New start for thunderbirds

While the Moncton Thunderbirds program had been around for a while, it lacked seriousness. But it is all ancient history now. The Moncton Flyers will now be involved more than ever and many outstanding hockey men have also agreed to share their expertise within an advisory committee worthy of a high level team.

The Thunderbirds, who will play in the Nova Scotia Under-16 League (U16) in 2021-2022, confirmed the hiring of a new head coach, Jerry Leblanc, taking advantage of the last few days. He also announced that Dennis Shehan, director of hockey operations, would now take the title of General Manager.

On behalf of the Central Recruitment of the Advisory Committee, the National Hockey League, D’Alan Powers and Daniel Leblanc will be made up of head coach Judge Vali of Jean-François Dumphos, talent appraiser of the Universe de Moncton. , For the Chicago Blackhawks and Minnesota Wild, respectively, Alexandre Vigneault, who has led the U13 (Pee-V) program for the past few years, as well as Joey Parent, Lingi Fisher and Vicky Fisher. Flyers head coach John Decorsi will also speak.

Broadly, the Thunderbirds aim to prepare for the Flyers’ relief. We can also refer to the team as a school club.

“There are players who complete their U15 (bantam) hockey and who are not necessarily ready for U18 (dwarf),” says Jerry LeBlanc. With the Thunderbirds, we hope that we can take late-grown people to the Flyers. “

It is already established that Thunderbirds players will be invited to participate in the Flyers training session during the next season. Jérémy LeBlanc, for his part, will occasionally lend a hand while training for the Flyers and Aigles Bleus.

LeBlanc is also one of the coaches of the Flyers Identification Camp which opened earlier this week. No fewer than 73 players presented themselves to John DeCourcy and his group of coaches. The camp is expected to last for three weeks.

In short…

The Thunderbirds will play in a circuit that already includes seven Nova Scotia U16 squads. In fact, the teams are higher at the U17 level as the circuit accepts four 16-year-old players in each team. The possibility is also excellent that the municipality of Saint-Jean will also have a U16 team and will join the Nova Scotia circuit …

Until recently, Jerry LeBlanc led the Trojans at Harrison Trimble High School. In the past, he has also coached Cap-Pele Predators at the Junior B level and Bauchtauch JC in the Senior Northeast League. “My long-term goal is to lead a team like a flyer,” says Bench Man, who is only 30 years old.

The Thunderbirds will hire two assistant coaches in the coming weeks. The target coach is already known as Dave Kennedy, who also works with the Flyers goalkeepers. Kennedy was the goalscorer of the Academy-Bathurst Titan when the New Brunswick team won the President’s Cup and the Memorial Cup in 2018 …

The quintet composed of Jean-François Dumphus, Judge Veli, Alexandre Vigneault, Daniel LeBlanc and Alan Powers brings incredible credibility to the youth organization. We are talking about a group that has experience in all levels of hockey, both as a player and off the ice …