Town Hall meeting discusses news on and off the ice

Published on: 29th May, 2009 by Chris Roy

Lewiston, ME- The Lewiston Maineiacs held their first ever town hall meeting at the Shipyard Lounge inside the Androscoggin Bank Colisee on Thursday night. It was also apart of the first ever Select-a-Seat event where potential season ticket holders or current season ticket holders can select where they want to sit for the upcoming season.

To say the night was an success is an understatement.

“This is one of the best turnouts I’ve seen at all the stops I’ve been at,” said Maineiacs President and Head Coach Don MacAdam. “We sold eighteen packages, the highest I can remember all the years I’ve been doing this was five.”

“My hopes were two tickets tonight,” Garrett Mason said, director of Administration for the Lewiston Maineiacs. “We far surpassed that and it’s a thanks to you guys (fans).”

Fans were able to ask questions about anything on the team. They certainly didn’t hold back and MacAdam was the same way. He talked about the draft, danced around the trade rumors, the Import Draft, and character of the team.

“One thing we wanted to upgrade is our character,” says MacAdam. “Character is everything and we got some great character kids coming back, Sam Finn, Billy Lacasse, (and) Eric Gelinas. These are character guys and Adrien Lemay, these are real character guys.”

One thing Coach MacAdam saw this team needs to get better at is strength.

“Every single guy we said you got to get bigger, stronger, and faster,” said MacAdam. “We got pushed off the puck way too much and we need to upgrade our skill.”

With Denis Reul heading into the professional ranks and it appears Filip Janosik not coming back, the team has two Import spots available.

“We are bringing over two new Europeans,” says MacAdam. “By the way, if they can’t play, they aren’t staying.”

MacAdam said the team is looking outside the Quebec and Maritime Region for players. He mentioned he talked to a 6’6 foot player but no names were mentioned.

With Peter Delmas heading to Quebec, the team is down to one goalie who finished the year on the current roster. That would be Adrien Lemay who will be a twenty year old who spent the end of the year with the Florida Everglades of the ECHL. MacAdam would love to have him back.

“We got really comfortable with Adrien being our number on this year,” MacAdam says. “He’s the most prepared guy on our team by a country mile. The way he went there (Florida Everglades), he went as an emgerency goaltender. The way that works, you can’t dress unless the starting goalie is injured and can’t play. He was suppose to be there for ten day, he was there for a month.”

MacAdam said the team are comfortable with three goaltenders in the draft pool.

One of the goals Mason is to call a player from the Lewiston-Auburn area in the first round of the QMJHL in the future.

“We loved to draft a first rounder from Lewiston, Maine to the Lewiston Maineiacs,” says Mason. To make the dream come true, the team will work with the local youth programs.

Some other topics that were covered were officiating, ticket prices, tailgate parties, Alumni nights and events for season ticket holders.

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