Trois-Rivières Lions 2023-24 Lions de Trois-Rivières

[Adam Michaels]

 

[Adam Michaels]

Official

 

[GrandBison]

Official

Good signing. I think Vrbetic was really good with the Lions last year. Stats aren't telling everything with the Lions paying the price for decimated lineups in Montreal and Laval.

 

[Adam Michaels]

Good signing. I think Vrbetic was really good with the Lions last year. Stats aren't telling everything with the Lions paying the price for decimated lineups in Montreal and Laval.

I also think Émond still recovering from a hip surgery forced them to sign Vrbetic and Constantini. If Émond was good to go, I think he and either Vrbetic or Contantini would be the tandem.

 

[Adam Michaels]

I didn't read the article yet, but apparently if 3R wasn't sold, it was about to go bankrupt.

 

[GrandBison]

I didn't read the article yet, but apparently if 3R wasn't sold, it was about to go bankrupt.

It was the worst case scenario but also was clearly not the path any of the partners wanted to take. Leal seems a motivated owner, I think he'll try to be closer to the Habs org in general than MacDonald. When your owners is wearing your rival merch during the playoffs against them, you know your not his priority.

 

[Ezpz]

I didn't read the article yet, but apparently if 3R wasn't sold, it was about to go bankrupt.

I mean I don't know where you make money off an ECHL team. People struggle to pay to go see AHL games where there's a guaranteed chance to see at least one future NHLer on one of the teams. ECHL you may have one future NHLer in the entire league and usually it's some strange circumstance like a goalie who is in a deep organization or Carolina not having an AHL team again cause they're cheap.

It's the Junior B of pro leagues (side note rant: my local team averages 75 people a game and is the oldest team in the entire league and the town literally built a state of the art arena next to town hall in the 90s that is basically in use for a few hundred people as it is now a retirement community and they had to merge a bunch of different levels (like three age groups playing together) of house league hockey to even run enough teams, I would actually go if there were an OHL team which the town could probably support now with all the boomer retirees (over 50% unemployed in my region)).

Anyways, without club support it's a pretty useless league. Toronto were the first team to actually send prospects there who were struggling to compete for ice time. It is definitely a great league for goalies because playing time is often more important than quality of competition for 20-something goalies. We didn't have any prospects there the past few years so there's no incentives for people to pay to go see a potential future Hab. Tourigny is at least interesting this year and probably the best prospect we've sent to the ECHL in a long ass time (and I guess he will end up in Laval after a month or so).

 

[GrandBison]

I mean I don't know where you make money off an ECHL team. People struggle to pay to go see AHL games where there's a guaranteed chance to see at least one future NHLer on one of the teams. ECHL you may have one future NHLer in the entire league and usually it's some strange circumstance like a goalie who is in a deep organization or Carolina not having an AHL team again cause they're cheap.

It's the Junior B of pro leagues (side note rant: my local team averages 75 people a game and is the oldest team in the entire league and the town literally built a state of the art arena next to town hall in the 90s that is basically in use for a few hundred people as it is now a retirement community and they had to merge a bunch of different levels (like three age groups playing together) of house league hockey to even run enough teams, I would actually go if there were an OHL team which the town could probably support now with all the boomer retirees (over 50% unemployed in my region)).

Anyways, without club support it's a pretty useless league. Toronto were the first team to actually send prospects there who were struggling to compete for ice time. It is definitely a great league for goalies because playing time is often more important than quality of competition for 20-something goalies. We didn't have any prospects there the past few years so there's no incentives for people to pay to go see a potential future Hab. Tourigny is at least interesting this year and probably the best prospect we've sent to the ECHL in a long ass time (and I guess he will end up in Laval after a month or so).

In Trois-Rivières we also have a professional baseball team when there is no in Montreal. I think some people are looking for the major leagues or nothing while other are sports fan who could enjoy fast pace hockey and good goaltending and for that, ECHL delivers. Go Lions!

