Courteau's 'Get Out of Jail Free' Ruling

By Andrew McGilligan

SN Staff

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey just set a dangerous precedent with its decision regarding the trade of Ryan Tesink from the Saint John Sea Dogs to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.

The press release – a poorly worded one everyone now comes to expect from the Q – states, “To this point, the undersigned is of the opinion that the Saint John Sea Dogs’ integrity cannot be questioned.” (This must come as a shock to Martin Mondou and the owner formerly known as Leo-Guy Morrisette, but I digress.)

That statement absolved the Sea Dogs from any wrong doing in this matter and acknowledges the team acted in good faith in making the deal that sent Tesink to the Armada in exchange for a first-round pick.

It’s everything that comes after this statement where the league falls apart. Instead of standing by that statement, the Q decides to placate everyone and give the Armada the fifth overall draft pick in 2014.

This makes no sense. The Armada traded for a player who missed a portion of the previous season with a knee injury. He played a few games for the Armada after the trade before getting injured again. He would eventually return and suit up in the playoffs. Basically, QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau is giving the Armada a top five draft pick because one of their players got injured.

Now, the official reasoning is, “Declaration for trade purposes (form) might leave room for interpretation and should, in the opinion of the Commissioner, be the object of a revision and even eventually bring the League to introduce a new by-law provision specifically pertaining to the obligation of disclosure.”

All you need to know as a general manager in the Q is if you trade for a player and he gets injured, you can file a complaint and receive a high draft pick for your troubles. This takes away all risk associated with making a trade – something all GMs would love – but makes no sense.

Once again, the league and commissioner failed to take a definitive stand on an issue and in doing so, provides every team in the league with a get out of jail free card if they make a bad trade. The decision mentions the league should review the form that caused this problem and “even eventually bring in a bylaw.”

Given this trade was made in January and the issue not resolved until May, you can expect the revision or bylaw to be completed in 2025.

NAME CHANGE

Earlier this week I heard a CBC report asking people in Halifax if the QMJHL should change its name to reflect the fact it contains Maritime teams as well. Most people had no problem with the league name remaining the same, but here’s a compromise.

The league’s acronym is QMJHL. It could retain the same acronym while changing its official name to the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League. All it’s doing is swapping out Major for Maritime.