Shawinigan Cataractes
The Shawinigan Cataractes were three wins away from the President Cup but couldn’t get past the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The team may get a do-over this year as many of the stars from the defeated team are back for another shot. Shawinigan was ranked sixth in the CHL Top 10 pre-season rankings. If Anthony Beauvillier and other NHL prospects return, this will be an entertaining team to watch all season.
Prediction
First in the East Division. The Twitter bio of Shawinigan GM Martin Mondou says “proud 2012 Memorial Cup Champion, building the next championship”. This team could be that.
Forwards
It may be mid-October by the time we know what the Shawinigan forward group will look like. We do know Maple Leafs prospect Dmytro Timashov won’t be back. Beauvillier, the New York Islanders’ 2015 first-round pick could get an extra look, although a year in the NHL isn’t likely. Dennis Yan (Tampa Bay), Brandon Gignac (New Jersey Devils), Alexis D’Aoust (Vancouver) and Mathieu Olivier (Nashville) will all show off what they’ve got at NHL rookie and training camps. If they all come back, which is expected, it’ll give Shawinigan the most dangerous forward group in the ‘Q’. There’s also a chance 20-year-old Gabriel Gagné returns, although the big power forward is looking to turn pro. Gagné did not participate in pre-season with Shawinigan.
Samuel Bucek is the team’s latest import from the CHL draft, replacing one of the European spots held by Timashov. The 6-foot-2, 214-pound Slovak winger split last season between HK Nitra in the Slovakia men’s league and the Chicago Steel of the USHL. He’s NHL draft eligible this season and could go somewhere in the second or third round.
Defence
The 2016 Emile Bouchard Trophy winner for defenceman of the year, Samuel Girard is back for his third season. He led the league in defenceman scoring with 74 points a year ago. He’ll spend time at Nashville training camp after going 47th overall to the team, but he should be back to quarterback the power play and continue to pile up points.
Veterans Gabriel Sylvestre, Nicholas Welsh and Jonathan Deschamps combine to give Shawinigan one of the most experienced defence corps in the league. The team got a pleasant surprise when San Jose returned 20-year-old Cavan Fitzgerald right before the start of the season. He was one of Shawinigan’s biggest acquisitions over the trading period last season and he takes some of the pressure off Girard.
Goalies
As a rookie, Mikhail Denisov picked up 13 wins while only losing five games, but didn’t see much playing time once veteran Philippe Cadorette was brought in. Unless the team brings in another vet this season, Denisov should see plenty of starts. Second-round rookie Zachary Bouthillier is the backup.
Victoriaville Tigres
It was a tragic off-season for the Victoriaville Tigres as Daniel Fréchette passed away from cancer. Part of the organization for 12 years, he stepped down from the general manager role in April for health reasons. Eric Veilleux was set to take over as coach and GM, but left in July to coach the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League. Later that month, Louis Robitaille was announced as head coach. He’ll lead a team full of promising players with potential to do some damage in the playoffs.
Prediction
Second in the East Division. Maxime Comtois and Pascal Laberge mean this team is going to be fun to watch.
Forwards
Prepare to hear the name Comtois lots this season as he could garner Pierre-Luc Dubois-like hype. As a 16-year-old rookie last year, he had 26 goals and 60 points in 62 games. The only two guys ahead of him in rookie scoring were older players: Vitalii Abramov (93 points) and Toronto prospect Martins Dzierkals. The 6-foot-1, 200-pound winger has size, poise and knows how to put up points. At the Ivan Hlinka tournament this summer, Comtois led Canada with four goals and five points.
Comtois is joined up front by Laberge, a player who fought through adversity and still led the team in scoring with 68 points. Adversity is a buzzword that gets thrown around a lot in sports, but Laberge lost his stepmother to cancer last season and his father was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His dad is doing better and it’ll be interesting to see how Laberge performs this season without so much happening away from the rink. The Philadelphia Flyers selected the winger 36th overall in June.
Not many rookies made the forward group, but one guy who could be productive is import Ivan Kosorenkov. He had 20 points in 22 games with Russia’s U18 team in the MHL and will play his first season in North America after the Tigres selected him 24th in the import draft. In pre-season, he was on a line with Laberge.
