Reversal of fortunes

Steve Ahern held onto a winning lottery ticket last April.

The general manager of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar got a nice consolation prize after his team overcame the odds with the second-worst finish in the Québec Major Junior Hockey League last season, only to win the draft lottery. His team immediately began getting more press than he could have ever envisioned -- only for the wrong reasons.

Yes, the most-hyped prospect since Sidney Crosby wouldn't report to the team holding his rights. After trading Nathan MacKinnon to his hometown team in Halifax during the summer, the astute general manager should be applauded for the sudden rise of his previously-struggling franchise.

Fast forward two months into the new season and the Drakkar are one of the league's top teams. Thanks in part to the players acquired from Halifax for MacKinnon, Baie-Comeau is suddenly a team not to be reckoned with.

"In a trade like that, we need an impact player and Carl Gélinas is an impact player for our team," Ahern said.

Gélinas, 19, came with 18-year-old forward Francis Turbide -- a serviceable, defensive specialist -- along with a first-round pick in 2012 and two more in 2013. Ahern is quick to note that Gélinas and MacKinnon are tied for points early this season with 19 each, although Gélinas is three years older.

But for the Drakkar, the QMJHL's other team on the northern side of the St. Lawrence River, the resurgence of their team could keep it firmly planted in its city. For a franchise that has been labeled a relocation possibility every time the subject rears its ugly head, their return to prominence could be the ingredient needed to make it work.

To put it simply, in a world where small markets are finding even larger gaps between the haves and the have-nots in the evolving, big-league game that now is junior hockey, this is a rare win for the little guys. Early as it is, the Drakkar are targeting home ice in the first-round of the playoffs with a more than realistic possibility at accomplishing the goal.

Ahern credits the dedication to the team's mandated training regimen in the summer as one reason for the turnaround. Another factor is a philosophy embraced by the players around pride and intensity on every shift. And thirdly, Ahern's wheeling and dealing.

The Drakkar underwent a major facelift in the summer, with the most obvious and most notable trade being the one which sent MacKinnon to Nova Scotia. Truth be told, it was just one of many deals in the Drakkar's extreme makeover, and the team's early chemistry is helping overcome the new faces.

Also coming in via trade were Tomas Filippi, Jonathan Lessard, Felix-Antoine Chabot and goaltenders Jimmy Appleby and Antonio Mastropietro. More important still was the free acquisition of defenceman Samuel Carrier from the now defunct Lewiston MAINEiacs in the dispersal draft.

"It's an important thing for a team to have a QB," Ahern said of Carrier, who played midget triple A for Baie-Comeau's current head coach, Mario Pouliot. "We know this kid and I know when I make the choice of Sam he's a very good player in the philosophy of our team."

Ahern sent four draft picks to Acadie-Bathurst for overage forward Lessard this summer. Also part of that trade was the rights to another overager, Olivier Roy. The former Canadian world junior goaltender may still be a long shot to play in the QMJHL this season, having just begun the new campaign with Stockton of the ECHL.

Should Roy return, Ahern will need to decide between him and his other overage goalie, Mastropietro. It all adds up to more assets when he trades one of them, if Roy returns to junior.

"If Olivier comes back in the Q, we have to reflect on that because Mastropietro is doing well," Ahern said. "I know (Roy) can play very well in the Q. I know he's probably an important piece of the puzzle to a team that wants to (compete) in the series.

"For now, he's a very questionable point because I don't know what Olivier wants to do and what the Edmonton Oilers want to do."

Roy's junior future may be in question, but one aspect that is not is the excitement and enthusiasm for Drakkar hockey in Baie-Comeau. Attendance has risen above the 2,000 mark this season in a community of roughly 30,000, and those within the community are talking proudly about their Drakkar again.

"The excitement of all the people here in the town is very good," Ahern said. "Everybody here in town is happy about the resolve of the team."

There's no doubt Ahern would have loved for his head coach to roll MacKinnon over the boards in front of those optimistic fans this season. But by selling his winning lottery ticket, the reward may have been just as nice.