Life in Montreal. It’s intense for a member of the Montreal Canadiens. Some of that same passion extends to their AHL affiliate, the Laval Rocket. Rocket players play from nearby Place Bell and also face a lot of surveillance. It is a special, albeit fiery, experience. A two-part series explores the experience from both a playing and coaching perspective. Part 1 can be found here.
Pascal Vincent understood the job before he even took it.
Vincent was named head coach of the Laval Rocket head coach on July 16, 2024 and met all the requirements of the post, both on and off the rink.
NHL experience? Yes. He led the Columbus Blue Jackets as head coach after spending seven seasons in coaching roles with both that organization and the Winnipeg Jets.
Familiar with the AHL and the special features associated with this competition? Absolute. He spent five seasons at the helm of the Manitoba Moose, earning the Louis AR Pieri Memorial Award as the league’s outstanding coach in his first campaign.
Knowing what he was getting into by coming to the Montreal Canadiens organization? Certainly. He grew up in Laval, a city separated from Montreal only by a river and largely part of the metropolitan area. Being bilingual and articulate, he was able to handle all the public and media responsibilities that come with working in the Montreal market. He had even worked in Montreal as a head coach. He spent three seasons as general manager and head coach with the Montreal Junior of the now Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. His start in coaching, way back in 1994, came when, as a 21-year-old, he took on the role of QMJHL assistant coach at Saint Jean, just a short drive from Montreal.
Vincent has succeeded on two fronts with the Rocket so far. He develops talent. Detailed and precise, his players will show up at Bell Center prepared if and when the NHL recall comes.
And he wins. Last season, he led them to the AHL’s best regular-season record of 48-19-3-2. That was .701 hockey, the second-best points percentage by a Habs affiliate in AHL history. The Rocket went on to play two playoff rounds and reach the Eastern Conference Finals. Add another Pieri Memorial Award to his resume. He has a winning team again this season with the Rocket at the top of the North Division. He will lead the North Division next week at the AHL All-Star Classic presented by BMO.
Vincent had spent 10 seasons at the NHL and AHL levels in Winnipeg, where hockey dominates. Columbus came with the scrutiny that comes with any NHL city. But this is the Montreal market. The Habs. And the future of the Habs, especially in a period when President Jeff Gorton and general manager Kent Hughes came to town and made improving player development a top priority of the organization.
That’s the life led by Canadiens prospects, many of whom are barely into their 20s and have only a year or two of professional experience, if that. He has sent players to the Habs to fill in as needed. Samuel Blais, Owen Beck, Jared Davidson, Adam Engstrom, Jacob Fowler, Joshua Roy And Florian Xhekaj they have all played games with the Canadiens this season.
Part of playing for the Rocket is understanding the organization’s rich history at both the NHL and AHL levels. Photos and works of art decorate the corridors in and around the Laval dressing room at Place Bell. The iconic photo of Maurice “Rocket” Richardthe team’s namesake, and Boston Bruins goaltender Jim Henry Shaking hands took up residence in the walls of the facility early on. But it’s not just Canadiens history. Laval’s AHL predecessors have received attention and focus on those same walls.
And the Rocket, the team Vincent leads every day, had a rich history long before they ever came to Laval.
The Canadiens organization had been through several stops and it had been almost half a century since the last time its AHL affiliate was this close. The Montreal Voyageurs – a team that recently headlined briefly Ken Dryden – set up activities at the Montreal Forum in 1969. But the team withdrew after two seasons and moved to Halifax, giving the AHL a presence in Atlantic Canada for the first time. There, the Nova Scotia Voyageurs became one of the AHL’s powerhouses of the 1970s, winning the Calder Cup three times, helping to fuel what would become the late 1970s Canadiens dynasty that captured four consecutive Stanley Cup titles, and establishing the AHL for future growth in the Maritimes. The likes of Guy Carbonneau, Larry Robinson, Yvon Lambert And Gilles Lupien all were among the players who apprenticed with the Vees and then graduated to Stanley Cup glory in Montreal.
From Halifax it was on to Sherbrooke where the end of season additions took place Patrick Roy And Stephane Richer helped the team win the 1985 Calder Cup in its first season. When Montreal withdrew its AHL affiliate from Sherbrooke in 1990, it began a long odyssey that lasted more than two decades. The Fredericton Canadiens, Quebec Citadelles, Hamilton Bulldogs and St. John’s IceCaps all offered their share of benefits, successes and memories over the years. Carey Price led Hamilton to the Calder Cup as a rookie in 2007, his final step before moving on to Hab greatness.
But ultimately, the Habs decided to bring their prospects home.
Place Bell, an arena with more than 10,000 seats and amenities befitting an NHL facility, went from idea to drawing board and shovels in the ground. With a brand new building on the way, the Habs opted to move the IceCaps to Laval for the 2017-2018 season.
However, a pair of last-place finishes in the North Division and a pandemic-related disruption meant the new club took nearly five years to play their first playoff game. But that wait paid off when the franchise really found its presence in 2022 with a solid but largely unknown Laval club that had finished third in the Northern Division. That team became popular when the Calder Cup Playoffs arrived. Then they got hotter and hotter, advancing all the way to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals, defeating the Syracuse Crunch and Rochester Americans before ultimately falling to the Springfield Thunderbirds. As the Canadiens struggled and interest turned to what the club could have in terms of young talent, that spring we saw Rocket fans fill Place Bell night after night.
But after two seasons at or near the bottom of the North Division, Canadien management brought in Vincent as their new Laval head coach. It was the next step in the ever-increasing changes that had taken place in and around the Canadiens since the management team of Gorton and Hughes arrived midway through the 2021-22 season to begin a major overhaul of the organization on – and perhaps just as importantly – off the ice.
Vincent arrived as a big-time asset, fitting for a top Original Six organization trying to build a blue-chip AHL operation. The Canadiens wanted a teacher like Vincent and also continued to replenish the Laval roster with young talent.
But Vincent also had another quality, which works very well in a market with passionate fans, intense media attention and constant focus. He is gentle. Calm. Even. Not rattled. Ultra quick to thank others within the Montreal organization for Laval’s success.
Those qualities provide a soothing contrast amid all the noise and potential distractions that exist for a hockey player in the Montreal and Laval markets. Even with so much noise, Vincent’s message and lessons have quickly resonated with his new players. That could be even more important given the team’s success since his arrival.
“Last year,” Vincent said, “I don’t think there were a lot of expectations, and this team surprised a lot of people. I think this year the teams are waiting for us. So there’s a lot of resilience.”
Montreal management has ensured Laval has a strong leadership group with a clear mandate: be another source of help in developing prospects. But keeping that plan in order and sticking to it every day is part of Vincent’s daily job description. It can be easy for any player or coach to stray a little from that developmental perspective.
“[The players] understand the mission,” said the head coach whose job it is to reinforce that understanding. “They understand what we do. They understand that we are here to create a winning environment and win as many games as possible, but it’s about development, and they understand that and they are part of it. Our children are developing very well.”
This weekend those skills will be tested again. The Cleveland Monsters are in town Friday and Saturday for a pair of important North Division games. Last year the teams faced each other in the semi-finals of the Northern Division. The Monsters are their typical tough, industrious selves and on a 6-0-1-0 run. Perhaps another Calder Cup Playoff match is scheduled once spring arrives. As usual, tickets for both matches are limited. As the Canadiens enter the NHL’s winter Olympic break, the Rocket will have the attention of the entire market.
This weekend will be intense. As always, Vincent’s job is to guide his players through all that noise.
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