Defence
Late in August, the Tigres traded a 2017 first-round pick and 2018 third-round pick to the Rimouski Océanic for Jérémie Beaudin and Samuel Beck (who didn’t make the final Tigres roster). The 31st pick of the 2014 draft, Beaudin had 14 points and a plus-3 rating in his second season split between Cape Breton and Rimouski last year. He joins former Cape Breton teammate Bradley Lalonde on the blue-line. Lalonde led the team in defensive scoring with 34 points with 15 of those coming on the power play.
Goalies
Victoriaville will roll with the duo of Olivier Tremblay and James Povall in net once again this season. Tremblay had 21 wins in 42 games compared to Povall’s 12 in 33 games. Both goalies started games in a first-round exit from the playoffs.
Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Don’t look now, but the Chicoutimi Saguenéens have quietly put together a solid team. Two seasons ago, the team fired its coach and general manager mid-season after performing below expectations. With the bar lowered last year, Nic Roy emerged and led the league in goal scoring with 48. On the blue-line, Frédéric Allard broke out and was one of the league’s best defencemen. Both players are back and the team should continue to excel.
Prediction
Third in the East Division. Roy looks to continue his resurgence for an under-aged Saguenéens squad.
Forwards
Big centre Roy went from sure-thing NHL first-rounder to complete disappointment, to the QMJHL’s top goal-scorer all in the span of two seasons. After the 48-goal campaign, he signed an ELC with the Carolina Hurricanes (who look got a steal of a pick by drafting him 96th overall in 2015) and was named the captain of the Saguenéens for the upcoming season. An invite to Canada’s world junior development camp shows he’s making the disappointing 2014-15 season a distant memory. He could crack the 50-goal barrier this year.
Vancouver Canucks prospect Dmitry Zhukenov is a playmaker and brings creativity to the second line. In his first season in North America, the centre had 15 goals and 48 assists. Having two strong centres will limit the playing time of Samuel Houde, the team’s 8th overall pick. Houde had a strong pre-season showing with 11 points in seven games. Second-round pick Mathieu Desgagnés also made the team, surely helped by a team-best eight goals in pre-season.
Defence
After flying under the radar early on in his junior career, Allard had a breakout season of 59 points, second best in defencemen scoring. He shot up the draft rankings and went to the Predators in the third round. He’s back for another season and should continue to produce on the power play with Roy. Of his 59 points, 36 came on the man advantage including all but three of his 14 goals.
A change of scenery could help out Morgan Nauss. After an 18-point rookie campaign, he only managed five points last season with the Halifax Mooseheads. Chicoutimi brought him in for the low price of an eighth-round pick in 2018.
Goalies
Over-ager Julia Billia is back for his fifth season with the club. Last season he posted a career-best 2.62 GAA and 0.919 SAV%. The save percentage was best in the league, and the GAA was also top five.
Rimouski Océanic
Following a 2015 President Cup championship season, the Océanic lost a bunch of top players and traded the best leftovers throughout the season. Despite the roster depletion, Rimouski managed to finish 8th in the standings. The team should continue on a downward trajectory this season. With ten rookies in the lineup, there are sure to be growing pains as the team rebuilds.
Prediction
Fourth in the East Division. Avoided a President Cup hangover last year, but it could hit this season.
Forwards
Antoine Dufort-Plante came out of nowhere to lead Rimouski with 63 points last season. He was a 14th-round pick, re-entering the draft after only appearing in six games split between Blainville-Boisbriand and Drummondville the previous season. Samuel Laberge could push for the team lead in points this season. In his second full season, he had 21 goals and 27 assists. Undrafted in the NHL, Laberge received a training camp invite from the Dallas Stars.
Defence
Montreal Canadiens prospect Simon Bourque is back to anchor the defence again this season. For the third straight year, his point totals went up from nine to 38 to 46 thanks to more ice time. Despite the points bump, his shot percentage dipped from 10.2 to 7.5.
Jérémie Beaudin was traded to Victoriaville for a first-round pick in 2017. It’s another asset that’ll help Rimouski rebuild a team lacking in real star power.
