The former COO of the Newfoundland Growlers has come out swinging against suggestions that the province’s reputation in keeping a professional hockey team is a checkered one.

Glenn Stanford is one of those behind the recently announced transfer of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan of Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League.

Stanford says they knew both iterations of the St. John’s Ice Caps were going to be short-term affairs.

He acknowledges that the dissolution of the ECHL’s Newfoundland Growlers was a tough pill to swallow for a lot of local hockey fans, but a number of factors contributed to the team’s failure.

“We had the Growlers, we expanded to the Trois Rivieres Lions, we expanded to the Iowa Heartlanders, the pandemic hit, (and) we got hit three times during that time. To be fair to Dean MacDonald, he paid all the expenses, we continued to pay the players, we continued to travel,” playing to empty stadiums. “So, I really think people got to take a look, when they say the history of hockey here has been checkered.”

Stanford says St. John’s, and the province as a whole, has been supportive of hockey in the capital city, and he calls this the right time to bring Major Junior hockey back.