Chat with former Thunder Player Manon Rheaume

Manon Rheaume has had some pretty large moments in her personal and professional life. Being part of the creative inspiration behind an NHL jersey, however, is still enough to bring out the kid in this hockey pioneer.
"I haven't seen the jersey yet. Can you send me a link?" said the 48-year-old Rheaume, before gasping with delight once she saw it. "That's so cool. The V is for Vegas like we had in our jerseys. Wow. Amazing."

The "we," Rheaume referred to was the IHL's Las Vegas Thunder. The NHL rolled out its Reverse Retro jerseys across the league on Monday. The jerseys will be added to team's current rotation and worn periodically.
Rheaume's Thunder as well as the ECHL's Las Vegas Wranglers are paid tribute to in the VGK retro sweaters.
"Inspired by the pioneers of hockey in the desert, the Golden Knights Reverse Retro jersey pays homage to the teams and players that paved the way in Vegas while breaking new ground for the Knights," reads the league release. "The red color is a reference to the Wranglers, who played in Vegas from 2003-2014. The striping is inspired by the Thunder, whose V-for-Vegas body stripes graced the strip from 1993-1999. The year '95 appears in the back neck to commemorate the Thunder's best season in 1995-1996 and Manon Rheaume, the first woman to play in the NHL, who wore the Thunder's V-stripes during the 1994-95 season."
We caught up with Rheaume to chat about the jerseys and her view on hockey in the desert from its inception to the here and now.
Gary Lawless:The new retro jersey has a number 95 which signifies the Las Vegas Thunder's best season and also the season you played for them. What were those days like?
Manon Rheaume:That's so cool. That was an amazing year because it was during the lockout. We had Alexei Yashin, the goalie Clint Malarchuk, Pokey Reddick. It was just an amazing amount of great players and I remember the young guys, Yashin and Radek Bonk, would stay after practice because I was the third goalie, I always stayed on the ice and I always had those guys shooting puck at me after each practice. It was pretty cool.
GL:Do you ever look back at your career, being the first woman to play in an NHL game, with wonder?
MR:Yeah, when I did all that when I was younger and went to Tampa Bay and played different places, I didn't realize the impact that my story would have. It's more later in life when people would come up to me and say you're such an inspiration for my daughter or my son did a project on you in school. Mike McKenna did a podcast with me and he's an ex-NHL goalie and he said when I saw you going to Tampa Bay, I told myself if a she can make it there, maybe I can make it to the NHL too. So it's really cool to know my story inspired people and opened the door to other people, so they can do great things.
GL:What it is like seeing all these women in different sports doing great things?
MR:It is amazing, and it's great that every time we see other woman doing something that people are talking about it because every time we talk about it, it opens a door for someone else. So, you look at Hayley Wickenheiser that worked with player development in Toronto and Cammi Granato who just got a scouting job with Seattle, and you got Cassie Campbell on television. You have women in the NFL as referees and coaches now. It's just great and now this new woman GM in baseball. I think when a woman does something like this, it opens up the doors to more women to be part of sports. When you have players like Kendall Coyne that know the game in and out doing tv and who have played at a high level, they are knowledgeable to do those jobs too.
GL:What are you doing now?
MR:I am here in Michigan, Darren Eliot five years ago hired me to run the girls program for Little Caesars, the Red Wings youth hockey program. I started to run the program, coaching the younger team. Also doing speaking engagements and also on RDS. I am doing once a week reports on RDS. It's the French version of TSN. I'm live once a week and I started working with them and it's been great. It's going to be my fourth time this week. It's just good to continue to stay involved with the game, just in a different way.
GL:How did you like your experience at a Golden Knights game?
MR:I came during the playoffs. I had the honor to do the pregame siren. I remember both my sons said "Mom you better crank this thing and do not embarrass yourself." When I got there, I was nervous to crank this thing because I didn't want to embarrass my boys.
GL:You played in Reno as well as for the Las Vegas Aces and Las Vegas Thunder, what is it like for you to see the growth of hockey in Nevada?
MR:It's absolutely amazing because way back then not many young kids were playing. We didn't have that many rinks. I remember our practice rink was at the Santé Fe Hotel. I don't know if that exist still. Hockey was not huge there for youths. Obviously, Vegas people loved to watch our games. As for youth hockey and seeing how many rinks have opened now and how many teams. Even last year in the pee-wee tournament in Quebec, a Golden Knights team participated in that big tournament. It's really cool to see.
GL:Where are your sons playing?
MR:My oldest son is at Notre Dame right now and my youngest one is here in Michigan playing AAA hockey at the bantam level.
GL:Which one is the goalie?
MR:The older one who is at Notre Dame. I was so happy my youngest son didn't pick to play goalie. I don't think I could have made it with both sons playing goalie, I don't know if my heart could have taken it. It's so stressful. It's so funny, when my oldest one started playing, he realized when you're the goalie you get to stay on the ice the entire time. So he was like, "I don't like to come off the ice, I want to stay on the ice." He kind of gravitated to goaltending because of when he was younger, and he continued to play both. At some point he had to make a choice and he just picked goalie. My youngest one was doing both and I asked him what made him pick player versus goalie and he said "Mom I was just tired of wishing my team would do bad in front of me, so I get more shots. So I just figured it would be better to just play forward." I started laughing because that is a funny reason to not want to be a goalie.