Melanson hopes to help Tommie turnaround
Published Friday November 20th, 2009
AUS hockey | Former pro is ready to go to school now
Mathieu Melanson is ready for school.
The 24-year-old former member of the Memorial Cup winning Quebec Remparts -- and for nine games during the 2006-07 season, the Dalhousie Tigers of the Atlantic University Sport Men's Hockey Conference -- will enroll at St. Thomas University in January and play for the Tommies men's hockey team next year.
Melanson, who scored 42 goals in his last season of junior hockey and 28 and 30 goals in two ECHL seasons since, has two years of university eligibility remaining.
"Matt's no different than a lot of guys around," said Tommies coach Mike Eagles. "He's played pro hockey and in his heart he knows now that it's the right time to go back and go to school. He's a quality player and a quality person. He's an elite player at this level. We're not worried about him."
Melanson retired from pro hockey last year after scoring 61 points in 55 games for the now defunct Mississippi Sea Wolves. He tried pro golf, playing some events on the Hooters tour in Florida, but found it at even tougher way to make a living than pro hockey.
"I'll try it again,' he said. "I realized I'm not ready yet anyway. I've got some things I've got to work on."
Pro hockey, though, is pretty much out of his system after stints in Stockton with the Thunder, the Florida Everblades, eight American Hockey League games with the Manitoba Moose, a couple with the Phoenix Roadrunners and 50 with the Sea Wolves last season, where he and former Tommies' captain Kyle McAllister were roommates.
It was McAllister, now playing with the Blacks Harbour Silverkings of the Southern Hockey League -- that's where Melanson expects to surface as he gets his game back in shape -- who pointed him to St. Thomas.
He'll also skate with the Tommies and help Eagles out.
Melanson is a different guy than the one who left the Tigers after nine games three years ago.
"It was nothing on Dal," he said. "I left because I went to school for the wrong reasons. I went because I didn't get the contract I was expecting to get," he said.
Indeed, after sniping 42 goals and 44 assists for 86 points in 59 regular season games and adding 25 goals and 15 assists for 40 points in 23 games to lead the Remparts' march to the Memorial Cup, he figured the Minnesota Wild, the team which drafted him in the eighth round of the 2003 amateur entry draft, might have some demand for his services.
"I felt like I should have had the breaks, but sometimes, life doesn't work like that," he said. "So I went to school. I went to Dal, but it wasn't fair to them. They were great to me, but I couldn't fake it. I was honest with (coach Fabian Joseph). I said 'Fabes, my heart's not here and it's not fair for me to be here.'
"This time it's different. I made the call and I want to come to school and I want to get a degree. I'm 24 years old. I just don't want to wake up at 35 years old and not have anything to fall back on after sports."
Melanson had some nagging injuries through two pro seasons, with groin injuries a recurring problem. But he believes a 28 game schedule, with two games per week are managaeable, with a training staff who are aware of the history.
"I'm fairly confident I'll be able to get through a season,' he said. "Once I get my degree, I'll either decide I want to try golf again or I want to play a couple of years of hockey."
In the meantime, Eagles believes he'll look good in Tommie green.
"We've had lots of conversations about what he needs to do to help us get to where we want to go, and he's definitely determined to do what it takes in his training in preparing tgo play next fall."
Melanson aches to be part of a winner. He believes he can help push the Tommies in that direction.
"I told Mike I don't want to go somewhere and not win," he said. "He knows I'm bringing the commitment, bringing the leadership, bringing the experience from pro, from playing at the Memorial Cup level...I've won at every level I've played at, from bantam. I know what it takes to get it done. There's an opportunity here, with UNB hosting the nationals for the next two years, to have two great years. I've been on losing teams and I've been on winning teams and I'm at a point in my life where hockey is a lot more fun when you win."
Melanson is the son of former National Hockey League goaltender Roland Melanson, but the two are estranged.
"We haven't been talking for two or three years now," said Mathieu. "There were a couple of issues and we had a falling out. It's just part of life. I'm a better person with him out of my life. It's a choice that I made."
He considers McAllister "kind of like a brother to me.
"I've had a lot of people in my life that I trusted that have let me down, so it's kind of hard for me to trust people. I trust him. He told me that I wouldn't regret coming here and that I would love it.
"And Mike never pushed me. I've been dragged around by a lot of people and pushed and they weren't thinking of my interests. Mike just said "You know what, Matt...whenever you decide to go back to school, there's always going to be a place for you here.'"
He says he'll do what it takes to help the Tommies.
"I just want to have the experience of playing for your school and winning for your school," he said. "I don't care if I have to play defence for Mike. If I've got to play goalie, I'll play goalie. I know that hockey is fun when you win. The individual stuff, I don't care about."
While Melanson figures to make the Tommies a better team in the long run, they have a more imminent concern. The Universite de Moncton Aigles Bleus are on the docket tonight at 7 p.m. at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink.
Eagles expects defenceman David Crossman to play but lists the three other injured players -- forward Tyler Dietrich, defenceman Bryan Main and goaltender Charles Lavigne as questionable.
The conference call conducted yesterday to rule on the potential suspensions of forwards Kenton Dulle and Corey Banfield resolved nothing.
"There's still a process and we're still in the middle of it," said Eagles. "Those guys...they're playing until we're told differently."
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