Éric Veilleux has been hired as head coach of the Quebec Remparts, general manager Simon Gagné announced Thursday, succeeding Patrick Roy.
Veilleux held until last season an assistant coaching position with the Syracuse Crunch, the school club of the Tampa Bay Lightning in the American Hockey League (AHL).
He was confirmed in his new role at a press conference held at the Videotron Center.
The 51-year-old will replace Roy, who stepped down after the Remparts won the Memorial Cup last month.
It is therefore a homecoming for Veilleux, who led the Shawinigan Cataractes and the Baie-Comeau Drakkar between 2006 and 2014, as well as the Halifax Mooseheads in 2018-2019. He also won the Memorial Cup with the Cataractes in 2012.
Between his two stints in the QMJHL, Veilleux was assistant coach of the Norfolk Admirals, in the AHL, from 2014 to 2016, and head coach of the San Antonio Rampage, from 2016 to 2018.
He returned to the professional ranks in 2019, after accepting the Crunch’s offer.
Veilleux will inherit in Quebec a club in very good condition.
The QMJHL team has just won the Memorial Cup, the prestigious trophy awarded to the best team in the Canadian Hockey League, for the third time in its history, after 2006 and 1971.
The Remparts also became the first team to win the Gilles Courteau Trophy, awarded to the QMJHL champion team, and the Memorial Cup in the same season since the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in 2019.