(Buffalo) Jordan Dumais flew over the QMJHL this season. With 140 points, the Halifax Mooseheads forward won the scoring championship by 21 points. Nothing less.
If he was the Wayne Gretzky of the season, Dylan MacKinnon was his Dave Semenko. A tall 6’2″ defenseman, sporting a Longueuil cut that would have caused a stir at the 5-Star Flea Market in 1992, MacKinnon has fought three times this season.
“There will always be tough guys trying to rip the heads off the stars,” MacKinnon ranted Saturday morning at the NHL’s draft judging camp. I play with Dumais. If someone is chasing him and I can’t fight…it’s embarrassing. »
The tougher sanctions against fights in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (LHJMQ) may have been welcomed by the political class, but among the players surveyed on Saturday, there was a certain reluctance, embodied in all candor by MacKinnon.
Fights continue to decrease in the QMJHL as elsewhere. Ten years ago, fights broke out in two out of three games. This season, it was in one game out of seven. During the 2023 playoffs, Sun colleague Mikaël Lalancette recalled that there were only two fights in 72 games.
“Of course we are young, but I think it still has its place in hockey. And they were eliminating themselves,” commented Ethan Gauthier, Drummondville Voltigeurs forward and top-ranked prospect in the QMJHL.
Gauthier inherited from his father, Denis, a love for the tough game and good shoulder shots. He therefore admits that the tightening of the rules could save him some consequences. “Last year I happened to pinch a player and after that my first instinct was to look left, right a couple of times! This side may change. But our goal is to play hockey. Whether there are fights or not, the sport is to put the puck in the goal. »
Étienne Morin is another QMJHL prospect who could hear his name in the first round in Nashville. He’s not the fighter type at all; the Moncton Wildcats defenseman has still not been penalized for a fight after two years on the Quebec circuit. It is for his offensive skills (72 points in 67 games) that he is prized.
But he too believes in the usefulness of fights to protect the stars.
“I’m not someone who fights, so it won’t change anything for me, but it will change things,” Morin said. It was the QMJHL draft today, we took Caleb Desnoyers. If he gets hit, I want to be there for him. But knowing that you can get suspended, it will be more difficult. Players will be less nervous to go and hit and it could be more dangerous, in a way.
“But I’ve been in this league for two years, I have faith in our leaders. »
In his argument against the new regulations, MacKinnon linked it to the QMJHL’s under-representation at the evaluation camp. “I don’t know if that’s the issue, but it doesn’t look good on us,” the Nova Scotian said.
Obviously, it is wrong to establish a link between the regulations announced on Friday and the invitations to the evaluation camp, which began last Sunday.
The fact remains that the QMJHL only had seven representatives here, compared to 20 for the Ontario Junior League (OHL) and 21 for the Western Junior League (WHL).
The discrepancy has nothing to do with National League decisions; the players who receive the most requests from the 32 teams are invited. “We ask the teams who they want and we go down the list. Before, we chose the players, but we don’t do that anymore, we let the teams choose, ”defended Dan Marr, vice-president of the NHL Central Scouting.
Take this testimonial from Mathieu Cataford, forward of the Mooseheads, who recounted his experience with Team Canada at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup last summer.
“Guys were saying the QMJHL is weaker, softer. But it’s been four years in a row that we’ve won the Memorial Cup! he throws. We have a sort of label… There are still several good Quebecers in the National League.
“Sometimes I feel like in Ontario and the West it’s all more about individual talent and development, whereas in the QMJHL it’s about team structure, to prepare players to the next level. »
Dylan MacKinnon also believes that the circuit is sometimes undervalued. “Look at the Memorial Cup, we’ve won four years in a row. But I feel that we are a bit at the bottom of the list. »
“It doesn’t change that the QMJHL is a very good league,” added Ethan Gauthier. This year, it turns out that it’s a big vintage of 2005 for the WHL. But it’s not because the QMJHL is weaker that there are fewer players here. »
