HAMILTON, Ont – Yanick Lehoux looks around the Hamilton Bulldogs dressing room and the 26-year-old Montreal native realizes he’s not a kid anymore. “It’s funny because, a year or two ago, I was considered a young guy and this team is so young that I’m one of the old guys,” says Lehoux. “I’m almost like an older brother to some of these guys. It’s a fun situation and I’m ready for it.” The 6-foot-1, 200-pound centre has 10 games of NHL experience with Phoenix and 315 in the American Hockey League with the Manchester Monarchs and San Antonio Rampage. He’s a proven offensive player the Dogs will count on for goals this year. He started last year in Phoenix before being sent down to the Rampage. He only played seven games in San Antonio before heading to Russia where he played 20 games for Mytishchi. “We had too many veterans and we were rotating in and out of the lineup,” Lehoux says of his situation in San Antonio. “We had two or three extra guys and every few games you sat out and it didn’t matter if you played good or played bad.
Yanick Lehoux courtesy of the Hamilton Bulldogs hockey club.
“I knew, for my career and my development, I couldn’t be in a situation like that.” Lehoux said he asked for a trade or a loan to another team and when the answer was no, he knew he had to leave. “I had some good offers overseas and the best one was in Russia,” said Lehoux. “That’s the second-best league in the world and I figured, if I’m not going to play in the NHL and if I have to rotate as an extra guy in the AHL, I might as well go to Russia, play against older guys and become a better player.” Lehoux said he picks up languages quickly and he immersed himself in trying to learn to speak Russian. He said the players over there weren’t terribly welcoming at first, although they warmed up to him when he made the effort to learn their language. “When I first got there, there were only two players on the team who could speak English,” he said. “Later on, I found that there were 15 who could speak English.” Over the summer, Lehoux signed a free-agent offer from the Montreal Canadiens. When the Habs acquired Robert Lang this summer, Lehoux says he knew his chances of cracking Montreal’s lineup right out of training camp were slim. Still, he decided he wanted to have a good enough camp in Montreal to at least “leave my business card.” He’s determined to have a good enough season in Hamilton to be the first callup if the Canadiens have any injuries. Contact the author at:
andruw.bourgeois@prohockeynews.comRelated
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