(Tempe, Ariz.) While waiting for the Coyotes to find some stability, Arizona hockey’s greatest success story is certainly the current generation’s best sniper, Auston Matthews.
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
But somewhere in the desert, there is a Quebecer who is sounding the alarm: to develop other Matthews, it takes skating rinks.
This Quebecer is Ronald Filion, a former professional player in France, who settled in Arizona at the end of his career. He knows what he’s talking about, first because he coached a young Matthews in minor hockey around here, then because he continues to coach the Arizona Bobcats.
Of Matthews, he remembers a “lad from the gang who already possessed outstanding sniper skills. He wasn’t perfect either. “He didn’t really like backchecker [se replier], recalls Filion, amused, between two bites of salad. So sometimes I had to keep him on the bench, just to send him a little message. His father was making videos for us, he never said a word even though I benchais his son ! They were just like that. »
Matthews obviously didn’t hold it against him. The forward invited Filion to the 2016 draft, where the Maple Leafs claimed Matthews first overall. It was the first (and only) time that Filion was invited to a draft. He kept a photo of it as a souvenir.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY RONALD FILION
Auston Matthews and Ronald Filion
“He was a great coach,” Matthews said when the Maple Leafs visited the Bell Center three weeks ago. He was passionate about youth, player development. »
It is good for ensuring that we have fun while learning. He was amazing for me and I had a lot of fun playing for him.
Auston Matthews on Ronald Filion
Domino effect on arenas
In a 2020 article, Forbes reported that Arizona ranked second among US states for percentage growth in player numbers, over a five-year period.
“There was a big boom in hockey practice. But there, we lack ice rinks, ”warns Filion. The upheavals affecting high-level hockey have a domino effect on the lower echelons.
With the Coyotes leaving the Desert Diamond Arena, they are helping to make the all-new Mullett Arena one of the busiest amphitheaters. They indeed monopolize it for their 41 matchdays. Arizona State University uses the facilities for its men’s and women’s programs. That doesn’t leave a lot of ice time for others…
Prior to the construction of Mullett Arena, Arizona State used the Oceanside Ice Arena, which was also used for minor hockey. However, “Oceanside will be destroyed. There were 14 teams playing there. Where do we put them? asks Filion.
What worries him is that the competition for the best athletes is fierce. Matthews could very well have branched out into baseball, like his father. Except that he fell in love with hockey while attending a Coyotes game, and he was “survived”. But this is an exception and Filion would like hockey to give itself the best chance of retaining the best athletes, before they opt for football, for example.
“Hockey is growing, but if we don’t have more rinks, it won’t work. It’s not always the little guy who is good at pee-wee that will be special later. »
If we are forced to focus only on the elite at a young age because we lack ice, we will lose players. To develop it, you need a critical mass.
Ronald Filion
This scarcity of rinks contributes to a vicious circle that drives up costs, another brake on growth. “You feel bad when you pay $500 an hour for ice cream,” he says. Also, seven times a year, we fly to play against the best teams in tournaments. »
He estimates the cost for young people who want to play at the highest level, starting at the age of 14, at $20,000. “For the older ones, it’s more expensive because we hire coaches who come from the BCHL, for example. We have to pay them properly, otherwise they will go back to work there! »
Filion, however, is happy to count on Taylor Burke, “probably the best arena owner in Arizona,” he says. “He’s going to build a third rink for us in Scottsdale. But it’s going to take three years before it’s ready. »
From Trois-Rivières to Arizona
It was to play in an obscure league, the WCHL, that Filion arrived in Arizona, from France, in 1998. The adventure was short-lived, but he then always worked in hockey, in different roles, notably that of head coach of the Phoenix Roadrunners, in ECHL, from 2005 to 2007. He also participated in arena construction projects in California. ” [Mais] I wanted to coach so badly. That’s what I like. Great coaches — not me! — everyone says that coaching is a drug. That’s really it. When he returned to Arizona, he was able to reconnect with his old friend Claude Lemieux, his former teammate in the midget AAA as well as with the Draveurs of Trois-Rivières and the Canadian junior of Verdun. Lemieux’s son, Brendan, is also one of the NHL players trained in Arizona in recent years. Filion would not hate to return to Quebec, but wants to wait until her children, aged 16 and 13, are a little older.
Life lessons…
Filion was never able to play in the top North American leagues, even though he had an interesting career in the QMJHL. But he admits that he did not help himself. “At 19, I got injured,” he recalls. But then I said a couple of bullshit in the papers about Yvon Lambert, my coach in Verdun. I was a frustrated kid who thought he knew it all! He had me benched and I’m sure he was right. Since that time, I see him from time to time and each time, I apologize! His conflict with Lambert led to a trade to the Saint-Jean Castors and a few months later, the Canadian junior qualified for the Memorial Cup. His statements therefore deprived him of participation in the tournament. “I made a bad move at the wrong time, he admits. But everything happens for a reason. These are messages like that that I pass on to my young people. I am very strong on life lessons. Anyone can make a good hockey player. But life lessons are even more important. »