Jr. A Trappers announce management switch

Guy Blanchard (2nd from left) addresses the media as he announces he is taking a step back from the franchise that he started back in the early 1990's. Photo by Paul Soucy.
After months of uncertainty surrounding the Trappers franchise, it was announced at press conference at Memorial Gardens on Tuesday afternoon that Owner and President, Guy Blanchard will be stepping aside effective immediately.

Assuming the role of Team President is Chris Dawson, who was chair for the 2007 Hockeyville bid and is president of Dawstar Video Scouting Services.

Taking over as Vice President is Dean Pauli who was a scout with the North Bay Skyhawks from 2002 to 2005, and Director of Player Personnel with the Trenton Golden Hawks this past season.

Blanchard will stay on in an advisory role, but he said he came close to folding the team.

“I have to say it was extremely close,” Blanchard said. “There was one time where I had the letter to the league for the leave of absence, it was typed up and saved of my desktop.”

Blanchard said there was some hesitation on the part of Dawson and Pauli, but that was quickly resolved. He also said the workload became a bit too much over the last few years.

“It’s like a player retiring,” Blanchard said. “If you really don’t have that desire to come to the rink every day … that’s when you know it’s time to get out.”

The team also announced Tuesday that they have ratified an agreement to keep long time Trappers/Skyhawks Head Coach, Ian Swalucynski behind the bench for another season.

“Talking to some of the players -- and talking to Guy (Blanchard) – bringing him (Swalucynski) back was a great option,” Dawson said. “He’s five wins away from a hundred with the organization.”

A top priority for the new Management team is to bring the attendance numbers up closer to where they were before the Nipissing Lakers iced a team.

“It (attendance) still led the league but it was down a lot,” Dawson said. “We certainly would like to see more junior hockey fans coming back.”

They plan on doing that with their new season tickets package which is geared towards families which is $499.00 for 2 adults and 3 children. Plus about a $20.00 saving for individual season ticket packages at all levels up to June 30th.

Dawson also plans to boost awareness of the team through social media outlets such as Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter.

“There’s a facebook campaign where you can go and get your picture put up on the facebook page and potentially win season’s tickets,” Dawson said.

The social media pages are www.facebook.com/NBTrappers www.twitter.com/NBTrappers and www.youtube.com/nbtrappersjra