In 2023, the Riverview Ford Fredericton Red Wings are celebrating a milestone season, as the 2023-24 Maritime Hockey League (MHL) season marks the team’s fifth anniversary.
In March of 2019, the St. Stephen Aces, a team coming off a recent playoff run, decided to relocate their junior team to Fredericton, citing financial issues.
Although this move meant a small-scale New Brunswick town was losing a team, several people saw this move as a new opportunity for hockey in a region dominated by the success of the UNB REDS men’s hockey team.
The move became official in April and the Red Wings took the ice for the first time on Sept. 12, 2019, against the Pictou County Crushers.
The inaugural season for the Red Wings was not all sunny days. In March 2020, the team was forced to halt proceedings due to COVID-19, not knowing if they would even be able to play the next season or beyond. With on-and-off play for months, the season finally got back on track and the Red Wings captured the North Division title that year.
Team owner Roger Shannon said the idea of bringing the Red Wings back came to be when he was fired as general manager and director of hockey for the Moncton Wildcats of the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), a job he held for seven years.
“[The idea] kind of struck me on my way home that day from Moncton back to Fredericton. ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to bring back the old Red Wings from the ‘60s and the ‘70s, my childhood team that I loved to go watch?’” said Shannon.
“I decided, well, ‘maybe I should see if I can put together a group of people [who] can bring junior hockey back to Fredericton.’”
The Red Wings name pays homage to a team that played junior A hockey throughout the 1960s and 1970s in the Fredericton region, winning three straight league titles from 1976 to 1979.
Shannon described that Fredericton hadn’t had junior hockey since the early 80s. He also noted that the Red Wings have been a key contributor to the community over the past five years, both on and off the ice, citing how the number one part of the team’s vision statement is to “be a community-based team and make a difference in the community.”
“Our legacy projects [have] had a significant effect on the community, from Hockey Fights Cancer right through to Feed the Lions and the different programs that [we have] run,” said Shannon. “We feel that being a part of the community is what sets us apart and that will always be the mantra of the Red Wings.”
On Sept. 23, the team officially kicked off its fifth anniversary season against the Grand Falls Rapids. Both teams exchanged goals, leading to overtime. In overtime, Grand Falls forward Domenic Leblanc put home a rebound past Zach Bridgeo, sending the Red Wings fans home in shock.
The team also announced their captain for the season, Cam Thomson, a right wing from Lincoln, N.B.
Shannon has one goal for the second half of the season, which is to use the final days of the regular season to prepare for the playoffs, to have a strong showing.
The team built on that goal by adding some pieces at the trade deadline, including Jared Cosman, forward Carter McCluskey and goaltender Yacine Chemrouk.
“Nobody ever remembers the regular season in hockey. They only remember the playoffs,” he said. “You basically play all winter to get prepared for one thing and for us, that’s the playoffs.”
Twenty-year-old defenseman Jared Cosman, who has played for various teams in the QMJHL for the last three-and-a-half seasons, returned to the Red Wings after playing in their inaugural season. He said this year’s team is different than the one he played for as a rookie back in 2020.
“Now I’m 20 years-old and I’m more of a leader on the team compared to when I was 16 and I was just trying to learn from everyone,” said Cosman.
“This team has higher expectations than [we] had that year [as we] were relatively younger … That team, we were just trying to make the playoffs, whereas this team is trying to win.”
