League, and the new owner was none other than Jeff Dickerson from Spire Hockey, who already had a controlling stake in two other teams in the ECHL, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits and the Rapid City Rush. The new ownership confirmation gave the Lions and their fans a rush of fresh air, bringing people back to the arena and powering the team into the playoffs in extremis with some of the best crowds of the season.
The playoff series against the Admirals was a highly competitive one, with numerous unfortunate incidents that were fueled by high emotion. The Lions took more than their share of penalties, and despite an endless tenacity, were knocked out in six games.
Although it’s now the off-season for the Lions, the season is not completely over, as there are a few more steps left to take. All ‘future consideration’ trades must be completed by June 20 and the Lions have three such trades to complete, owing a player to Cincinnati for Jake Bricknell and player to Toledo for Rylan Parenteau, and are owed something by Fort Wayne for Shane Kuzmeski, which will likely just turn out to be cash. The 2023-24 season officially comes to an end on June 22 when the end-of-season roster is due. The first day to sign players for the 2024-25 season is June 23, and it will be interesting to see how many core players remain with the team.
The Lions now face a reboot of sorts as the new ownership group settles in and gets acquainted with their purchase. Spire Hockey has ECHL hockey operations experience, so they will probably want to apply their models to the Lions organization. The immediate change starts at the top. Todd Mackin is the President of Spire Hockey, and is the top executive of the Swamp Rabbits and the Rush. It’s not a stretch to assume that he will be appointed to the same role with the Lions. Both teams also have a team president, and that’s where the Lions’ first need is, as this role has remained vacant ever since Mark Weightman resigned to take on a similar role with the Montreal Alouettes in early 2023. It’s assumed that the role will go to someone close to the Quebec hockey circles, but who also has the business acumen necessary to grow the brand into a profitable business within the community in partnership with local industry.
Both the Swamp Rabbits and the Rush have one person in the dual role of general manager and head coach, so we can assume that the combined responsibilities will remain, whether with Choules or someone else. For Choules, the question will be whether he enjoyed himself this season, and whether he wants to maintain the responsibilities of the role. It’s not what he signed up for, but it’s what he did. Does he want to do another spin around the sun? Did the new ownership group like what they saw? There will surely be a meeting between the two parties to determine the future in that regard.
Finally, the initial affiliation agreement with the Montreal Canadiens concluded, so the two sides will need to come to a new agreement to extend their partnership. As an outsider it looked like the Rocket were able to benefit from the Lions, as player movement was frequent and not too disruptive, and the Lions benefited from having a multitude of loaned players from the Rocket, among the most in the ECHL. Obviously injuries cause a trickle-up effect, so loan numbers depend entirely on player health in higher leagues. From a marketing point of view, there will need to be significantly more effort on the part of the Canadiens who barely acknowledged the Lions’ existence. The influence the Canadiens yield is strong, but there is no sign of them trying to use it to boost the Lions. With John Sedgwick officially appointed as the general manager of the Rocket, there will be an opportunity to build a stronger bridge between the two organizations both on and off the ice, perhaps coming to an agreement on occasionally promoting the Lions product, but that depends on an arrangement being agreed to. The Canadiens are, after all, the business affiliate and not the big brother, but showing a hint of unity and cooperation between the three complimentary professional hockey teams in the province would only be beneficial for everyone.
