The Trois-Rivieres Lions announced on Thursday afternoon that they have re-signed forward Jonathan Yantsis for the 2024-25 season. Yantsis, 25, would play in 13 ECHL games during the 2023-24 season, with 10 of those games coming as a member of the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, where he would go scoreless and would be waived by the Swamp Rabbits on April 8th. The Ontario native would play in the Final three regular season games for the Lions, picking up goals in two of those three games, which would be enough to get Trois-Rivieres into the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Yantsis would make his name known in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, but not in a good way, as Yantsis would be suspended by the league indefinitely for a hit on Derrick Louis-Jean in Game 5 of the Opening Round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs and would be suspended for ten games, and still has nine games that he still has to serve on his suspension. He had one assist in five games during the Kelly Cup Playoffs. Yantsis is eligible to return to play on November 16th when the Lions face off against the Worcester Railers.
Prior to joining the ECHL, Yantsis spent four seasons at Queens University, where he put up 33 goals and 39 assists for 72 points in 61 games. He would be a USports First All-Star Team during the 2021-22 season, would win a Universiade gold medal the following season, and, in his final season, would make the USports Second All-Star Team.
