Olympiques looking to find some consistency

The Saint John Sea Dogs are expected to dominate from beginning to end this QMJHL season with help of exceptional player and first overall pick Joseph Veleno.

There’s a method to Benoit Groulx’s madness. The Gatineau Olympiques head coach and general manager completely re-shaped his team’s roster at the mid-season trade deadline while coaching Canada’s gold medal world junior squad. NHL prospects Tommy Veilleux (Nashville Predators), Yan Pavel Laplante (Arizona Coyotes) and Valentin Zykov (Los Angels Kings) joined the team and helped the 14th-place Oympiques upset the 3rd-place Blainville-Boisbriand Armada in round one. Veileux and Laplante return as 20-year-olds to lead a team that needs to find consistency after an up-and-down season. If not, who knows what Benoit Groulx will do.

Prediction

Fourth in the West Division. It doesn’t matter where a Benoit Groulx-coached team finishes in the standings they are always a threat late in the season.

Forwards

A pair of Russians, Yakov Trenin and rookie Vitalii Abramov, spearhead the offensive charge for the Olympiques. Abramov, the 13th pick of the CHL Import draft in June, started the season with three goals and four assists in his first two games en route to first star of the week honours in the Q. Once Trenin returns from the Nashville Predators training camp, the pair could turn into one of the league’s deadliest duos.

Scoring depth could be an issue as the only player to score more than 25 goals, Louick Marcotte with 36, is no longer in junior. NHL prospects Veilleux and Laplante are good players, but neither have ever cracked the 25-goal plateau. Surprisingly, neither were invited to NHL camps by the teams that drafted them.

Alexandre Alain, selected 9th by Gatineau in 2013, played his rookie season last year after failing to make the roster as a 16-year-old the year before. His last goal came on November 16, 2014, but he still received an invitation to the Anaheim Ducks camp. This season is his make-or-break season.

Defence

Alexandre Carrier enters the season as the team’s top d-man after a breakout season of 55 points, third on the team. He scored 12 goals after only, surpassing the combined total of five from the two seasons before. Selected by the Nashville Predators 115th overall in June, the

5-foot-11, 173-pound player is on the small size but creates chances with his speed.

Elie Bérubé returns as a 20-year-old and brings veteran leadership to a squad featuring sophomores Gabriel Bilodeau, Jonathan Masters, Alex Breton, Matt Sartois and rookie Simon Messier (a fifth-round pick in the Q draft).

Goaltending

Mathieu Bellemare finds himself in Gatineau after a trade from his hometown Shawinigan Cataractes in August. The rookie only started two games with Shawinigan last season but got the nod in Gatineau’s first two games, picking up a win in each. At 5-foot-8, 155-pounds, Bellemare bucks the trend of filling the net with a huge goaltender. He has a small margin for error with training camp invitee Bo Taylor also on the team. Benoit Grouxl isn’t afraid to shake up the crease as he showed last season when Anthony Brodeur was released in November.


NHL Prospect Watch

Yakov Trenin, LW, Gatineau Olympiques (2015, 55th overall)

Yakov Trenin emerged as one of the league’s top first-year players last season, finishing fifth in rookie scoring with 67 points. NHL scouts took notice and the Nashville Predators selected him 55th overall. The 6-foot-2, 193-pound forward has a good shot but is a pass-first type of player. If he puts more pucks on net and improves his defensive play, he has a chance to take a big step forward this season.

NHL draft watch

Matt Sartoris, D

At 6-foot-6, 191-pounds, Matt Sartoris is a huge wildcard for the Olympiques. The 12th pick of the 2014 QMJHL draft, Sartoris cracked the Gatineau lineup as a 16-year-old but only played in 39 games. His two assists don’t give a good indication of his offensive potential. Increased ice-time should give a clearer indication of just how good his shot is and if he’ll land on the NHL draft radar.

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