(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 season’s Wayne Gretzky, Dylan MacKinnon was his Dave Semenko. A tall 6-foot-2 defenseman, sporting a Longueuil haircut that would have caused a stir at the 5-Star Flea Market in 1992, MacKinnon has fought three times this season.
PHOTO CAROLINE GRÉGOIRE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Jordan Dumais
“There will always be tough guys who will try to tear the heads off the stars,” MacKinnon complained Saturday morning at the NHL evaluation camp for the draft. I play with Dumais. If someone is after him and I can’t fight…it’s embarrassing. »
The tougher sanctions against fighting in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) may have been welcomed by the political class, but among the players surveyed on Saturday, we felt a certain reluctance, embodied in all candor by MacKinnon.
Last year I fought eight times [cinq fois, en fait]. This season, it happened only three times and I had a suspension for my third. There should always be a place for fights.
Dylan MacKinnon
Fights continue to decrease in the QMJHL as elsewhere. 10 years ago, a fight broke out in two out of three games. This season, it was in one out of seven games. During the 2023 playoffs, the colleague of the Sun Mikaël Lalancette recalled that there were only two fights in 72 matches.
“Of course we are young, but I think it still has its place in hockey. And they were eliminating themselves,” commented Ethan Gauthier, Sherbrooke Phoenix forward and top-ranked QMJHL prospect.
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Ethan Gauthier
When you know there are battles, you may be less tempted to try the big check. That’s what scares me. Sometimes ill-meaning guys can think, “I won’t have to fight, so I can give it a try.”
Ethan Gauthier
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, it happened that I pinched 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 battles or not, sport is about putting the puck in the net. »
Étienne Morin is another QMJHL prospect who could hear his name in the first round in Nashville. He is not at all the fighter type; 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, believes Morin. It was the QMJHL draft today, we took Caleb Desnoyers. If he gets hit, I want to be there for him. But knowing that we 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 confidence in our leaders. »
low year
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 it’s to blame, but it doesn’t look good on us,” said the Nova Scotian.
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 gap 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.
All the hockey people we consulted reminded us that this is a weaker vintage than usual for the QMJHL. However, perceptions seem to play against the Quebec circuit.
Take this testimonial from Mathieu Cataford, Mooseheads forward, who recounted his experience with Team Canada at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup last summer.
“Guys said that the QMJHL is weaker, softer. But it’s been four years in a row that we have 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 out 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 less strong that there are fewer players here. »