Ontario Reign: Assistant Coach Chris Hajt Reflects on Manchester Monarchs Calder Cup Championship Team

Exclusive interview with Ontario Reign assistant coach Chris Hajt on the 2015 Calder Cup champion Manchester Monarchs team.

Edited for clarity.

It’s a big weekend coming up for the Ontario Reign. This weekend, the Reign have a back-to-back set at home against the San Jose Barracuda and Calgary Wranglers. But that’s not the story. The story is about the 2015 Manchester Monarchs. A team that captured the Calder Cup in their final season in Manchester. 

It’s been nearly 10 years since that moment, and on Sunday, February 23rd, players and coaches from that championship team will convene and be recognized during that game.

Chris Hajt, Ontario’s assistant coach in charge of the defense and penalty kill, will be there and is looking forward to seeing those familiar faces again. “I’m excited. I haven’t seen many of those guys in a long time,” Hajt said. As for any idea who will be attending, he isn’t sure, but named three players he knows for sure are coming. “I know that Ryan Horvat, Justin Auger, and Vincent LoVerde are coming; otherwise, I’m not sure.”

Lots of legends hitting the Empire this Sunday! 🤩

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— Ontario Reign (@ontarioreign) February 21, 2025

The 2014-15 season would be Hajt’s first behind the bench in the organization. It was also Mike Stothers’ first as the head coach, too. Entering training camp, the Monarchs had a wealth of talent, led by Brian O’Neill, Jordan Weal, Michael Mersch, Sean Backman, Zach O’Brien, Nic Dowd, Nick Shore, and David van der Gulik upfront. On the backend, they were led by Captain Vincent Loverde, Jeff Schultz, Colin Miller, Derek Forbort, and Andrew Bodnarchuk, with J.F. Berube manning the net. When camp commenced, the two noticed they had a special group of players.

“We had a tight group of players who got along well on and off the ice and were willing to work through the grinds of the season. We had the talent, a good mix of size, speed, skill, goaltending, special teams, and, ultimately, the character to win,” Hajt told me.

That talent and character paved the way for a dominant season from the Monarchs. In 76 games, Manchester compiled a record of 50-17-6-3, the best record overall in the league. O’Neill led the league in scoring, took home league MVP honors, and was named to the AHL’s second all-star team along with Weal and Miller. Stothers won Coach of the Year, and the Monarchs won the AHL’s President’s trophy. However, midway through that season, a sad feeling would take place off the ice while the Monarchs were having success. In January 2015, the AHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the formation of a Pacific Division for the following season (2015-16). That meant the Monarchs would move out west to Ontario, California, to be closer to the LA Kings, while the ECHL’s Ontario Reign would relocate to Manchester but still play in the ECHL.

“It was sad because [Manchester] is a great place to be, the people there in New Hampshire, great building, and the atmosphere. We were winning hockey games, and you felt bad for the fans. It was different hoisting that championship banner right after we won for those fans and knowing that we were leaving,” Hajt said when recalling the feeling when the news broke.

Now, with it being known that it would be their last year in Manchester, the best way to cap off that era would be to finish at the top of the mountain. As their playoff run drew near, the Monarchs would be adding another piece to their already stacked lineup. That player would be 18-year-old Adrian Kempe. Kempe, now 28, joined the Monarchs toward the end of the regular season, after his season in Sweden wrapped up, but would go scoreless in three games. However, he wound up sticking in the lineup come playoff time and played a vital role in the Monarchs’ playoff run, suiting up in 17 of the 19 playoff games.

Despite going pointless in those three regular-season games, Hajt said that Kempe not only made an impression on the coaching staff but also on his teammates.

“He comes in and has to establish who he is, too, right? He’s got to show the coaches, himself, and his teammates that he’s ready to play professional hockey. Right from day one, he came in and worked hard, listened, and got better every day,” Hajt said of the then-18-year-old forward.

“When you get new players at the end of the year, everyone is looking and seeing what type of player and person he is. Right away, you could tell guys wanted him on their line and that he was going to be a difference-maker. He had the talent and skill and was a great person. He fit in right away, was a huge help, and one of those pieces to our championship team.”

A deep team just got even deeper with the playoffs right around the corner.

With their lineup set and ready to roll, the Monarchs entered the playoffs with a best-of-five series matchup against the Portland Pirates in the opening round. Manchester won the first two at home before dropping games three and four on the road to set up a winner-take-all game five on their home ice at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Manchester had the best record on home ice all season, but it was their first taste of adversity.

The Monarchs would take a 3-0 lead, but it would evaporate as the Pirates tied the game as the buzzer sounded to end the second period. Mersch and Kempe would score 20 seconds apart early in the third period, and Berube stopped all 10 shots in the final frame to propel the Monarchs past the Pirates. When asked if the series against Portland made the squad even more battle-tested for their eventual championship run, Hajt believed it did.

“Yes, 100 percent it did. It was a real moment where the pressure was on, and we knew after that that we could do it no matter what adversity was being thrown our way […] We gained confidence from that series.”

The next two rounds saw the Monarchs breeze through the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins and Hartford Wolf Pack, winning eight of nine games, including O’Brien’s triple overtime goal in game one of their semifinal series against the Penguins. In the championship series against the Utica Comets, the Monarchs would take games one and two via overtime goals from Mersch and Dowd.

However, the adversity returned in game three. Berube left early due to an injury (he didn’t play the rest of the way), and O’Neill would also leave the contest, but was able to play in the following games. Unlike the Portland series, Manchester was already tested and better prepared for whatever adversity would be thrown their way, even with the sold-out, hostile environment in Utica. Led by multi-point games from Miller, Backman, Dowd, and Shore, Manchester took game four with a 6-3 victory, putting them on the cusp of winning their first-ever Calder Cup.

Manchester put the finishing touches on the series with a 2-1 victory in game five to capture the Calder Cup in their final AHL game on June 13, 2015, exactly one year after the Kings clinched their second Stanley Cup title in three years. Weal would win the Jack A. Butterfield trophy (AHL playoff MVP) with 22 points (10 G, 12 A) in 19 games. While Manchester’s top line of Mersch, O’Neill, and Weal combined for 64 points in the playoffs, their depth also played a significant role, with eight other players recording at least nine points. Kempe would lead the team in goals in the series against Utica with four.

“That’s part of the adversity, too, for sure,” Hajt mentioned on losing game three, players to injuries, and the hostile atmosphere in Utica. “It was chaotic and awesome. I remember Kings management was also there watching. To be in that environment and that many people watching was part of the experience and showed how good of a character we had winning in that scenario.”

As Hajt mentioned earlier, the Monarchs had talent, but it was their character that played a big part in their journey as the Monarchs went out on a high note. Now, it’s a weekend to celebrate the team that brought the city of Manchester its first Calder Cup and the only one in the Kings’ organization to date.

Featured image credit: Lindsay A. Mogle/Utica Comets