While Patrick Roy has by no means lost his passion and will to win in his 12 seasons behind the Remparts bench, the head coach, once known for his fiery character and inflammatory statements, has also clearly calmed down, as speakers noted to whom The newspaper spoke in the last few days.
• Also read: Patrick Roy tells about Jonathan Marchessault, Bob Hartley, Anthony Duclair, Angelo Esposito and many others
• Also read: Remparts: the time Patrick Roy “coached” Angelo Esposito… even while he was eating his steak
King Patrick’s reign in Quebec was one of great conquest, but also one of controversy and a rivalry that colored the imagination.
1) 1996: Patrick Roy, star goalie and owner
Photo Archives, The Journal
Patrick Roy is still a star goaltender in the NHL when he, along with Jacques Tanguay and Michel Cadrin, decide to revive the Quebec Remparts. A team that, despite its rich history, marked in particular by Guy Lafleur, left the QMJHL in 1985.
At the time, the Harfangs de Beauport were going through a tough time and the three men decided to buy the concession, which would initially arise at Laval University’s PEPS before moving to the old Coliseum, then to fill the Videotron Center to maximum capacity. Ability in three playoff games in 2023.
Quebecor, in turn, becomes the owner of the club in 2014.
2) 2005: A first jump behind the bench
Photo Archives, The Journal
Patrick Roy in his first game behind Remparts bench in September 2005.
The Remparts suffered early in the 2005–2006 season. On September 29, they had just lost their first five games when Patrick Roy, then general manager of the team for two years, went there with a bang. He will now sit behind the club’s bench, he decides and at the same time shows head coach Éric Lavigne the door.
At the helm of a talented team starring a certain Alexander Radulov and Angelo Esposito, Roy ends his debut season with a record of 51 wins and 14 losses, including two in overtime, which is good for second overall.
And the sequel will be even better…
3) 2006: The crowning glory of junior hockey
Photo Archives, The Journal
Patrick Roy looks on at the crowd during celebrations surrounding winning the 2006 Memorial Cup.
That same year, the Remparts had an opportunity to end a 30-year drought by awarding Quebec City the first President’s Cup (now the Gilles Courteau Trophy) since 1976.
In the finals, however, Patrick Roy’s side faced the mighty Moncton Wildcats, regular-season champions in six games. But by “luck” the Wildcats are also hosting the Memorial Cup this year, which qualifies the Red Devils for Canada’s junior hockey major.
Quebec seized the opportunity for revenge: the Remparts defeated the Wildcats, led by Ted Nolan, in the preliminary round and then the finals. They won their first Memorial Cup since 1971.
4) 2005 and 2023: controversies and bans
Photo Archives, The Journal
Patrick Roy behind the Remparts bench during the general fight against the saguenéens.
The pictures toured North America. In 2008, during the second playoff game between the Remparts and the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, a general scuffle broke out. Quebec then trails its big rivals by 7 to 1. Jonathan Roy, Patrick’s son, then got rid of the referee and punched the opposing goalkeeper Bobby Nadeau, who didn’t have the heart to fight.
The future singer will be handed a seven-game ban for his gesture; the old number 33 out of five for “conduct deemed harmful”. Articles from the period indicate that “TV footage showed [Patrick Roy] incite his son to fight his opponent”.
Other members of the Remparts are also being fined, including three saguenéens players and head coach Richard Martel, who will be off the bench for two games.
Patrick Roy will apologize shortly after. In 2022 he was also awarded a suspension game because at the end of a preparatory game he publicly complained about the “lack of tact” of those responsible for the district.
The league had sent the same umpires during the friendly against the Cataractes as those who were on the ice a few months earlier when Shawinigan eliminated the Remparts.
5) 2005 to 2013: A rivalry that shaped the imagination
Patrick Roy and Richard Martel, the Remparts and the Saguenéens of Chicoutimi. A rivalry we may never see again in the QMJHL.
