Pascal Rhéaume is a complete newcomer to women's hockey and the PWHL. He joins the league admitting no familiarity with the players or playing style, but also comes with experience. How will the rookie head coach fare?
Pascal Rhéaume is a familiar name to the hockey world, but not to the women's hockey world. Aside from his sister Manon Rhéaume, a women's hockey legend who was recently named the general manager of PWHL Detroit, and his daughters Logane Rhéaume, who played for the University of Montreal, and Alexane Rhéaume who played for Mercyhurst in the NCAA, Pascal Rhéaume is a complete newcomer to women's hockey.
Whether or not his lack of familiarity with the league, player pool, style, and rules is a hinderance, or perhaps frees him of bias and gives the team a fresh outlook, is yet to be seen.
His other connection to the league is one that may come with animosity. In February 2020, Rheaume was fired midseason from his only high-level head coaching job of his career with the QMJHL's Val-d'Or Foreurs. Oddly enough, the man who fired him, Pascal Daoust, is now the general manager for the PWHL's New York Sirens.
The feud between the two is in the past, but at the time Rhéaume was not happy, claiming to learn of the firing via social media.
"No matter what excuses my general manager has, because he's sure to have some, it's a lack of professionalism. They skipped steps, and I'm very disappointed with how it was handled," Rhéaume said in a translated article from Radio-Canada.
Rhéaume was set to serve as a head coach and general manager for the ECHL's Trois-Rivières Lions, but left the role only weeks after accepting to take on a job as an assistant coach with the AHL's Bridgeport Islanders. As pointed out in his introductory press conference, this will be Rhéaumes' 10th stop in only 15 seasons of coaching. His last two jobs with Trois-Rivières and Bridgeport each last two seasons.
Now however, Rhéaume will look to prove he can be a winning head coach, although it will be a steep learning curve for the head coach, whose introductory press conference was met with mixed reviews. It involved referring to the women on the Toronto Sceptres as "girls" multiple times, telling reporters that he does not know the players and had not watched the league, and touting Joel Quenneville as a mentor he learned from. Quenneville resigned from his NHL head coaching role after it was learned he'd known about sexual assault allegations made by Kyle Beach, and other players against video coach Brad Aldrich, and did not act. The Blackhawks, who had to settle a pair of lawsuits related to the case, allowed Aldrich to resign himself in 2010, and he subsequently sexually assaulted a 16-year-old in 2013. Rhéaume called Quenneville "very demanding but very honest."
It looks as though Pascal Rhéaume, who said he was excited and honored to join the Sceptres, coach at the highest level, and to have "a new stat, fresh start," will have work to do to showcase himself to the Toronto Sceptres' fan base, and to put a winning team on the ice.
Lack Of Experience In Women's Hockey Highlighted
"Well having two girls that played that you know the relation with my girls was you know watching them all the time. Obviously they they play college so I didn't have chance to coach them because I was coaching junior and I was coaching pro hockey," Rhéaume said.
Learning the style, and a new league with unique rules, will be no small task, but Rhéaume says he doesn't care about the "gender side," just about coaching the best players.
"To me it's all about relation, you have with your player," Rhéaume said. "The gender side doesn't care for me. I'm going to coach the best players and for a coach is just to know your player. That's going to be my big role for me the next few weeks is to know, like we're going to go through the the the draft pretty soon, and after that I want to have a chat with everybody and even the first few weeks at the training camp like I want to know my players. I want to know what's in there."
"It's like for me to be, if I coach women before or not. Honestly, no....but but at the end of the day, you're coaching like hockey players."
Learning The Players This Summer
When asked if he knew the players on his new team, Rhéaume was honest again. He said no, but spoke of the long offseason ahead, and the work he was set to put in to get to know his roster, the league, and what it will take to get the Sceptres back into the Walter Cup playoffs.
"No, actually no. Like I said, I met some of the leaders over the some Zoom call," he explained. "But no. Some of my daughters know a lot of the players. So it's always it was fun during the process because I think my kids were as excited as I was because they knew that a lot of the girls. So I knew some of the girls that was part of Team Canada. I watched the Olympics this year but most of the time, they could be my kids."
Calm Coach With Work Ahead
Rhéaume has been through the QMJHL, ECHL, and AHL as a coach, and as player through many coaches in the QMJHL, AHL, NHL, and Europe. He won a Stanley Cup in 2003 as a member of the NHL's New Jersey Devils, and also won a Calder Cup with the AHL's Albany River Rats.
He described himself as a "very calm" coach who focuses on developing players,
Rhéaume knows he has a lot of learning ahead, but is confident he'll get it done in time for puck drop on the 2026-27 season.
"I'm going to need the laptop. I'm going to need all the the films for next year and everything and start building something, start to know the players a little bit," Rhéaume said.
He plans phone calls and Zoom calls with the team, so they know what to expect from him as a person and player over what he said is "going to be a long summer" saying his vacation is over, and "now it's time to work."