Defenseman Marc-Antoine Pepin is returning home to France to join Caen of the France2 league after spending the past two seasons in the ECHL. This will be his first time playing professionally overseas. Last season, he played 25 games at the ECHL level with the Trois-Rivieres Lions and Fort Wayne Komets, where he had one goal and three assists. He became the eighth player and second defenseman from Fort Wayne to take the overseas route since the season ended, joining Tyler Parks, Ture Linden, Zack Andrusiak, Brogan O’Brien, Martin Has, and Alexis D’Aoust. This shouldn’t be an issue for Komet’s team, which was very active in the off-season and invited ten defensemen to Training Camp.
Prior to going pro, Pepin spent parts of five seasons in the QMJHL, playing with the Sherbrook Phoenix, Shawinigan Cataractes, and Baie-Comeau Drakkar, where he scored 19 goals and 84 assists for 103 points in 181 games, leading all Cataractes defensemen in assists (30) during the 2019-20 season. He added one goal and ten assists for 11 points in 14 career QMJHL Playoff Games..The 23-year-old defenseman then made the jump to the ECHL at the end of the 2022-23 season, scoring one goal and adding three assists for four points in 11 games. He would sign with the Lions that off-season before being traded back to Fort Wayne in January in exchange for cash considerations. Pepin also spent time with the Toledo Walleye after they claimed him off waivers in December 2022, but would be waived the following day.
