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| Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs |
Lawrence has won 58 of his 94 draws for a 61.7% winning percentage. Meanwhile, 17-year-old QMJHL rookies Cam MacDonald (43 wins, 54.4%) and Peter Reynolds (35, 47.9%) are sixth and 10th in the league, respectively.
Yes, it's still the pre-season, and we can only take away so much from these numbers given the opposition. But... this is still some much needed good news because the Dogs are going to need some players to step up on draws.
Saint John has lost three of their best faceoff men from the 2019-20 season: Nicholas Deakin-Poot, Nicholas Guay (who took more faceoffs in the first half alone than Lawrence did all season) and Jeffrey Durocher.
Lawrence is Saint John's best returning draw taker (360, 54.7%) along with Joshua Roy (199, 45.6%) and Alex Drover (138, 57%). Roy and Drover have been used more down the wings this pre-season with Lawrence, MacDonald and Reynolds acting as the top three centres.
WEBCAST NON-UPDATE
No further details on this year's QMJHL webcasts have been released yet. The regular season begins in less than two weeks.
Steve Turcotte of Le Nouvelliste confirmed rumours/speculation that Quebecor - which owns TVA Sports, the CHL's french-language media rights holder - blocked Verizon from taking over the league's webcasts from Neulion. Turcotte's column makes it sound like Verizon could still be used by the OHL and WHL, which seemingly ends the short lived dream of having all three CHL leagues under one roof/subscription.
Not a good look, Quebecor!
PREDICTIONS
Some 2020-21 QMJHL season predictions are starting to come in.
Matthew Vachon of La Nouvelle Union shared his Maritimes Division predictions this week. He has the Sea Dogs winning the Maritimes followed by Charlottetown, Cape Breton, Halifax, Bathurst and Moncton.
GATINEAU RINK GETS NAME
Gatineau's new arena, now scheduled to open in time for the 2021-22 QMJHL season due to several construction delays, will be called Centre Slush Puppie. Just incredible stuff.
On est just au jour 1 en plus... Lol pic.twitter.com/9KSLCDcfYZ
— Martin Lahaie (@MartinLahaie) September 18, 2020
Slush Puppie Canada has an office/factory in the Gatineau area and has been a long-time sponsor of the Olympiques.
Slush Puppie will pay $1.367 million over 10 years for the naming rights, according to Le Droit's J-F Plante.
OHL RETURN TO PLAY
The OHL announced more details about its return to play plan last week. Here are some key dates:
Nov. 15: Training camps open
Nov. 20-22: Exhibition games
Nov. 27-29: Exhibition games
Dec. 1: Regular season begins
Feb. 10: Trade deadline
April 29: Regular season ends
May 2 - June 14: OHL playoffs
June 17-27: Memorial Cup
The QMJHL's regular season is scheduled to end on April 3, nearly a month before the OHL. A normal playoff typically takes 6-8 weeks to play.
The host of the 2021 Memorial Cup still has not been confirmed. It will either be Oshawa or Sault Ste. Marie.
WORLD JUNIORS MOVING FORWARD
Some more good news from the past week: the 2021 World Junior Hockey Championship is moving forward.
The tournament will be played in the Edmonton bubble, the IIHF announced this past week. As a result of playing in front of no fans (and taking a financial hit), the 2022 tournament will be played in Edmonton and Red Deer - the two cities that were supposed to split hosting duties this winter.
Obviously, some things will still need to go right in order for this to happen, but this is good news. According to reports, all games will be played on the main ice surface at Rogers Place, which means there will likely need to be some schedule adjustments in order to get all the games in.
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