QMJHL blog: NHL Central Scouting pegs risers

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Samuel Girard is back for his third season with the Cataractes. (Minas Panagiotakis/Getty)

Last week the Val-d’Or Foreurs made their debut in the CHL Top 10—and chances are they’re going nowhere this week after piling up 13 goals in two games over the weekend. They thumped Drummondville 9-2 and pitched 4-0 shutout of Acadie-Bathurst. Sure, those two teams aren’t the cream of the crop, but the Foreurs are proving to be elite.

Undrafted Anthony Beauregard leads the team in scoring with 45 points (seventh overall) and draft-eligible Julien Gauthier is third in the league with 23 goals, and could very well be the top player drafted out of Quebec. But they have a host of players who can score. In the 9-2 win, NHL draftees Anthony Richard (100th to Nashville in 2015), Nicolas Aubé-Kubel (48th, Philadelphia, ’14) and Alexis Pépin (114th, Colorado, ’14) all had a pair of goals.

A few days after falling out of the honourable mentions section of the CHL Top 10, the Moncton Wildcats made a statement with a 5-2 win over the No. 5-ranked Shawinigan Cataractes. Sure, the Maritimes Division has been lousy all season and that’s helped Moncton, but credit must be given where it is due. Conor Garland continues to shred the competition, scoring four goals and 11 points in three games last week. That gives him 58 on the season and an average of 2.42 points per game. Last year when he won league MVP, when averaged “a measly” 1.93. He’s the QMJHL’s first star of the week.

Here’s what you need to know from around the QMJHL:

Joly arrives in Cape Breton

Michael Joly made his Cape Breton Screaming Eagles debut Sunday after joining the team from the Rimouski Océanic. The 20-year-old couldn’t have ended his four-season Océanic career any better after scoring the lone goal in a shootout win over the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. After clinching the “W” for his team, Joly was honoured in a post-game ceremony.

 

After weather delays, Joly arrived in Cape Breton Sunday afternoon just in time to face the Sherbrooke Phoenix. The Friday magic didn’t exactly carry over as Cape Breton was shutout 4-0, although Joly was named the game’s second star. The first star, naturally, was Evan Fitzpatrick who saved all 26 shots he faced as he snuffed out the red-hot line of Evgeny Svechnikov, Maxim Lazarev and Pierre-Luc Dubois.

 

Drummondville settles on head coach

The interim tag has been removed from Dominic Ricard’s job title. The Drummondville Voltiguers shook up their coaching staff on Nov. 14, firing head coach Martin Raymond and assistant Louis Robitaille, after the team took a dip in the standings following a surprising 10-2-0 start. Ricard, also the team’s GM, stepped behind the bench after the firings. He will continue in the dual coach-GM role, joined by Jean-François Grégoire as associate-head coach. Grégoire was an assistant with Acadie-Bathurst before joining Drummondville.

NHL Central Scouting updates list

The NHL released an updated list of players to watch for the 2016 draft, including 35 players from the QMJHL. Three forwards—Gauthier, Pierre-Luc Dubois (Cape Breton) and Pascal Laberge (Victoriaville)—were given an “A” rating, meaning they’re considered potential first rounders. Making the jump from to a “B” (second or third-round) are Vladimir Kuznetsov, the first overall pick of the 2015 Import Draft by Acadie-Bathurst, and Shawinigan Cataractes D-man Samuel Girard.

Girard leads all defencemen with 35 points. He’s an excellent skater with good vision and is dangerous with the puck. At 5-foot-9, 165-lb., size is an issue with him and positioning is exceptionally important. One NHL scout I talked to said the challenge for a guy like Girard is often teams won’t want to have too many small defencemen in their systems. Girard, however, could carve out a role on an NHL roster as a power-play specialist. The scout pointed to Ryan Ellis in Nashville as a comparable.

No exceptional players coming next season

Joseph Veleno made history in June when he was the first QMJHLer granted exceptional player status before going to the Saint John Sea Dogs first overall. But there won’t be any 15-year-olds in the league next season. All the top players in Midget AAA opted not to apply for the special designation. Xavier Parent, Xavier Simoneau, Samuel Poulin and Olivier Desroches will return to midget for another season next year.

 

Armada make cuts

Defenceman Tristan Ligget was let go by the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada after 15 games without a point this season. Ligget, from Guelph, Ont., made the team out of training camp as a free-agent invitee.

Swedish forward Christian Blomqvist also was sent packing packing this week. Blomqvist missed the first two months of the season with an injury. He found the back of the net in his first game on Oct. 30, but didn’t register any points the rest of the way. By cutting Blomqvist, the 106th pick of the 2015 CHL Import Draft, the Armada clear up a European roster spot. Keep an eye on them when the Dec. 19 trade period opens up, although Europeans can be acquired earlier.

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