Walking into the Timmins Rock locker room Thursday afternoon, there was a sense that everyone was looking in different directions.

Not in a bad way, but while players were packing their stalls for the final time, management’s already making moves towards 2017-18.

After 17 years with the franchise, Paul Gagne is no longer the Head Coach and General Manager.

The team has had time to look for Gagne’s successor, with word of his retirement known in-house for a little while.

And less than 24 hours removed from being eliminated from the post-season, the Rock have named Kevin Peever the new GM.

“I’m very excited for this role and this opportunity that the Board has given me to be the General Manager of the Timmins Rock,” he said.

“And I’m really looking forward to continuing on the success that Paul Gagne has done with the team and same with (former President) Scott Marshall (and) what they’ve done for this club and we hope that we can continue on the tradition and hopefully bring a few more championships to this club and to the City of Timmins.”

Peever—a former Fred Page Cup Champion goaltender with the Brockville Braves (CCHL) in 1998—says they’re in the early stages of hiring a new bench boss.

A formal job posting will soon go up, but he adds some applicants have already expressed interest in the job.

“We’re filtering through those (applicants), checking references and once we finalize our candidate, obviously the media will be the first to know, and we’d like to try to have this position in place before the Sportsman Show, so that we can show the public who our new coach is,” he said.

“If it doesn’t happen before the Sportsman Show, that’s what it’s going to be and we just have to make sure we find a right suited coach for this club.”

The Sportsman Show, for your reference, is the weekend of April 22-23.

Another big job will be to fill key roles on the team with the loss of nine 20-year olds.

“Big roles to fill,” said Peever, “But we are already working on recruiting and the biggest goal that we want to have is to always have a competitive team so that the fans can enjoy the hockey and continue coming out and seeing great hockey.”

 

One of those roles is the leader, with captain Jordan Rendle on his way out.

Rendle was a 30-goal scorer in both his two seasons in Timmins.  He amassed 68 goals, 73 assists and 141 points in 103 regular season games.

Rendle was at a loss for words in the McIntyre Arena lobby, overlooking the already melting ice surface.

But taking a look back, he did string together some words and expressed his thanks.

“It’s been an absolute honour playing in the City of Timmins and at the McIntyre and for Paul and the guys we had in the locker room this year and last year…taking on the leadership role this year is also a huge honour and I was happy to do it.”

Rendle’s not committed to any school for next season as of yet, but he says he’s talking to a few in the US and Canada.

“Nothing set in stone but I’ll definitely let you guys know when I have a deal done.”

When prompted to think back over the last couple of years, Rendle says the biggest sticking point for him to remember is the fan support, in and out of the rink.

“Going for lunch somewhere,” he said, “We get recognized and people wishing us luck…there was a buzz around the city, and it was awesome.”

The fans came out in droves, setting league-high attendance numbers barely seen in the last six to seven years across the league overall.

In 32 home games, the Rock had an average of 791 fans in the building.  Besides that, only the Soo Eagles—who are still taking in fans with their ongoing Western Final against Blind River—averaged more than 400 fans a game this year.

Timmins also had several games with more than 1,000 people in the stands, including 3 of 4 playoff games.

“That’ll be the biggest crowd I ever play in front of,” Rendle said, “I think it’ll be the biggest crowd most of these guys play in front of.”

Peever echoed Rendle’s sentiments, and gave his thanks to the fans and corporate sponsors.

“If it wasn’t for those people, we wouldn’t be able to thrive and do what we do with this club,” he said.

“It’s disappointing that we lost to Powassan in the Eastern Finals, but we did do better than the year before and we just want to continue on with that progress.”

Overall, the Rock will also lose the likes of Tyler Romain (playing in Sweden next year) and Brendan Campbell (committed to playing for Trinity Western University in the BCIHL).

Others aging out are Dean Kiriacou, Cory Sprague, Nick Hautanen, Spencer Segui, Patrick Gazich, and Al Rogers.

Not exactly an easy task for the new GM.

 

 

Filed under: Local News, Local Sports, NOJHL, timmins rock