According to Radio Mont Blanc, the month of April is going to be decisive for the future of the Pioneers of Chamonix-Morzine Hockey Club.
After the 2016/2017 season, the committee members of The French Ice Hockey Federation (FFHG) will meet together to make a final decision this late April, early May over the future of the Chamonix-Morzine merger.
However, in this case, there are two possible variants for the future of the Pioneers:
- Relegation confirmed: if relegation is confirmed at the end of April, the merger could not hold. So, Chamonix will keep a place in D1 while Morzine will have to start again from the bottom of the scale, the D3.
- The club remains in Magnus League: rumors circulate about the difficulties of some clubs, difficulties that could allow CMHC to evolve in the elite league, next season.
Until then, the Pioneers must rebuild to regain the high level, so the club leaders will have many challenges to take up this spring 2017 to rebuild the team.
According to the president of the Chamonix Morzine Hockey Club, Bernard Mollier, "There is still recruitment for a sports manager, so currently there is a short list of 3 potential coaches, waiting to have a little visibility on the final project of the club and of course we have players who can return to the federation by the end of April or possibly end of May for a possible draft. For the moment there are financial difficulties, so we are not sure if the administrative level will be maintained, so we have to wait."
The sporting results of 2016/2017 season:
- 70% defeat (36 out of 52 matches);
- Last placed in the regular season (even if a point separates the CMHC from the tenth place);
- Worse championship defense;
- 8 victories out of 13 gained at home (4 in Chamonix and 4 in Morzine);
- Last placed in the Poule de Maintien (Worst attack, worse defense);
- 30 players lined up over the season including 6 fewer than 11 times out of 52 official matches played;
- 6 departures (Hokkanen, Haines, Saint-André, Ahlgren, Erlich, Galkins);
- Change of the sports manager at Mid-February.
