The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners have announced Richard Schoeneich will be back behind the NOJHL squad’s bench for the 2023-24 campaign, as head coach, serving alongside of Landon Lavictoire, the team’s new vice president of hockey operations who will also act as the team’s associate coach. NOJHL NETWORK jpg, TD, apsmc
Richard Schoeneich will be back behind the bench of the NOJHL’s Kirkland Lake Gold Miners for the 2023-24 campaign, as head coach serving alongside Landon Lavictoire, the team’s new vice president of hockey operations who will act as the associate coach.
Brad Sherratt – Kirkland Lake Northern News
Richard Schoeneich will be back behind the bench of the NOJHL’s Kirkland Lake Gold Miners for the 2023-24 campaign, as head coach serving alongside Landon Lavictoire, the team’s new vice president of hockey operations who will act as the associate coach.
Schoeneich took over the struggling team in early January, after the Gold Miners had relieved Kyle Smart of his duties on Oct. 12, 2022.
At the time of his hire, Schoeneich was named head coach and co-general manager, along with Barry Ferguson.
Under his guidance, the Gold Miners went 2-19-0-1 in their final 22 regular season games and failed to qualify for the playoffs.
Lavictoire announced Schoeneich’s return and new title on May 25, along with a number of other staffing moves in preparation for the 2023-24 regular season.
In an interview with the Northern News, Lavictoire explained the reasoning behind the moves.
“Basically, the goal is to combine mine and Richard’s hockey knowledge into one,” he said.
“It is like a Batman and Robin type of partnership.”
Lavictoire also announced Jed Allick will be back with the Gold Miners as an assistant coach.
In addition, the Gold Miners have hired Jamy Bernier as the team’s general manager.
Bernier is no stranger to the NOJHL, as he has worked in the past for the Iroquois Falls Eskis (now the Hearst Lumberjacks) and the Blind River Beavers.
Lavictoire noted Bernier is also part owner of a hockey development camp and therefore can regularly see a lot of players.
“He has got good experience and it is pretty obvious the system that was in place with one man running hockey operations and (being) the GM wasn’t really working,” he said.
“I think the more eyes you have on the same prize the better.
“Jamy spends a lot of time in rinks, which me and Richard won’t have time to do, so he will be able to do the scouting portion of things, the paper side of things, the trades.
“It frees up a lot of time (of the coaches) and there are three guys now looking for players instead of one guy.
“You are seeing three times the number of games, hopefully three times the number of phone calls.
“The system that was in place prior to the changes I have made clearly was not working.
“We have won less than 20 games over the last two years and the goal is to get a good product back on the ice right away.”
In terms of what the fans will see on the ice, Lavictoire is projecting five players from last year’s squad could be back in the lineup.
While he would not name them, he emphasized they have “shown interest” in returning.
“The top core guys are likely going to be coming back with a lot of changes (around them),” Lavictoire said.
“We have leads on a lot of good players right now.”
It should be noted teams cannot sign new players, meaning players who were not part of last year’s squad, until June 1.
As to what Lavictoire and his staff are looking for, he indicated there are two areas of focus.
“I think we are in need of two top defencemen,” he said.
“In Junior hockey your Top 2 D-men will play 30 minutes a game, so it is important you have a good Top 2.
“Scoring goals was a big problem for us last year, too, so we need to bring in some goal scorers, some skilled guys who are able to put the puck in the back of the net.”
The Gold Miners annual spring camp is slated for June 3-4, in Wasaga Beach.
Lavictoire noted there has been a lot of interest in the camp and he expects some player signings following its completion.