When it peaked during the sad incident between Jonathan Roy and Bobby Nadeau, there were also moments of anthology, like when the Quebec head coach poked fun at the famous “Y payent pas the price” his counterpart had previously hammered on his players.
Photo Archives, The Journal
Patrick Roy and Richard Martel, in 2005.
But during his 12 seasons behind the bench, Patrick Roy will also have captured the imagination with certain other statements about the circuit’s head coaches.
The opposite is also the case. At the 2006 Memorial Cup, Moncton Wildcats head coach Ted Nolan accused Roy of always wanting to play in his head [des autres]”, who had said that goalkeeper Josh Tordjman was going to have a bad game.
“Like I’ve told my boys, there are good athletes, but that doesn’t necessarily make them good people,” Nolan replied.
6) 2013: Return to Avalanche
Ten years after retiring from the sport, Patrick Roy returns to the Avalanche, with whom he won his last two Stanley Cups. Roy will be offered the responsibilities of head coach as well as vice president of ice hockey operations. He then handed over management of the Remparts to Philippe Boucher.
His first season in Colorado is a success: the team has a record of 52-22-8, or 112 points, the best in his division, and the former goalkeeper receives the Jack Adams trophy, a prize bestowed on the coach will be in the NHL.
Photo: AFP
Patrick Roy receives the Jack Adams Trophy in June 2014, which is awarded to the most outstanding head coach in the NHL.
But the next two seasons are more painful and Roy shakes the team’s fans by leaving the Avalanche in 2016.
Two years later he will take control of the Remparts.
7) 2022: The “last dance” behind the bench?
Photo QMI Agency, Marcel Tremblay
When Patrick Roy returned to his duties as head coach and general manager of the Remparts in 2018, he had one goal in mind: to win top honors. Upon his return, he will work hard to assemble the best player base to achieve that goal.
The Red Devils pilot believes he has the right staff for the 2021-2022 season, but a semi-final loss to the Shawinigan Cataractes ends his dream.
After the setback, he doubts his future. “I’ll take the time to think,” he says dejectedly, saying he’s disappointed with the refereeing. About a month later, Roy finally announces his return and admits he was devastated at the elimination of his players.
For a “last dance,” as some players have dubbed it in their final round of junior hockey this season? Everything points to yes, as the head coach has repeatedly reiterated over the past year that his new assistant Simon Gagné could take his place if he so chooses.
8) 2023: And 500!
Patrick Roy is joining a select club on January 20th. Thanks to a 5-2 win over the Océanic at Rimouski, he is only the sixth coach in the history of the circuit to reach 500 victories and the fastest to do so, in 815 encounters.
At the end of the game, the head coach refuses to take full credit: “I’m a very lucky person. “I’ve had the chance to manage very good teams, including this year’s team,” he said, also praising the assistants he worked with and the team president, his friend Jacques Tanguay.
It is his great rival Richard Martel who holds the record with 589.
9) 2023: A season that will go down in history
Photo Didier Desbusschere
Patrick Roy and Simon Gagné claim the Gilles Courteau Trophy after the Remparts won Game 6 against the Halifax Mooseheads in May 2023.
This 2022-2023 season is the last chance for several Remparts players to be crowned champions. And certainly also for Patrick Roy as head coach.
Dominant, the Red Devils won the regular-season title and amassed no fewer than 53 wins, a franchise record. They then met little adversity in the first two rounds of the playoffs, defeating the Charlottetown Islanders and the Rimouski Océanic in just four games.
They then defeat the Gatineau Olympiques, another force on the circuit. Things get tougher against the second-place Halifax Mooseheads in the league, however, as the Remparts suffer their first two playoff losses in Games 2 and 5, played in Quebec.
Remparts and Mooseheads meet in Halifax for a hard fought sixth game. Sylvain Favreau’s charges are just over two minutes from forcing a decisive encounter as Kassim Gaudet and Pier-Olivier Roy play the heroes and give Quebec its first QMJHL playoff championship title in 47 years.
A dream scenario that the players – and their Big Boss – now want to repeat at the Memorial Cup.