One coach was called up to the professional ranks, but another came into place right from within the community, for the Burns Lake Timbermen.
The team’s inaugural head coach, in tandem with James Dyment, Stefan Fournier, came from a professional career in the Montreal Canadians, Tampa Bay Lightning and Phoenix Coyotes farm systems, and was most recently a player-coach with the ECHL’s Wichita Thunder. The Dorval native was in Burns Lake working with the young players here on the upstart Greater Metro Junior-A Hockey League team when he got an unexpected call. Wichita wanted him back and they were willing to pay.
“It’s never good for us [to lose a coach], but he got a chance to double his salary and be the highest paid player in the ECHL,” said Derek Prue, the GMHL West’s executive director. “You can’t fault someone for chasing their dream and taking that kind of opportunity when it presents itself.”
Since rejoining the ECHL, Fournier has put up three goals and an assist in his first three games. He is still connected to the Timbermen as a long-distance mentor.
Mutann “Mac” Cardinal was already the team’s physiotherapist on the side of his full-time physio job with Carrier Sekani Family Services. He agreed to also be a Timbermen assistant coach.
“This opportunity came up without me knowing I would ever be involved in coaching,” said Cardinal. “I had that fitness connection, but I saw the excitement around the team, I felt the community commitment really kicking in for these young players, and it was infectious for me. I believe in hockey as a vessel for young people to learn healthy habits.”
His own lessons started in the Cree community of Moccasin Flats near Chetwynd. A minor hockey coach there, Ron Millsap, inspired Cardinal.
“He instilled in me that the priorities in life are family, school, and then sport, and that’s what I want to pass on now,” he said.
After Chetwynd, Cardinal’s family moved to Prince George where he cracked the roster of the Prince George Spruce Kings under head coach Jeff Rowland.
Cardinal parlayed his on-ice career into education, first at the College of New Caledonia and then as a walk-on player for the University of Alberta Golden Bears.
The Timbermen have shown some unusual characteristics to start the season. One of them was sharing players with the GMHL’s rival team in Kitimat.
“The more the kids can get on the ice, be involved in situational play, get a different coach’s point of view will only help them in the future,” said Dyment.
Another unusual feature that stood out to Cardinal was how Prue dressed in full gear and went on the ice with the team for practices. Prue once had a long career in Junior and semi-pro hockey.
“You just don’t see that, but it made an impression on me, it’s a deeper way of coaching, and that was the icing on the cake for me to feel like it was the right type of hockey for me to be participating in. This is a league truly for developing young players for higher levels of hockey but really for just better positions in life, and I want to be a part of that,” Cardinal said.
“Adding Mac Cardinal to the coaching staff is exciting,” said Prue. “He also does nutrition and physio and that kind of stuff, so our goal is to develop them on and off the ice.”