PEORIA, Ill. – The puck is about to drop on a new hockey season for the Peoria Rivermen.
The defending Southern Professional Hockey League champions start their 2024-25 season on Saturday at Quad City, before the home opener on October 25th against Roanoke, which will also feature a championship ceremony.
The Rivermen will feature a mix of veterans and new players on this year’s squad, but will feature a new captain. Former captain and Peoria-native Alec Hagaman retired after leading the Rivermen to its second President’s Cup in three seasons.
Forward Alec Baer, in his 4th season with the team, now wears the ‘C’ for the Rivermen. He says there’s “big shoes” to fill, but is ready for the role with the leadership around him.
Baer says he wants to lead the team by example.
“I’ll keep the guys very loose, like to make guys laugh, and there’s other guys too here that are going to help me out, but our leadership group will be a big part of it,” Baer said.
Baer says it will take everyone on the team raising their game to help fill the void that Hagaman’s retirement left.
One of those leaders Baer will lean on is defenseman Zack Wilkie, also in his 4th season with the Rivermen. He says as long as the work is put in by everyone, the team will have another successful season.
“We’re a fast team, a hardworking team. I always say we practice so hard to make the games easy,” Wilkie said. “As long as everybody’s showing up and ready to work, we can fix mistakes as we go, and we can just continue to get better day-by-day.”
Head coach Jean Guy Trudel is starting his 11th season as coach of the Rivermen. He comes into the year six wins away from becoming the winningest coach in SPHL history. His overall record is 362-127-62.
Trudel says even after winning the championship last season, there’s motivation to be the best in the league.
“From power play to penalty kill to faceoffs to O-zone time, we want to be top of the league at everything we do,” Trudel said.
Trudel says it may take a few weeks for the team to gel on the ice with numerous new faces coming to Peoria. But he says the mindset for the year and every year is “championship or bust.”
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