Could Montreal Canadiens Affiliate Completely Fold, Cease To Exist This Weekend?

The Montreal Canadiens season is coming to a gradual close as their schedule only has ten more games remaining on it.

Their American Hockey League affiliate, the Laval Rocket still have a few weeks to go in their schedule and could see their season extended if they finish in the top five of the North Division and make the playoffs.

Their season could come to an abrupt end if they fall just short of the playoffs, but it would be nothing like what the organization's ECHL affiliate is facing right now.

The Trois-Rivieres Lions are in their third year of existence, but we could be seeing their final days. According to Matthew Vachon of TVA Sports (article in french), the Lions are well behind in rent payments to the city of Trois-Rivieres for the use of their arena and they have been given a tight deadline to sell the team.

If they can not find a buyer by Tuesday, April 2nd, the league will absorb them and assume ownership of the club. At that point, the board of governor's will hold a vote to either allow the Lions to stay in the league for the remainder of the season or they could possibly just not be allowed to complete the season.

If the team is not allowed to complete their season, this would obviously be terrible news for the players on the team. Strauss Mann has been playing well for them in goal and Miguel Tourigny has been having a strong season as an offensive defenseman as well.

The Lions are 28-27-8 on the season and have nine games remaining on their schedule. They are home to Maine tonight and tomorrow night and those games are not in jeopardy. They are supposed to play Maine again on Wednesday, April 3rd, but we will have to wait and see if that game eve happens.

The Lions schedule is supposed to end on April 14th and they remain in a playoff hunt. At least they do if they remain in the league. We will find out on Tuesday.