In a story that played out pretty similar to the fictitious tale from “Slap Shot,” the Manchester Monarchs claimed the Calder Cup in their final AHL home game. To say it was a storybook ending would be cliche, yet true.
After two years of behind-the-scenes discussions, Mayor’s Manor finally broke the story in April 2014 that the Kings would be moving their top minor league affiliate to SoCal — where they would join a handful of other teams to form a newly created Pacific Division.
Obviously, this was a terribly disappointing time for Monarchs fans who had supported the team since its inception in 2001. That early Manchester group was coached by Bruce Boudreau and featured defenseman Rich Seeley (who now serves as Ontario Reign GM).
About a month after our AHL West story broke, the Monarchs were eliminated in the first round of the 2014 Calder Cup Playoffs and coach Mark Morris was not brought back. Officially, his contract was not renewed.
Enter Mike Stothers, a rare candidate who had coached in the WHL and OHL.
Essentially, the veteran coach was tasked with helming the ship for what would be the team’s final AHL season in Manchester during the 2014-15 campaign, before they relocated to Ontario.
He entered training camp with a stacked roster — featuring guys like Michael Mersch, Nick Shore, and Jordan Weal up front; along with a defensive group that included Colin Miller, Derek Forbort, and Kevin Gravel. In net, J.F. Berube was clutch and a big part of their success.
They finished the season with 109 points, tops in the AHL.
Adrian Kempe, one of LA’s top prospects at the time, moved to North America with just a few weeks remaining in the regular season and joined the Monarchs. He snuck into three games, recording zero points.
Then it was on to the Calder Cup Playoffs, which had been nothing but a house of horrors for the organization despite repeated success during the regular season. As just a high-level overview, they were coming off of four straight first round exits.
Rather than tell the rest of the story in written words, several of the players (along with Stothers) will be joining Kings Of The Podcast over the next week or so to reminisce over the magical ride that eventually ended with a Championship in June.
All of this will lead into that 2015 Monarchs team reuniting in SoCal over the last weekend of February. The team will attend (and presumably be honored) at the Kings home game on Feb. 22 vs. Utah, then the real ceremony will take place in front of the Reign fans at Ontario’s home game the following day at Toyota Arena.
Stothers and assistant coach Chris Hajt have been confirmed to participate in the reunion. Others expected to join them are Berube, Mersch, Paul Bissonnette, Vincent LoVerde (former team captain), Jeff Schultz (alternate captain), Sean Backman (alternate captain), and more. Look for an official team announcement in the days ahead.
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