Dominic Menard 2019-20 CCHL2 GM of the Year

Graphic: Mark Kelly / Article: Mason Detre

 

Ottawa, Ontario – The Central Canada Hockey League Tier 2 is proud to announced that Dominic Menard of the Winchester Hawks, has been named the 2019-20 General Manager of the Year.

Menard, finished his second season with the Winchester Hawks as President & GM. Winchester is currently 23-13-6, helping Winchester to a playoff spot for the first time since the 2016-17 season. It’s also the first time since CCHL2 came in existence, that the Hawks will finished the season over .500. They currently have a winning percentage of .619 with two more games left in the regular season.

Head Coach of the Winchester Hawks Bob Gould comments about Dom’s success as the GM this season.

“General Manager of the year is a great honour for him and that our past President and GM Keith Ashton would be very proud of him, along with me for all the hard work and dedication he does for our hockey club.”

Back on October 21st 2018, Former President & GM Keith Ashton passed away at the age of 71. Five days later, the Winchester Hawks would honour him before their game against Arnprior on October 26th 2018 with a ceremonial puck drop.

When Dominic Menard was chosen to take over as the President & GM. He had to do it in a hard way, and had to rebuild this organization. Last year, Winchester finished with 15 wins and sit 6th in the Martin Division and were out of the playoffs for the second straight year.

This year, they set a franchise record with 23 wins since CCHL2 existed. Gould says his hard work was the reason why this team was successful.

“His hard work never ends and is daily, with not only equipment, but getting affiliates most of the time at the last minute as well for our hockey team.”

Gould mentions that they called Dom Menard the ‘Everything Man’ as he carries the club on his back and is true to rebuilding this organization.

“It was nice of Dom to check with me first on all hockey decisions, whether a recruit or an affiliate player. He always wants my opinion on every player, then let’s me do my job as a Head Coach, so it never interferes on a bench decision, but always there for advice based on his experience from the league,” said Gould.

The Winchester Hawks have two more games on their schedule and they are against Char-Lan for the final two regular season games before playing Casselman in the best of three wild card series.