The inaugural 2021-22 season was promising, with the Lions stuttering at first, but finding their footing a month into the season, going on a massive nine-game winning streak in November/December. Bergeron also made a cash trade with the Rapid City Rush for Cédric Montminy, who would eventually become team captain and the only constant in the line-up over the franchise's two seasons. And so the first five players signed were Quebecers Alexis D’Aoust, Guillaume Beaudoin, Olivier Archambault, Mathieu Brodeur and Mathieu Gagnon. The core value of Bergeron's Lions would be that the team would be made up entirely of local players in order to engage the fanbase. Once the city eventually accepted the proposal for an ECHL expansion team in 2020 after some real acrimonious negotiations, Bergeron's mandate with the City expired, and he was immediately hired by Deacon Sports and Entertainment as Vice-President of Hockey Operations and General Manager of the new ECHL franchise.īergeron was extremely hands on in the creation of the inaugural Lions brand and the roster, scouring Europe, the juniors, university teams, and other ECHL teams to find players, and hopefully when combined with the ten or so players expected from the Montreal Canadiens and Laval Rocket, would take the ECHL by storm. There was discussions with the QMJHL for an expansion team that went nowhere (despite it being the preference of the mayor of Trois-Rivières at the time), with the UQTR Patriotes who were playing at the much older Jean-Guy Talbot arena in town, and with the ECHL about an expansion team.ĭean MacDonald partial owner of the ECHL Newfoundland Growlers showed the most interest, and was courted the most by Bergeron, as both saw obvious synergies with the Montreal Canadiens needing an ECHL affiliate. He accumulated 318 games in the NHL and 589 in the AHL during his playing career.īergeron was initially brought on board in 2019 as consultant for the City of Trois-Rivières to find a tenant for the new arena that was being built. Rhéaume was assistant coach for two seasons with the Lions, and prior to that has been coaching in some capacity since 2010. This past season Bergeron fulfilled a double role of general manager and head coach, after previous coach Eric Bélanger quit a month into the season.Īssistant coach Pascal Rhéaume has been promoted to the dual role for the 2023-24 season. It was announced that Marc-André Bergeron would not return with the team. On the final official day of the 2022-23 ECHL season, a major shake-up occured in the hockey operations department of the Lions de Trois-Rivières. Marc-Andre Bergeron has left the organization, and his former assistant takes over as head coach and GM.
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