As a National Hockey League defenceman, Sylvain Lefebvre wasn’t known as a player who could go coast to coast.
As a coach, it’s been a different matter.
Reports out of Quebec Wednesday said Lefebvre, who spent two seasons on the northeast part of the continent as head coach of the American Hockey League’s St. John’s IceCaps, is headed for the southeastern reaches of North America, joining the AHL’s San Diego Gulls as an assistant on Dallas Eakins’ staff.
The Gulls are the farm team of the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks.
The 50-year-old Lefebvre had coached Montreal Canadiens’ AHL affiliates for six seasons, the first three in Hamilton, the next two in St. John’s and final one in Laval, Que., with the Rocket, but only guided a team to the Calder Cup playoffs once — that was in his second season with the IceCaps, who bowed out in the first round to the Syracuse Crunch.
The Canadiens moved their minor-league operations from St. John’s to Laval after that 2016-17 season. Re-named the Rocket, the team finished with a 24-42 record. Immediately after the season, Lefebvre was fired and replaced by another former NHL rearguard, Joel Bouchard.
