The Spartans are thrilled to be returning to action this fall and wanted to start off the busy off season by announcing our coaching staff for the upcoming season. We have a lot of exciting news that we will be announcing over the coming weeks to let everyone know, so stay tuned to our social media pages. We will have announcements about some very talented players who have already committed for the upcoming season, golf tournament dates, billeting information, advertising information and further expansion to our youth and academy development programs.
Head Coach – Myles Pepin
Pepin makes his return behind the Spartans bench. The past 3 seasons Pepin has worked with the club as a skill development coach but is now making his much-anticipated return behind the bench. Under Pepin’s direction as the head coach, the club produced a 110-52-5 regular season record, a 2016 North Division playoff title, a 2018 Regular Season title and a 2018 Russell Cup.
Pepin is a player’s style coach, with incredible passion for the game, that sets the bar extremely high for our players on and off the ice. His teams are always highly competitive, disciplined and highly structured defensively. Pepin brings over 25 years of coaching experience to Spartans, having worked with elite athlete’s all over the world. Prior to coaching, Pepin played college hockey in Canada, professionally in England.
Associate Coach/Defense Coach – Bryan Austin
Austin is making his debut as a full-time associate coach behind the Spartans bench, but he is no stranger to Spartans fans. He played for the club from 2014 to 2018, amassing 222 points in 165 games, captaining the team for 3 of his 4 seasons and ended his Spartans career by leading the club to a 2018 Russell Cup. After finishing up with the Spartans, Austin went and played professionally in Sweden for Nynashamns IF.
Austin is very familiar with Pepin’s style of coaching having played under him as a youth and at the junior level, which will help further help develop a strong team culture from day 1. He will provide daily development to our young defensemen and provide a calming influence on the back end. Anyone that watched Austin play over the years could see he was skilled, but his hockey IQ was far above his peers. His mind for the game, ability to communicate and teaching skills are going to really help the overall development of everyone of our defensemen this season.
Associate Coach/Goalie Coach -Andre Laperriere
Laperriere has been with the Spartans since 2016 having worked for the club as a goalie coach, associate coach, head coach and was part of the coaching staff for the 2018 Russell Cup. In all, he has coached 12 years at the junior “A” level, with 6 of those being in a head coach role. Prior to starting his coaching career Laperriere was an elite goaltender in the NOJHL for 3 seasons, before playing professionally in the United States.
Laperriere will be working with our goaltenders on a regular basis in practice and with video work to help develop their ability to read the play, improve conditioning, positioning/style work and to ensure the goalies are educated on all of ne as the team’s defensive systems. His knowledge and experience add further skill to our staff and his ability to work with young goaltenders is really going to help them develop throughout the season. Elite goaltending is a major piece of any successful team, and we feel Laperriere is the perfect coach to help guide and push our young goaltenders.
Management
Spartans General Manager David Forde had this to say about the club’s 2023-2024 coaching staff “I am really excited for the upcoming season and staff we have in place. I have known everyone of these guys for over 10 years and feel that they will work well as a group and get the most out of our guys. They have all been around the program for 5 plus years and know the culture and expectations we have here. All three were big parts in setting that culture and making Almaguin a great place to play.
In the coming weeks we will also be announcing some further additions to our staff, that will further aid our players in their development and make us a more complete program. Every season we try to improve our program and offer our players an even better experience. We feel that with the arena upgrades, new dressing room, new coaches’ office, the staff additions, and the plans we have for this season, that we are going to take our program to an even higher level.”
