It's a moment Jerry Kavanaugh will never forget. "To get the invite was pretty awesome,"
The president of the Windsor Warlocks Minor Lacrosse Association was part of Brandon Montour's Stanley Cup celebration earlier this week.
"We're close with the family. Brandon played with both of my nephews Cody and Logan Holmes and his younger brother Colin played with my son every second year so we were pretty close with the family." said Kavanaugh who also coached Florida Panthers' defenceman Aaron Ekblad when he was with the Warlocks.
Kavanaugh missed the parade down the streets of Ohsweken, a community within Six Nations of the Grand River, but did attend an intimate celebration at the reception hall of the local golf course. "They had the whole set up with the Stanley Cup there for pictures and that was really cool."
Montour played in the Warlocks system from tyke to bantam and then moved to the reserve where he eventually suited up for the Six Nations Rebels. The-30 year old played three years of junior B hockey in the GOJHL before moving on to the Waterloo Black Hawks of the USHL. He then suited up in the AHL for three seasons before getting the call up from the Anaheim Ducks in 2016.
"He took a bit of a different road to get there but it's just one of those, how bad do you want it? How much work do you want to put in and you can get there." Kavanaugh said.
Montour was traded to Buffalo at the trade deadline in 2019 and then flipped to Florida in 2021 where he signed a three-year extention which expired. On July 1st, he inked a seven-year, $49.98 million deal with the Seattle Kraken. .
Kavanaugh had no problem cheering for the Panthers during the last two NHL playoffs. "Since I'm a (Calgary) Flames fan my team's out early all the time. For them (Florida) to get back there again is pretty awesome."
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