Takeaways from 2021's opening round

As expected, the Sherbrooke Phoenix selected forward Ethan Gauthier with the first overall pick in the 2021 QMJHL Entry Draft on Friday night.

Gauthier was the top-ranked player by QMJHL Central Scouting and HockeyProspect.com.

"We believe Gauthier has everything you need in order to become a dominant player at the QMJHL level," writes HockeyProspect.com. "The potential we see in him is that he will become the go-to guy as a first line centre and premium offense producer for whichever team drafts him, hence why we have him as the best available prospect in the 2021 QMJHL Draft."

Gauthier did not play any regular season games at the midget AAA level this past season but did appear in some pre-season games with the Magog Cantonniers.

Gauthier is, according to Elite Prospects, the cousin of former Sea Dogs forward Julien Gauthier.

Forward Tyler Peddle, who spent last season at Shattuck St. Mary's, was the second ranked player by both services and did in fact go second overall to the Drummondville Voltigeurs. The big question: will he report?

In an interview on the league's broadcast Friday, Peddle once again said that he has not committed to playing major junior hockey yet.

Peddle recorded 31 goals and 15 assists in 47 games at Shattuck St. Mary's this past season. He was recently selected in the third round of the USHL draft by the Sioux City Musketeers.

You can rewatch Eastlink's first-round coverage below.

Some other news and notes on the opening round:

• The whole thing took a little over three hours to complete. 
• On the Eastlink broadcast, analyst Craig Eagles compared Vincent Collard, who went third overall to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, to former Sea Dogs forward Charlie Coyle.
• Luke Coughlin of the Charlottetown Knights, the top ranked defenseman by HockeyProspect.com, went fourth overall to the Rimouski Oceanic.
• Coughlin's interview with Eastlink after the selection was terrific.
• Three of the top five picks in this year's draft were Maritimers. Defenseman Dylan MacKinnon from the Moncton Flyers went fifth overall to the Halifax Mooseheads. 
• With the eighth overall pick, which originally belonged to Saint John, the Cape Breton Eagles selected defenseman Emile Perron. The Sea Dogs traded the pick to Drummondville on Wednesday. The Voltigeurs then flipped the pick to Cape Breton in a separate deal.
• According to the Eagles: "Emile's father Luc was also drafted by the Eagles organization in round seven of the 1998 QMJHL draft."
• Newfoundland defenseman Matteo Rotondi, who spent last season at Rothesay Netherwood, went 11th overall to the Voltigeurs.
• The first somewhat surprise came when Rimouski selected forward Maxim Coursol 12th overall. Coursol was ranked 27th by Central Scouting and 52nd by HockeyProspect.com
• Kyle Hagen was the first and only goaltender taken, going 15th overall to Rimouski.
• The first trade of the night didn't come until pick No. 16 when the Volts acquired the selection from Bathurst in exchange for picks. Drummondville used the pick to select Marc-Oliver Beaudry who was ranked fifth by CSR and seventh by HP.
• The first time out didn't come until pick No. 19 when Rouyn-Noranda made a deal with Saint John.
• More on Saint John selecting Natal Grenier here.
• With the 20th overall pick that was acquired in a deal from with the Sea Dogs, the Mooseheads selected forward Logan Crosby from Weeks. So the Moose leave the first-round with a MacKinnon and a Crosby.
• Drummondville and Rimouski made four picks each.
• Bathurst, Moncton, Charlottetown, Chicoutimi, Gatineau, Quebec, Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d'Or did not select on Friday.