DRAFT DAY NOTES

MAINEIACS TRADE UP
A report out of Lewiston says that the MAINEiacs have acquired the first overall selection in this year’s draft.

Lewiston general manger Roger Shannon confirmed the deal on The Big Jab morning radio program.

From the Central Maine Sports Blog:

Justin Pelletier from the Sun Journal broke it on our airwaves this morning. The Lewiston Maineiacs have acquired the #1 overall pick in the #QMJHL draft in a 3 team deal. Details to come.

Baie-Comeau was to select first overall but was rumoured to be trading the pick if they could not guarantee that top prospect Michael Matheson would play junior next season.

TOP OF HIS CLASS
Defenseman Justin Hache could be the first New Brunswicker drafted today, and he isn’t concerned about which team drafts him.

"I just need to play,'' Hache said Friday after the Top Prospects presentation to the Telegraph-Journal. "My first objective is to play at 16 years old. I don't care where I play or for who I play.''

ROY COULD STILL GO
The reported deal that Olivier Roy was headed to the Lewiston Maineiacs from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles did go down yesterday. But what didn’t go down was the rumoured deal of Roy then heading to Bathurst.

"Hopefully something will come up,'' Titan general manager Sylvain Couturier said to the Telegraph-Journal. "Obviously, it takes two to tango.''

“Not really, I knew long ago,” said Roy to the Cape Breton Post, when asked if Friday’s announcement was a shock. He said he knew for about two or three months he was being moved to the Maineiacs. “It’s part of hockey, so I wasn’t really afraid.”

“I talked to (Lewiston) a few months ago, I didn’t talk to them in the last month. I’m going to wait and see what they do with me or before I contact them. If I get traded, then I’ll contact my new team.”

HEADING TO HALIFAX
Top prospects Luca Ciampini and Dominic Poulin didn’t appear to be draft dodgers when asked about the possibility of playing with the Halifax Mooseheads.

“I’d love to play in Halifax," said Ciampini to the Chronicle Herald. “I visited the city and it’s a beautiful place, a beautiful arena. I went down about a month ago and it was great there. I’d love it if they picked me."

“It’s really exciting but I’m not waiting for anything specif¬ic to happen," said Poulin, a bilingual francophone. “But it would be really good to go to Halifax. It would be fun to go to an English environment and I know the schools are great there. It would be a nice thing for me if they picked me."

The Mooseheads have the second overall pick in the draft.

TOP PROSPECTS
PRESS RELEASE
DRUMMONDVILLE- The 2010 TELUS Top Prospects were presented Friday to the public and members of the media assembled at the Cegep in Drummondville.

In Alphabetical order: Taylor Burke, Luca Ciampini, Dillon Fournier, Jérémie Fraser, Frédérick Gamelin, Justin Haché, Charles Hudon, Julien Leduc, Louick Marcotte, Liam O'Brien, Dominic Poulin, Victor Provencher, Andrew Ryan, François Tremblay and Brent Turnbull.

LEAGUE ADDRESS
PRESS RELEASE
DRUMMONDVILLE – Commissioner Gilles Courteau held his annual Press Conference in Drummondville on Friday.

Among the topics covered, M. Courteau paid tribute to hockey legend Charles Henry and talked about the excellent hockey and academic programs at the QMJHL.


WHAT TO LOOF FOR
Neate Sager of Buzzing the Net asks five burning questions going into today’s draft:

1. Who goes first? Actually, who picks first?
2. Now, who goes first?
3. How early will someone draft Matheson?
4. Chicoutimi is gonna do something, and you know it's gonna be good:
5. Who grabs Matteau?

SCREW OFF, MONCTON
At the league’s annual press conference on Friday afternoon in Drummondville, QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau voiced his displeasure about the Moncton Coliseum.

“Moncton is the No. 1 worst building in our league for ice availability and this is something we have to get (corrected),” said the league commissioner to Metro Halifax.

Courteau said that having the league final at an alternative venue other than the Coliseum or Harbour Station “would have been a disaster.”

HEADS OR TAILS
In his press conference, Courteau also stated that the coin toss for the first overall selection in the entry draft is here to stay. Currently, the coin toss features the two worst teams in the regular season having an equal shot at grabbing the top pick.

Courteau said the coin toss is better alternative than the NHL style draft lottery.

“Maybe this is something we should think of doing in the future but right now the system we have in place has been working pretty well for the last couple of years and right now we don’t plan to make any changes,” said Courteau to Metro Halifax. “But we are always open to new ideas to improve the quality (of our league)."