Glace Bay's Ryan Boutilier becomes new primary owner of Kameron Jr. Miners hockey club

Ryan Boutilier envisioned one day owning a junior hockey league franchise in Cape Breton.

The Glace Bay native has been involved in hockey for the majority of his life both as a player and coach and he hoped to eventually own a team when he retired from the teaching profession.

However, Boutilier’s dream came to fruition much sooner than he expected when he recently became the primary owner of the Kameron Jr. Miners of the Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League.

The 38-year-old purchased the Membertou-based franchise from the MacDougall family. Financial terms of the sale were not disclosed.

“The opportunity presented itself,” said Boutilier. “I really enjoy all levels of hockey, but there’s something special about the junior level and its history, especially here in Cape Breton.”

Boutilier has been with the Miners franchise for the past year. He served as the team’s head coach and general manager last season, guiding the club to a 24-6-1-1 regular season record.

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Boutilier felt the time was right to purchase the historic junior ‘B’ franchise.

“It’s an important thing for 23 young men to have the opportunity to continue to play hockey while they’re still going to school, especially in difficult times like this,” said Boutilier.

“I’ll try to take what I’ve learned from different people over the years and put my own spin on it and create my own identity for the team.”

After playing three seasons with the Glace Bay Panthers and two years with the Cape Breton Alpines — now known as the Jr. Miners — the former goaltender turned to coaching.

Boutilier first became involved in coaching with the Glace Bay Minor Hockey Association in 1997 and went on to be part of the Hockey Nova Scotia High Performance Program, spending four years as an assistant coach, team leader and coach evaluator.

He joined the Panthers as an assistant coach in 2005, before becoming an assistant coach with the former Cape Breton Tradesmen for two seasons.

In 2008, Boutilier attended the Hockey Canada Program of Excellence goaltending development camp for the national women and junior programs.

He rejoined the Panthers and served as the team’s head coach for 10 years, before stepping away from the Cape Breton High School Hockey League in 2017.

During his time away from competitive hockey, Boutilier had the opportunity to work as a goaltender development co-ordinator for the Glace Bay and Sydney minor hockey associations, while also coaching his children in tots and novice.

“The MacDougall family took the (Miners) to a whole new level and really created a program where players wanted to play for them,” said Boutilier. “Sonny treated the players and organization very well and that’s something I want to continue.”

The Jr. Miners franchise has a tradition dating back to the early 1930s.

The team was first known as the Sydney Millionaires, named after an earlier professional team, and played in the Cape Breton Junior Hockey League, winning league titles in 1933, 1951, 1964 and 1965.

In the 1970s, the club would join the Eastern Junior ‘B’ Hockey League, a division that would eventually move to Junior ‘A’ in 1975. The team won the league title in 1976 but lost in the Eastern Canada semifinal to the Charlottetown Colonels.

The Millionaires dropped back to Junior ‘B’ and played in the Northumberland Junior Hockey League, taking home three consecutive league titles from 1988 to 1990, while winning the Atlantic Canada championship in 1989.

In 1992, the team joined the Mainland Junior ‘B’ Hockey League and became the Cape Breton Jr. Mills, before changing the name to the Cape Breton Alpines in 1996.

The Alpines won the league title and Atlantic championship in 1997 in New Waterford, where they remained until 2005, when they moved to Whitney Pier to become the Whitney Pier Canadians.

After two seasons in Whitney Pier, the team moved again, this time to Dominion as the Cape Breton Canadians.

In 2010, the Canadians again moved to Glace Bay and rebranded as the Glace Bay Jr. Miners, before becoming the Kameron Jr. Miners.

In recent years, the Jr. Miners have had plenty of success, winning various league titles as well as the Don Johnson Memorial Cup Atlantic championship in 2018, a tournament the Miners hosted in Membertou.

According to Boutilier, the team is averaging 200 fans per game. He hopes to eventually increase attendance to 400 or 500 per game.

“It’s going to be key,” said Boutilier. “We have to be aggressive in our approach to try to get people out to the games and try to promote the team the best we can.”

The Jr. Miners opened training camp on Tuesday in Membertou. In total, 48 players have registered for the camp, including nine overage players who will be fighting for one of the club’s four overage spots.

“It’s going to be one of the more competitive training camps I ever been involved in,” said Boutilier. “There’s going to be some difficult decisions, but at the end of the day it’s about winning, so we have to pick the best team we can moving forward.”

Boutilier has made some changes to the organization including the addition of six scouts based between Halifax and Glace Bay.

“We didn’t have a scouting staff in the past,” said Boutilier. “We really want to be able to have a look at what we have from the mainland, especially when it comes to trade season — we want to be on top of what’s out there for our team moving forward.”

The Nova Scotia Junior Hockey League has not officially announced a start date for its 2020-21 season as of press time.