option 1: Lias is old now and has no life outside of hockey so he is more than happy to come back and do whatever thing Ace needs him to do. In his younger years, he probably would have been off sailing with Conner halfway around the globe on Conner's sister's sailboat but now Conner has gotten signed by the Aurora and they're going to be teammates again for the first time since they played together in Nevada all those long years ago, so he really has nothing better to be doing than rushing back to do some kind of joint media appearance with Conner, probably for pride month, in the name of the Winnipeg Aurora. It's one of those "I am the SHL" type things where they probably have rainbow paint on their face and all of the LGBTQ+ athletes that they could muster up show up to do an inspiring commercial and Lias is more than happy to curtail his summer vacation to do it.