NHL Draft | Guardian surprise box

The 2023 draft isn’t teeming with top prospects from Quebec, a reality that’s also true in net. But even without talking about them, the best goalkeepers in Quebec are still at an early stage in their development. Who knows if one of them will be a hidden card?

The news of the past few months has reminded us that goalkeeper development is an inexact and unpredictable science.

Montrealer Devon Levi, 212^e player drafted in 2020, 19^e claimed goaltender, landed in the NHL at the end of a glorious university career. He will have every chance, at the next training camp, to show that he can play in Buffalo full time.

Adin Hill was drafted at 3^e tour in 2015, but had been confined to a number 2 role for several years. He became the starting goaltender for the Vegas Golden Knights this spring and is now the Stanley Cup champion. Drafted one rank behind him in 2015: Samuel Montembeault, dropped by the Florida Panthers two years ago, deemed competent enough to represent Canada at the World Championship this spring.

Which brings us to next week’s draft. This 2023 vintage is not seen as a great vintage in front of the net, in the absence of exciting hopefuls like Spencer Knight and Yaroslav Askarov in recent years.

Among the goalies born in Quebec, none interested enough teams to be part of the 106 players invited to the NHL evaluation camp two weeks ago. It was therefore on the phone that we reached Quentin Miller, Rudy Guimond and Daniel Héroux, respectively ranked 11^e17^e and 21^e among North American goaltenders by NHL Central Scouting.

Late development

For many recruiters, size is a kind of essential prerequisite. However, in his draft year in the QMJHL, Rudy Guimond measured 5 ft 7 in. This season, he showed up to training camp at 6’1″, and he’s now…6’4″!

“I think I’m going to grow some more, I barely have a beard, I still look like a baby!” “, he says, laughing.

Guimond has followed an atypical path. Rather than try his luck with the Lac St-Louis Lions, like the best players in the West Island, he instead played at Kuper Academy, in Kirkland, in order to enroll in the sports program. studies. Coming from a family that values ​​education, “it was very clear that I wanted to go to the NCAA,” he says. What he will do at Yale University, no less, starting in 2025.

With such a profile, he was never drafted into the QMJHL and wore the colors of Taft, a Connecticut prep school, this season.

Daniel Héroux also wanted to go through the school benches, but was drafted by the Halifax Mooseheads, an organization with vast resources. Héroux spent 48 hours at the team camp. “You see the coaches, the staff members, it’s really serious,” he said.

But in the fall of 2024, he will join the University of Vermont, less than two hours from Montreal, now that he has finished his studies at Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire.

“I’ll be in Vermont until I’m 23, I’ll be much better and ready to go play pro,” the Montrealer confides on the phone. I know guys who left the QMJHL at 20 and they couldn’t find a professional team. I wanted to have time and be ready when I get to the pro. »

Quentin Miller never even thought of the NCAA because by his own admission, “no one [le] knew “.

“I have always played in the CC, BB. In the midget, it was the first time that I played in the AAA, ”he explains. The Quebec Remparts finally drafted this Ahuntsicois at 176^e rank in 2021, and as an auxiliary to William Rousseau, he won the Memorial Cup this spring.

What potential?

Employed in 20 games during the season, Miller has not played a single minute in the playoffs, and was entitled to 14 short minutes during the Memorial Cup.

“Even if I didn’t play, I saw what it’s like to go to the playoffs, the preparation it requires, he recalls. And Rousseau did a great job job, so it wasn’t unfair either! I tried to support the guys. When we were preparing to play against a team, we analyzed the opposing goalkeeper. At the end of training, I tried to imitate his weaknesses to help our attackers. »

Recruiters therefore have a limited sample to evaluate it. That hasn’t stopped about 20 NHL teams, according to his estimate, from contacting him in recent months.

“Several goalkeepers sign contracts without having been drafted. I will make my way despite everything, ”he predicts. The departure of Rousseau, traded to Rouyn-Noranda, should however help him play more next season.

Rudy Guimond, he was not entitled to as many interviews. Having grown up, he must now “fill” his frame, and it is here that the university path could serve him.

“Some goalies are ready to play pro at 20, finishing the QMJHL, concedes Dan Shakibaian, his advisor. But Rudy, even at 164 lbs, is not yet physically mature. That gives him six years to gain weight, to be physically ready for the struggles in his semi-circle. »

NHL teams rarely look to high schools for goalies. Two porters were drafted there in 2015, but only one in seven drafts since.

That said, the Detroit Red Wings and Philadelphia Flyers spoke with Guimond via videoconference. His growth chart might intrigue some. And he just finished the season with an efficiency of .943, the 3^e of the New England school system. “Even if I’m not drafted, I know I can play pro after Yale,” he recalls.

Daniel Héroux also had a stellar season, hitting .933 on the same circuit. But when talking to him, he didn’t think he was going to Nashville for the draft. “I have so much time, I just have to keep working. If I’m good enough, I’m good enough. »

The repechage is by nature an exercise in projection. But with the unique circumstances of the goalkeeper position, predicting an 18-year-old’s potential seems rather perilous.

The main hopes

Carson Bjarnason

• NOT^oh 1 of North American goaltenders (NHL Central Scouting)
• 6’3″, 190 lbs.
• 2022-23 record: 21-19-6, 3.08 GAA, .900 save with the Brandon Wheat Kings (WHL)

Born about fifty kilometers from Brandon, playing for the junior team of his region was in his eyes a better option than the NCAA. His surname is of Danish origin, but he is from the Métis community and holds another First Nations goalkeeper in Carey Price in awe. “I try to be as calm as him. This serenity is what sets me apart,” he told us at the NHL evaluation camp two weeks ago.