Mariners set sail with new owners

Longtime coach and GM Barron part of local ownership group

Yarmouth’s favourite hockey team wants to return to its roots as the face of the community in southwestern Nova Scotia.

The Yarmouth Mariners believe they’ve taken a step in that direction with the junior A franchise’s sale in mid-June to a four-man local ownership group that includes longtime head coach and general manager Laurie Barron.

“The nice thing is we got to buy something that was stable,” said Barron, whose Mariners are entering their 20th season in the Maritime Hockey League. “When you think of this area, you think of the Yarmouth Mariners.

“The only thing that I would say is that we want to rebrand with minor hockey. We want everyone that plays the game in Yarmouth to be a Yarmouth Mariner and share the logo.”

Barron and assistant coach and assistant GM John Murphy, along with business manager Jared Purdy and lawyer Alex Pink, became equal partners when they purchased the team from Mitch Bonnar, the sole owner since 2019 and previously a part-owner. As partners with Tri-Star Industries, Bonnar and Keith Condon bought the club in 2010.

“Mitch was obviously kind enough to give us an opportunity,” Barron said of Bonnar. “We thank him and his family for their time and effort with the hockey club.”

While the Mariners have long been an MHL flagship franchise on and off the ice, their loyal fan base at the Mariners Centre has declined in recent years, partly because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has disrupted multiple seasons.

“Oh yeah, totally, it’s been a battle,” Barron said. “But in saying that, it’s also an opportunity to restructure and get people excited about the product again.

“We’ve had regular-season division titles the last five years, so the on-ice product is very good. And we expect another strong team this (coming) year. We’ve got a great returning group. Our big thing now is to get immersed into the community, with not only minor hockey but schools and so on. We’re looking to reduce ticket prices and — after COVID — just get people excited about hockey again.”

The Mariners were the envy of their Maritime contemporaries when crowds of 1,250 fans consistently packed the Mariners Centre on game nights. Yarmouth’s average attendance nowadays is about 850. The drop-off has been attributed in part to the gathering and travel restrictions that came with COVID.

At its June 17 meeting, the MHL board of governors formally approved the Mariners’ sale. Purdy, a former assistant coach, was named Yarmouth’s governor. Barron and Murphy represent the hockey side of the new ownership group. They plan to remain behind the bench.

“Now, it becomes even more of a pride thing,” said Barron, an original Mariner coach who has been involved with the team for 16 years.

“My job is to make sure the product on the ice is good. I’ve always taken a lot of pride in that, but (the ownership) certainly even brings it to the next level. We want to provide the full thing. We want to make sure our game-night experience is good for everybody from (age) five to 85.”

Barron, a 55-year-old native of Kennetcook, Hants County, has decades of experience in competitive hockey and softball.

“Honestly, between the ball fields and the hockey rink, that’s been the way of life.”

He and his family have embraced Yarmouth as home. His son Matt, a former Mariners captain and record-setting scorer, now plays university hockey with the Ontario Tech Ridgebacks.

“My daughter (Melissa) is a school teacher just up the road here now,” Barron said. “She’s getting married on the 17th of July. And my other daughter Natalie is immersed here. We’re obviously excited about keeping Yarmouth home.”

He welcomes the stability for not only his family, but also the continuity for the organization in having MHL veterans like he and Murphy in charge of the Mariners’ hockey operations.

MHL DRAFT ON TAP

Up next on Yarmouth’s hockey calendar is the MHL draft on July 15. The first two rounds are scheduled to run live on Eastlink TV.

The Mariners were expected to select two Yarmouth County forwards, South Shore Mustangs U18 major forwards Sam Hope and Jared Pitman, in the territorial draft preceding the actual draft proceedings.

“It’s huge,” Barron said of securing homegrown talent. “For us, we’ve been lucky in the past to have some real solid local players, right from the start.

“My first draft, we were drafting 1985-born players like Jody Mosher and Justin d’Entremont. It was 2002-03, the first year for the Mariners. It’s hard to believe that it’s been 20 years since I first came here.”

Barring trades, Yarmouth goes into the draft without selections in the first two rounds.

“Unless I make a deal, the only ones I’m going to get to pick (early) are my two territorials, because as per usual, I don’t have a first- or secondround pick,” said Barron, who was chosen this season’s MHL coach of the year.

“I tend to trade my first and second to try and load up at the deadline. I joke with my scouting staff. I said if you’re going to work for me, you don’t often have a first- or a second-round pick, so you’ve got to make hay while the sun shines in the later rounds.”

Along with their territorial selections, the Mariners have one pick each in the third, fourth and fifth rounds, two choices in the sixth, and one pick each in the seventh and eighth rounds.