Goalies
The team is sorely lacking in experience between the pipes. Alexandre Lagacé has played in a combined 38 games for four different teams the past two seasons. The former eighth-round pick is joined by Gabriel Morency, a fifth-round pick last year. He saw two periods of action in November last season.
Québec Remparts
After mortgaging the future to make a run at the 2015 Memorial Cup as hosts, the Remparts went into a freefall last season. At the trade deadline, the Remparts traded away anything of value and slowly began the process of rebuilding. One of the biggest franchises in the league, the Remparts do a good job recruiting players, including players on the fence between the CHL and NCAA routes. This speeds up the rebuild process and helps make up for the fact the team moved so many draft picks for the Memorial Cup run.
Prediction
Fifth in the East Division. A run at the 2015 Memorial Cup means the 2016-17 season could be a long one for the Remparts.
Forwards
The Remparts pulled off a steal of a trade at the draft, moving up to the 14th slot to grab
Adam Coxhead. Originally ranked fifth by QMJHL Central Scouting, Coxhead went untouched early on since he said he was going the U.S. college route. The gamble paid off and the Remparts were able to convince Coxhead to go the major junior route. The 6-foot-2, 185-pound forward should find good minutes and have an impact right away.
Matthew Boucher, son of head coach and GM Philippe Boucher, led the team in points and goal scoring with 30 goals and 30 assists. Speaking of father-son connections, Igor Larionov Jr. is on the Remparts this season. The son of the Russian Hall of Famer with the same name had his rights held by the Portland Winterhawks and Saskatoon Blades last year, but ultimately picked the Remparts after a training camp invite.
The Remparts hit a home run with Dmytro Timashov a couple years ago so it’s always worth paying attention to the team’s import picks. Swiss forward Philipp Kurashev had four points in four preseason games. The 21st pick of the import draft, Kurashev is draft eligible in 2018 and is a player to keep tabs on.
Defence
The defence took a big hit with the trade of Nikolas Brouillard to the Huskies last season. Raphael Maheux is the most experienced blue-liner and there’ll be plenty of opportunities for other young blue-liners to step up this season.
Goalies
Once again, Carolina Hurricanes prospect Callum Booth is back in net for the Remparts. Injuries and a rebuild by the team hurt Booth’s numbers last season. Evgeny Kiselev will see plenty of action to start the season with Booth invited to the Hurricanes main training camp.
Baie-Comeau Drakkar
Last season was completely forgettable for the last-place Drakkar. The team only won 14 games and scored a league-low 147 goals. The team had multiple games postponed from a pipe break at its home arena, a game cancelled early because of an ice mishap and fired its coach in a nightmare season. But there’s hope. The Drakkar brought in Martin Bernard as head coach a few weeks after his surprise firing from the second-place Cataractes. On draft day, the second overall pick was flipped to the Halifax Mooseheads since Jared McIssac didn’t want to play in Baie-Comeau. The Drakkar used these picks to help maneuver in the first round and draft Gabriel Fortier fourth overall, Xavier Bouchard fifth, Shawn Element ninth and Edouard St-Laurent 16th.
Prediction
Sixth in the East Division. After playing with nothing, the team loaded up on players who should amount to something.
Forwards
Draft picks Gabriel Fortier and Shawn Element will bring some much-needed creativity up front. The speedy Fortier is the younger brother of the Mooseheads’ Maxime and has higher upside. With the third overall pick of the CHL import draft, the team picked Ivan Chekhovich. The Russian is draft-eligible this season.
Defence
Along with not scoring much, the Drakkar gave up the most goals with 302 against. The team brought in Bouchard, the son of Rouyn-Noranda coach and GM Giles Bouchard. With four rookie defenders on the roster, the blue-line is still a work in progress.
Goalies
Antoine Samuel went from top of the league as a backup with Shawinigan to the starter for the bottom-dwellers. Despite the poor team in front of him, Samuel still earned an invite to Anaheim Ducks rookie camp and turned that into a professional tryout. He has familiarity with coach Bernard from the Shawinigan days.