Former Kitimat Winterhawk says he’s excited to take his shot at pro hockey

Former Kitimat Winterhawk Skylar Pacheco is taking the next step in his professional career after signing a contract to play with Les Gothiques d’Amiens of France’s Ligue Magnus.

The 25-year-old defenseman (and former Kitimat Winterhawk) said he and his agent had been looking at a number of teams across Europe, particularly in France and the U.K., but decided to go for this offer because it ticked all his boxes in what he was searching for.

“I know a guy who played there and he said the city was awesome,” said Pacheco. “It’s the top league in France so it was exactly what we were looking for.”

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He added it’s nice to have a bit of job security with everything going on in the world. “It was kind of tough to find a job right now coming out of school, so I figured I’d take a stab at pro hockey and do it for the season and then kind of see where it goes from there.”

Pacheco, who stopped taking French after Grade 8 when it became non-mandatory, said he’ll have to brush up a bit on his skills. “I was talking to my sister about this the other day,” he said. “I kind of wish I would have stuck with it until Grade 12 just to have a little bit of background, so I might have to pick up a book.”

In terms of COVID-19’s impact on the season, he said he has been in contact recently with the team and they have been preparing for him to come over, adding that things seem to be business as usual minus adherence to social distancing guidelines put in place by the country. Recently France banned all sporting events to September, something Pacheco said he has been following closely. “My guess would be they might push the season back maybe a month or so,” he said, adding that the plan for now is to take things on a day-by-day basis and that hopefully there will be more info available before he heads to Europe in the Fall.

As for now, he said he is just excited to be part of such a small group of individuals who are able to continue their professional career after university.

“Going over to Europe has been a goal of mine since I first started in university,” he said, adding that he’s excited to represent Kitimat on the international stage. “It’ll be a pretty unique experience moving to a different country — I’m just looking forward to the opportunity.”