Missing on-ice action, ex-NHLer Ethan Moreau takes coaching job with Fort Erie’s junior B squad
Ethan Moreau won’t let development take backseat to wins and losses
Ethan Moreau wasn’t ready to leave hockey when he retired after 15 seasons playing in the NHL.
The 42-year-old Huntsville native tried taking the front office path spending three seasons in scouting for the Montreal Canadiens.
While that kept Moreau in a game that provided for his family took him to four NHL cities and to Austria during the lockout season, it didn’t put him where he wanted to be. He wanted to be back on the ice working with players instead of watching them from the stands.
Moreau’s first foray into coaching took him to Buffalo, where he spent a year as a development coach in the Hockey Academy at Harborcentre. He remained in western New York the following season assisting then head coach Dave Burkholder at Niagara University.
The latest step in Moreau’s coaching career has taken up the ladder and across the border.
As the new head coach of the Fort Erie Meteors, Moreau expects to put together a team that can be competitive in the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League.
Development won’t take a backseat to wins and losses, however.
“That’s my job, to help these guys get to where they’re going, and it’s not always measured in wins and losses,” he said in an interview at the Leisureplex where he was introduced to the media by team owner Tony Passero.
“I picture this is taking younger guys to where we can get them, whether that’s Canadian university, NCAA scholarship for the older guys.
“Get them to move on to wherever they want to be, whether that’s a higher level or if they want to play pro hockey.”
Moreau pointed out given there are only 600 players in the NHL, “and that’s every country on the planet,” success in hockey is measured in different ways.
“You make it to junior B that’s a success, if you make it to Niagara University, that’s still a success, if you make it to the East Coast league …”
He won’t be looking at prospects competing for roster spots on the junior B team through the NHL prism. However, he said the commitment to develop and get better is the same, regardless of the level of competition.
“I had that ability to play in the NHL, but there are people who worked just as hard as me who never made it,” Moreau said.
“I made my living as a
guy who did things
right. You stop on the
puck, you finish
checks, you block
shots.” ETHAN MOREAU,
Fort Erie Meteors head coach
“That’s all I care about it the work ethic and the professionalism that you put into it.
“You can still prepare and work just as hard as I did, at a different level.
“Just because it’s a lesser level doesn’t mean I am going to expect less energy put into the job, but the results might be a little bit different.”
The two years he spent in western New York gave Moreau insight into junior B hockey in Ontario.
“This league is good,” he said of the GOJHL. “It’s kind of been looked down upon a little bit the last few years compared to the different junior A leagues.
“But historically this league has produced a lot of university players and a lot of pro players.”
“I see it as a league that’s kind of on a resurgence back to where it was 15, 20 years ago.”
He said the Meteors need to find a balance between developing players and putting a competitive team on the ice.
“We need wins, we want to have a competitive team that people want to watch,” he said. “We need to win, but I think you can do both.
“The luxury for me is that a lot of our best players are our younger players.”
An unwavering commitment to develop will pay dividends the more the Meteors succeed in helping players reach the next level.
“We have some good young players, and I think we’ll attract more young players if we develop them and get them to the Canadian university or the American university or a different level.”
One of the players Moreau hopes to help reach the next level is his 17-year-old Trey, a defenceman returning for a second season.
“I want him to get better, I want him to develop, that’s a huge reason why I’m taking this
job because of that relationship I have with him.”
He doesn’t think coaching his son will create any dissension on
the team.
“I’m pretty honest with myself and with him as far as when he should be playing and how much
he should be playing,” Moreau said. “I have a pretty realistic view of where people should be, I don’t think that will change whether I have a kid on a team or not.
“If he’s playing well, he’ll play, just like anybody else.
“And I’m not just saying that, that’s how I live my life, that’s how he knows it’s going to be, and it’ll never change.”
“And I won’t go the opposite way either, I won’t be harder on him. He’ll be exactly the same.”
Moreau isn’t wedded to a specific style of play.
“I think we have to see how our roster shapes up and decide,” he said. “You just can’t commit to one style, you have to have something that’s realistic.”
He said the game is shifting, five guys playing offence and five guys playing defence.
“That’s the way the game is headed, that’s the way it’s being played at the highest level.
“I think the more you introduce these guys to that style, they will be more prepared wherever they go after this.”
Moreau wants the Meteors to play a fast-paced, responsible game.
“I made my living as a guy who did things right,” he said. “You stop on the puck, you finish checks, you block shots.
“As a coach, there are going to be certain things that we have to do, and everybody will do it.”
Moreau played three and a half seasons with the Niagara Thunder the Ontario Hockey League before ending his junior career with the Sudbury Wolves.
In 11 seasons with the Edmonton Oilers, parts of four with the Chicago Blackhawks seasons and one each with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Los Angeles Kings, Moreau scored 147 goals and added 140 assists in 928 NHL games.
He succeeds Todd Clayton, who compiled a 34-58-1-7 record in two seasons behind the Fort Erie bench.