Rondeau played a total of 128 regular season and playoff games for the Mustangs over his two seasons with the club. (Facebook/Broad Leaf Media)

By Mat Barrett

Rondeau Commits

‘I gained confidence in Melfort’: Rondeau rolling to Laurentian for post-secondary hockey

Apr 6, 2020 | 5:00 PM

The Melfort Mustangs have their first graduating player commitment of the off-season.

Defenceman Alex Rondeau has committed top Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ont. for his post-secondary hockey career. The Laurentian Voyageurs play in the Ontario University Athletics conference as part of USports. Rondeau said Laurentian has a good hockey staff and gave him an opportunity to play right away.

“I felt like it was the same type of place as Melfort really,” he said. “So I felt really comfortable going there and I think it will be the perfect mix for me for school and being a student athlete there, so I’m really excited.”

Rondeau came to Melfort at the start of the 2018/2019 season after two seasons at Pomfret School, a prep school in Connecticut. In his rookie season with Melfort, he was named the team’s Most Improved Player and Rookie of the Year after tallying six goals and 15 assists, tied for the most among first year players on the Mustangs. That Melfort team made it all the way to the Saskatchean Junior Hockey League (SJHL) finals, before bowing out to the Battlefords North Stars. Rondeau played in all 16 games that playoff run and tallied three points in the process.

The 2019 off-season was an interesting one for Rondeau as he was actually traded to Whitecourt in the Alberta Junior Hockey League to complete a futures deal. However, just before training camp got underway, Head Coach and General Manager Trevor Blevins pulled the trigger and brought Rondeau back for his final Junior season.

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His second season with the team was even better than his first. Rondeau formed one of the most feared defence pairings in the SJHL with Nolan Kadachuk on the blue line. The pair played a great deal of minutes for Blevins as the Mustangs went on to allow the second least amount of goals in the SJHL. While keeping the puck out of their own net, Rondeau was also heavily relied on offensively. The big, smooth skating defenceman went on to tally 13 goals and 28 assists for 41 points, tied for second on the team. Rondeau was tied for fifth in the SJHL in points, and tied for second in goals, and was ultimately the Sherwood Division nominee for the SJHL’s Defenceman of the Year award. Rondeau was also the Mustangs winner of their Most Valuable Defenceman Award.

Rondeau said coming to Melfort, he was a pretty raw player. He knew he had all the skills, but his time in Melfort really turned him into the player he is today.

“I gained confidence in Melfort,” Rondeau told northeastNOW. “I started believing in myself and working hard and my coaches believed in me.”

Melfort’s season was unfortunately cut short due to COVID-19, and the Mustangs were well on their way to at least making the final four again as they were leading the Estevan Bruins 3-1 in their first round series. Rondeau said he’s missing a championship ring from his trophy case, but he is grateful for his time in Saskatchewan.

“It was kind of like some unfinished business,” Rondeau said. “Winning with the guys this year would have been an awesome end to my junior career, but we had a good season and I had lots of fun.”

Rondeau said the people, especially his billets in Melfort are a big factor in what made him want to come to Melfort and stay there. Rondeau said one memory he will have is his time with Kadachuk, who he was defence partners with for both of his seasons.

“I’ve never had chemistry with a guy like that before,” Rondeau said. “He was a part of my success on the ice and I am really grateful that he helped me out to get to college. He was a really good teammate and a really good hockey player.”

Rondeau (Left) and Kadachuk (Right) were defence partners for both of Rondeau’s seasons in Melfort. (Facebook/Tekla Shields Kadachuk)

Rondeau said he hasn’t officially decided what to take yet while at Laurentian, but he’s narrowed it down to either sports administration or finance.

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6