A number of transactions took place on Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Draft Day on Saturday at the Marcel Dionne Centre in Drummondville, Que.The trades included a few big names trading places in some blockbuster deals.
The action got going early in the great state of Maine. It was a complex deal that was broken down beautifully by the Maine Hockey Journal:
A day after the Lewiston Maineiacs acquired the former Cape Breton Screaming Eagle netminder, Roy was sent to Acadie-Bathurst for two first round picks (5th overall in 2010 and a 2012 1st round pick), a third and fifth round pick in 2010.
In another draft deal saw the Maineiacs acquire the first overall pick from the Baie-Comeau Drakkar for the fifth overall pick, a first round pick in 2012 which was acquired from Acadie-Bathurst, a 2010 second, third, and fifth round pick. Marc-Andre Carre is also heading to the Drakkar. Carre played a couple of games with Lewiston last December and January.
In return Baie-Comeau sent the 21st overall selection to the Maineiacs.
Lewiston Sun Journal reporter Justin Pelletier was first to break the news on the Big Jab morning show.
Just prior to the eighth overall selection of the draft, the Shawinigan Catarctes traded Charles-Olivier Roussel to the Montreal Junior for the number eight pick, Dillon Donnelly, Loik Poudrier, and a fourth round pick in 2011.
The Gatineau Olympiques dealt Denis Kindl to the Junior for a second round draft choice.
Alex Wall of the Moncton Wildcats was traded to the Quebec Remparts for a second round draft pick. It was the ‘Cats highest selection of the draft.
After dealing away Oliver Roy, the Maineiacs managed to their hands on another goaltender. Former Acadie-Bathurst Titan net minder Nicholas Champion was traded from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies to Lewiston in exchange for Mathieu Brisebois, a fourth round draft pick, and a fifth round pick in 2011.
Kevin Bissonneau was sent to Victoriaville from Gatineau for an eighth round pick.
Pierrick Martel was acquired by Baie-Comeau, sending a fourth round pick back to the Cataractes.
In an expected deal, goaltender Francois Lacerte was traded to Cape Breton along with a 2011 sixth round pick. Bathurst received a 2011 fifth round draft selection in return.
Anthony Courcelles was sent from Montreal to Rouyn-Noranda for a ninth round pick.
Finally, one of the biggest deals of the draft took place in the final hour of picking. Highly touted Montreal Canadiens prospect Louis Leblanc had his QMJHL rights traded from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens to the Junior in a blockbuster deal. The Montreal junior squad gave up Guillaume Asselin and a 2011 first round pick to acquire the 2009 Habs first round draft pick and a 2011 third round pick.
It is still unclear if Leblanc will report to the Junior next season.
"They only wanted Asselin and I didn't want to trade him," Montreal Junior general manager Pascal Vincent said to Willy Palov about the transaction - a deal that took all day to hammer out.
The Juniors are building a team that will contend this season there is no doubt. Their defense in particular will be something else. Roussel, Landry, Ouellet and Meuilleur can all supply a lot of offense from the back end. At center, if all goes as planned, the team will feature Leblanc, Kindl and Aubry which is not too shaby. Now they just have to get some wingers to produce offense, something they could accomplish via the import draft.
ReplyDeleteRick Springhetti