 

[Ezpz]

In Trois-Rivières we also have a professional baseball team when there is no in Montreal. I think some people are looking for the major leagues or nothing while other are sports fan who could enjoy fast pace hockey and good goaltending and for that, ECHL deliver. Go Lions!

Can you afford to go to every game though? That's always the biggest issue with smaller-league games. There may be 10,000 people that think like you but to get profitable attendance they need to average 1000-1500 (possibly more or less depending on prices and who owns the arena, etc) for ~36 games. The population there is less than St. Catharines who can barely support an OHL team (granted the Arena is in the North end where the majority of people don't live and most of the cities within the GTA and south struggle to get OHL attendance.)

Still, the Icedogs are a team that have developed many NHLers so it's not like it's poor quality hockey. They average about 3k with a lot of extra people living in the Niagara region and up to Grimsby. I would guess a lot of those are season-ticket holders that pay less on average too. Tickets are only 15-28 bucks. Absolutely top tier season tickets are 1096, cheapest are 382. They've been rumoured to relocate multiple times. I don't think immigrants can handle these hockey games either in smaller arenas where the air is frigid which may cut off significant portions of potential fans.

I don't know, if I had 30 bucks to spare and was looking to do something I'd probably go to a restaurant or something goofy like independent wrestling.

 

[GrandBison]

Can you afford to go to every game though? That's always the biggest issue with smaller-league games. There may be 10,000 people that think like you but to get profitable attendance they need to average 1000-1500 (possibly more or less depending on prices and who owns the arena, etc) for ~36 games. The population there is less than St. Catharines who can barely support an OHL team (granted the Arena is in the North end where the majority of people don't live and most of the cities within the GTA and south struggle to get OHL attendance.)

Still, the Icedogs are a team that have developed many NHLers so it's not like it's poor quality hockey. They average about 3k with a lot of extra people living in the Niagara region and up to Grimsby. I would guess a lot of those are season-ticket holders that pay less on average too. Tickets are only 15-28 bucks. Absolutely top tier season tickets are 1096, cheapest are 382. They've been rumoured to relocate multiple times. I don't think immigrants can handle these hockey games either in smaller arenas where the air is frigid which may cut off significant portions of potential fans.

I don't know, if I had 30 bucks to spare and was looking to do something I'd probably go to a restaurant or something goofy like independent wrestling.

They really set all options very flexible: when you have season tickets, you can change it to multiple tickets for games you want, there is half a season tickets and you can do the same... A lot of local corporations are involved and the building is brand new. At the end, it's a good show where people in town meet. It's easily one of the best even in Trois-Rivières during the winter.

 

[Adam Michaels]

3R sign another goalie. Now they have Constantini and Bouthiller as ECHL contracted goalies. They signed Vrbetic to an AHL deal yesterday and sent him to 3R.

 

[GrandBison]

3R sign another goalie. Now they have Constantini and Bouthiller as ECHL contracted goalies. They signed Vrbetic to an AHL deal yesterday and sent him to 3R.

Constantini was let go:

 

[Adam Michaels]

I tought Constantini was let go?

Let go from what? He was signed by 3R a week ago. Unless I missed something somewhere, but I see nowehere that they terminated the contract and he was released.

Bouthiller was an invite to 3R's camp, so he obviously impressed enough to sign him.

 

[Adam Michaels]

@GrandBison

Looks like you were right that Constantini was released. Andrew Zadarnowski also mentioned it to me in a reply on Twitter. 3R didn't officially announce it. Only place it could be known is if the Transfers page on the official ECHL website could have confirmed it.

Edit: Yup. I just checked their transfer page. He was released yesterday.

They also released another player they signed to an ECHL deal in the off-season (Joseph Mizzi).

 

[Adam Michaels]

3R currently has a roster of 25 (2G, 8D, 14F).

Vrbetic & Bouthiller in nets.

