Former Edinburgh Capitals star Marc LeFebvre has already started his search for fresh talent after being appointed head coach to Viaplay Elite League club, Dundee Stars, for the second time, and the popular Canadian will also double-up as director of hockey operations.
The 40-year-old native of Kanata, Ontario, has spent the past six seasons coaching in North America and Europe and he takes over from Jeff Mason after a disappointing season which saw Stars, sponsored by Trade-Mart, prop up the ten-strong table.
LeFebvre (pictured by Derek Black courtesy of Dundee Stars) previously led the Stars to back-to-back seventh place finishes in the Elite League with an overall regular season record of 42-45-17 (wins-losses-overtime losses).
He also guided the Stars to a playoff quarter-final in his first year before taking the team to their first semi-final and appearance at the Elite League play-off weekend in Nottingham.
LeFebvre said: “It has been a surreal 24 hours here after I talked to Steve Ward and we reminisced about some old times in the two season that I was previously in Dundee, and we talked about how we want things to work going forward. I jumped at the opportunity to take control of the Stars again and I am looking forward to getting things going.
“Hockey is about the play-offs, so our goal is to get in the top eight again, qualify for the play-offs and then go from there and, obviously, we want to win as many trophies as possible.”
LeFebvre continued: “I have learned a lot, in terms of others things I did not have before my first time around in Dundee, so I am excited to bring those experiences with me back to Dundee now and building a team off of that.
“It was two of the best seasons of my coaching career as I have so many good memories from both on and off the ice in Dundee with being so close to the play-off weekend in the first year then when we made it in the second season.
The playcaller added: “I have been keeping a close eye on the Elite League and I am always looking at players whether it is in the Elite League or other leagues.
“The Elite League compared to other leagues is a completely different animal. You can’t just go by the social media because you do not see a lot of that in France or Denmark or even the ECHL (East Coast Hockey League).
“However, the league is in a very good place right now, so again I am excited to get back and one thing is, you can always go home and the Elite League feels like a home for me, especially in Dundee.”
LeFebvre is well known in British hockey after playing for Sheffield Steelers, Coventry Blaze and Edinburgh Capitals throughout the 2000’s. He won league and play-off titles with Steelers and then stepped behind the bench in Sheffield as an assistant coach in 2013 before becoming head coach at Blaze.
Since then, he has coached in the United States’ Federal Hockey League, Hungary’s MOL Liga and Under 20’s League prior to his first move to Tayside.
After his success in Dundee, he departed to join the ECHL’s Cincinnati Cyclones, an affiliate club of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, where as an Assistant Coach, he was able to work with the Sabres talent pool of future NHL players.
A year later he was doing the same job but with Orlando Solar Bears and working with the National Hockey League (NHL) talents from Tampa Bay Lightning and San Jose Sharks.
In 2019, LeFebvre then made the move to Denmark to become head coach of the Odense Bulldogs for two seasons and moved to France to take charge of Chamonix Pioneers in 2021.
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