The ECHL announced its All-Star teams earlier today. Although there is no All-Star Game this season for the first time since 2016, the league is recognizing some of its best players. However, the players aren’t the only ones getting recognition; the league also named one coach from each conference an All-Star.
Ron Choules, Trois-Rivieres Lions (Eastern Conference)
Ron Choules is in his second year as the head coach of the Trois-Rivieres Lions. In his first year with the Lions, he led the team to a 31-30-5-3 record as they snuck into the fourth and final spot for the Kelly Cup Playoffs before being eliminated by the Norfolk Admirals in six games. This season, he’s led the Lions to a 24-7-4-0 record through 35 games as the team sits in second place in the North Division and third in the Eastern Conference. This is even more impressive after the Lions assistant coach Mathieu Brodeur announced he was stepping down from his position after spending just one season with the team. The Lions would bring on Luc-Olivier Blain to be Choule’s assistant. However, this is Blain’s first season of coaching experience.
Pat Mikesch, Toledo Walleye (Western Conference )
Mikesch, like Choules, is in his second year in the ECHL and led the Toledo Walleye to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in his first season as head coach. Last season, the Walleye finished 2nd in the ECHL with a record of 48-14-4-5 and would make it to the Western Conference Finals for the fourth straight season. In his first year of coaching in the ECHL, the Hancock, Michigan native would finish in fourth place in voting for Coach of the Year.
There were a lot of doubts about Mikesch when he originally joined the team, replacing long-time head coach Dan Watson, who spent 14 years as a member of the Walleye Coaching staff, including seven years as the head coach before getting an opportunity with the Grand Rapid Griffins in the AHL.
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