Tourigny, Hjorth, Pépin, Ortiz, Laaouan, Martin, Komuls & Savenkov on D

Montminy, Beauregard, Boucher, Smilanic, Parker-Jones, Ducharme, Guay, Voyer, Novak, Yaremko, Chaulk, Larivière, Lemay & Trépanier at F.

I think they still have forward Nick Jermain left among camp invites. Maybe they'll sign him also to an ECHL deal, in which case it would be 15F.

Curious how they'll manage it if they send someone down from Laval if they prefer instead of sitting a prospect for long stretches, they're better off in 3R.

 

[Treb]

3R currently has a roster of 25 (2G, 8D, 14F).

Vrbetic & Bouthiller in nets.

Tourigny, Hjorth, Pépin, Ortiz, Laaouan, Martin, Komuls & Savenkov on D

Montminy, Beauregard, Boucher, Smilanic, Parker-Jones, Ducharme, Guay, Voyer, Novak, Yaremko, Chaulk, Larivière, Lemay & Trépanier at F.

I think they still have forward Nick Jermain left among camp invites. Maybe they'll sign him also to an ECHL deal, in which case it would be 15F.

Curious how they'll manage it if they send someone down from Laval if they prefer instead of sitting a prospect for long stretches, they're better off in 3R.

If I'm not mistaken, that means they have to release two more players and put two on the reserve list. Another one needs to be cut after 30 days.

"ECHL teams can carry a maximum of 20 players (21 for the first 30 days of the regular season) on their active roster (not counting players on reserve or injured reserve)."

 

[BaseballCoach]

If I'm not mistaken, that means they have to release two more players and put two on the reserve list. Another one needs to be cut after 30 days.

"ECHL teams can carry a maximum of 20 players (21 for the first 30 days of the regular season) on their active roster (not counting players on reserve or injured reserve)."

They have 21 on the active roster right now.

i don't think Smilanic signed yet, and Pepin is on injured reserve. Jermain and Savenkov are on regular reserve.

 

[Adam Michaels]

They have 21 on the active roster right now.

i don't think Smilanic signed yet, and Pepin is on injured reserve. Jermain and Savenkov are on regular reserve.

Smilanic is signed.

 

[BaseballCoach]

Smilanic is signed.

And Chaulk is missing from the official season opening rosters just published by the league.

 

[Adam Michaels]

It officially begins tonight. And it will be on TVA Sports.

And Chaulk is missing from the official season opening rosters just published by the league.

Yea. Chaulk not being on the opening night roster, and neither listed as a reserve or an injury reserve, maybe hints that he's not there anymore? Just the last few days, 3R released Constantini and Mizzi, both of them signed to ECHL deals. So maybe the same happened with Chaulk.

 

[BaseballCoach]

It officially begins tonight. And it will be on TVA Sports.





Yea. Chaulk not being on the opening night roster, and neither listed as a reserve or an injury reserve, maybe hints that he's not there anymore? Just the last few days, 3R released Constantini and Mizzi, both of them signed to ECHL deals. So maybe the same happened with Chaulk.

Chaulk was never on the Training Camp roster listed by the league, so I guess he was released befoire that date.

 

[GrandBison]

It officially begins tonight. And it will be on TVA Sports.





Yea. Chaulk not being on the opening night roster, and neither listed as a reserve or an injury reserve, maybe hints that he's not there anymore? Just the last few days, 3R released Constantini and Mizzi, both of them signed to ECHL deals. So maybe the same happened with Chaulk.

It's on TVA Sport 2 (I know you cannot go lower)

 

[Adam Michaels]

It's on TVA Sport 2 (I know you cannot go lower)

Are you going at the game?

 

[Nevins]

The Trois Rivieres Lions analyst said that according to him, this is the best team that the Lions have had since their beginning.

Official

The way Dobes and Mann are playing, Vrbetic could play in Laval this year.

 

[Nevins]

1-0 Lions.Goal by #19 Alex-Olivier Voyer, assisted by #92 Anthony Beauregard and #89 Miguël Tourigny.

Vrbetic playing well