The teams of the Maritimes Quebec Hockey League had until noon to improve and it must be admitted that the two teams named above emerged big winners from the last exchange blitz.
Moncton first acquired 20-year-old defenseman Dyllan Gill, whose rights were held by the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. General manager Taylor MacDougall then turned to the Mooseheads to add forward Logan Crosby and goaltender Mathis Rousseau.
Mathis Rousseau from the Mooseheads was acquired by Moncton on Monday afternoon. (Erick Labbé/The Sun)
The arrival of the latter may seem surprising since Jacob Steinman, also 20 years old, was doing a good job in front of the net. Did his playoff numbers scare the Wildcats staff?
One thing is certain, Mathis Rousseau no longer needs an introduction. Member of the 2024 Junior Team Canada, the native of Boisbriand had been smoking the previous year, in the 2023 playoffs, in particular against the Sherbrooke Phoenix (average of 1.96 and an efficiency rate of 0.946), in semi -final.
Let’s not forget the (less and less) surprising Voltigeurs de Drummondville, the club which completely scrambled the cards in the first half of the season.
The additions of Nathan Baril and Justin Larose will provide even more depth for the team’s driver, Sylvain Favreau, in the upcoming series.
The Oceanic 2.0
Jonathan Fauchon in the uniform of L’Armada de Blainville-Boisbriand before the transaction that sent him to Rimouski. (Sébastien Gervais/Armada de Blainville-Boisbriand)
The Rimouski Océanic contented itself with the role of spectator on Monday, confirming the addition of only Eriks Mateiko, a transaction that we had known about since the opening of the trading period.
The Bas-Saint-Laurent team appears to be one of the most improved teams in the country since the arrival of Jonathan Fauchon, Maël Lavigne, Lou Lévesque, Jack Martin and Mateiko.
Let’s make some observations.
Rimouski : will the Océanic regret its decision to trust a young 17-year-old goalie for the Memorial Cup tournament? William Lacelle has been so good in recent months that it would be ill-advised to spit in the soup, but his thin track record carries its share of risks.
The Val-d’Or Foreurs have already won the President’s Cup with Maxime Daigneault as their 16-year-old goalkeeper (2001). Eleven years later, the Shawinigan Cataractes lifted the Memorial Cup with a masked 17-year-old man, Alex Dubeau.
The young 17-year-old goalkeeper, William Lacelle, will be the Rimouski Océanic’s right-hand man in the second half of the season. (Dany Germain/Foreurs de Val-d’Or)
However, both were supported by veterans, Simon Lajeunesse (19 years old) in Val-d’Or and Gabriel Girard (20 years old) for the Cataractes.
-Chicoutimi: without much surprise, Yanick Jean remained very calm, arms crossed, in the last hours of this trading period. There would have been no point in sacrificing ammunition at this point in the cycle for the Saguenéens, who will be a power for the next two seasons.
Yanick Jean the pilot of the Saguenéens. (Mariane L. St-Gelais/Archives Le Quotidien)
Baie-Comeau: the Drakkar has been in a difficult position since the return of Matyas Melovsky. Baie-Comeau is one of the good teams in the league, but definitely no longer has the strike force of last year.
The arrival of Evan Courtois, Alexis Michaud and Justin Gendron makes the Drakkar an improved team, certainly, but to the point of being able to block the path of the powers of the circuit? Not sure.
The bet, on the North Shore, is to see the team get back on track during the real season to avenge last year’s failure.
Drummondville: We would never have thought, just a few months ago, that the Voltigeurs would rush headlong into the final period of exchanges, but that is what has just happened.
Yanick Lemay, general manager of the Drummondville Voltigeurs. (Ghyslain Bergeron/Voltigeurs de Drummondville)
Will the general manager, Yanick Lemay, be as lucky as last year? His work as an architect earned him an A+ last year, when he managed to get his hands on the impact players in the second half of the season.
Justin Larose alone was the envy of several teams. At 19 years old, Nathan Baril is a very interesting bet.
Honorable mention toArmada of Blainville-Boisbriand who played his cards pretty well for next year and in two years, on the transaction market.
The expected weakening of Tigers, Mooseheads and Sea Dogs should allow Gatineau Olympics to secure a place in the playoffs for a 40th consecutive year.
If Gatineau resisted the idea of trading Jérémie Minville, it is quite simply because the unreasonable offer that would have convinced Serge Beausoleil to let his veteran go never came.
As the saying goes, the best deals are often the ones you don’t make.
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