(Buffalo) Fall 2020. We have recently learned that there is no point in frantically washing your cans of creamed corn on the way back from Steinberg’s. But the world remains in the middle of a pandemic and everyone is experiencing their challenges.
At Mount St. Charles Academy, a prep school from Rhode Island, a 14-year-old from Trois-Rivières named Sacha Boisvert sets up camp, with almost zero knowledge of English.
I had to make new friends, I lived in a dormitory, my parents weren’t there. At Christmas, I had a decision to make: go back home and risk missing the rest of the season because it wasn’t sure I would be able to cross the border, or go live in some guy’s house of my team. I went to the friend’s house. I realized at a young age that I was going to have to make a lot of sacrifices to get where I want in life.
Sacha Boisvert
On this Wednesday, Boisvert is exactly where every hockey person wants to be this time of year: in Buffalo. It is in a luxurious hotel in the no less luxurious city center that The Press met him, during the NHL evaluation camp for the draft.
Of interest
Boisvert has continued his development in the United States since the famous fall of 2020, but he arrives here as the best Quebec prospect in the 2024 draft. His entourage expects the 6 ft 2, 176 lb forward to be claimed between the 15e and the 25the rank. It is in these waters that the main expert rankings place it. He comes to 22e rank of Bob McKenzie’s (TSN) hopefuls list, at 21e rank of that of Sam Cosentino (Sportsnet).
Once the top 10 gone, the rest of the first round can be very volatile, since the trading possibilities are higher. In the very eventful 2022 draft, picks 7, 11, 13, 25, 27 and 29 changed hands the same day of the first round.
In these circumstances, Boisvert therefore has a meeting with 29 of the 32 NHL teams this week. The three exceptions: Tampa (no picks in the first three rounds), Vancouver (no picks in the first two rounds) and New Jersey, ready to trade its No. 1 picker round and already without a second choice.
Among his 29 interviews, we note in particular a rather tough meeting with the Canadian. Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes, who did not attend all the interviews, also participated in the one with Boisvert. “I liked it, it was a different challenge from the other teams,” said the young man.
Boisvert offers an interesting range for an NHL team. He describes himself as a “talented power forward, good at both ends of the ice.” I can throw, check, play game physical. There game physicality, that’s what makes me so charming with teams. I’m a good player, but I also have the competitive element. » The kind of mixture that the Canadian is not full of.
The numbers match its description. With the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the USHL, he scored 68 points in 61 games. With 36 goals, he finished the campaign in 5e rank on the American junior circuit. But we also note his 86 penalty minutes. In an interview with RDS colleague Éric Leblanc, he said he fought six times this season, a figure validated by an analysis of the summaries of his matches.
“I fought a couple of times to defend my teammates, otherwise, to change the momentum. That’s my competitive side, I’m a leader, I’m ready to defend my teammates. I did boxing when I was younger, my father is a boxing coach. I’m not afraid of that and it’s part of the gamethere are still battles,” he argues.
Boisvert accomplishes all this at a time when the recruiters of the 32 teams are looking at the Florida Panthers, a team certainly led by Aleksander Barkov, but where Matthew Tkachuk and Sam Bennett also deploy this happy mixture of offensive talent and robustness.
That said, Boisvert does not name Matthew Tkachuk or his brother Brady when asked which player he would like to become.
I want to become myself, even if it’s corny to say that. But I like watching Anze Kopitar. He’s tall, big, he’s a center who wins his faceoffs, he’s good at 200 feet, he can play on the power play and on the penalty kill, he’s a leader who won the Cup. This is a very good example.
Sacha Boisvert
Boisvert will find out more about his future on June 28, during the draft in Vegas. But his next destination will nevertheless be the University of North Dakota, where he will play starting this fall. It was pointed out to him that he did not exactly choose the college closest to home, knowing the number of hockey programs in the Boston area, a five-hour drive from Quebec.
Except that we are talking here to a young person who exiled himself from home at 14 to help himself achieve his dream. “I have made sacrifices since I was young. I would be willing to go to Australia to play in the National League! »