When he was in Rimouski, he always built his teams from the back. That will not change in Gatineau. On Tuesday, he brought in a defender to add to the depth of his defensive squad by tapping into well-known territory.
He thus sent a seventh-round pick in 2026 to the Océanic to obtain left-handed defenseman Cory MacGillivray. The 18-year-old picked up six points in 31 appearances last season at a defensively well-heeled club.
The Nova Scotian was an 8th round pick of the Oceanic in 2021.
“We had a hotbed of defenders in Rimouski for a few years, so Cory got stuck behind several defenders. Anywhere else in the QMJHL, he would have been a regular defenseman. He was pivoting our second unit on the power play at 17 during the injury to Luke Coughlin in the first half of the season, ”explained Beausoleil, about the small defender of 5′11′ ‘and 163 pounds.
On this account, Beausoleil indicated that one should not pay too much attention to his size.
“He has attacking qualities. He’s not very big, but he gets in touch. He sells it for the pound! He wasn’t always in our line-up last year, but we gave him responsibility and he was getting better and better. He is calm with the puck. We know that Tristan Luneau will eat up minutes on the power play, but if Tristan is no longer with us at the Holidays, MacGillivray can take over. He is a defender who could be with us for three years. We got excellent value for money with him.”
Loss of Samuel Lachance
The return of MacGillivray compensates for the loss of Samuel Lachance, a 19-year-old left-handed defenseman that the Olympiques had acquired from the Quebec Remparts against Antoine Michaud during the last QMJHL draft.
The trade had been tied up between Louis Robitaille and Patrick Roy earlier in the winter. However, Lachance is a student in police techniques and his specialty is not offered in the Outaouais. Lachance therefore refused to appear in Gatineau. The Olympiques will therefore obtain compensation from the Remparts in this transaction.
Barring other transactions, Tristan Luneau, Vincent Maisonneuve, Owen Arnold and Cory MacGillivray will be the veterans of the Gatineau defense at the start of the next season.
Cory played with us a bit when he was 16. In Rimouski, we had a young defense, but it was among the best in the league last season. With what we have and what’s to come with the rookies, we’ll have a solid defense in Gatineau.
— Serge Beausoleil, general manager of the Olympiques
The trading period in the QMJHL will end on August 27 and Serge Beausoleil could complete his shopping by then.
Joyal as Deputy CEO
Moreover, it was a formality, but Maxime Joyal was also confirmed in his position as assistant general manager to Serge Beausoleil on Tuesday. Joyal had been responsible for the last draft of the Olympiques with Derrick Brassard after the dismissal of Louis Robitaille and the resignation of Jean-François Fortin as interim general manager one week before the draft in Sherbrooke.
Maxime Joyal, new assistant general manager of the Olympiques. (Gatineau Olympics/Courtesy)
He had to maneuver in a difficult context where he had to settle the debts accumulated by Louis Robitaille with his fellow general managers during his transactions over the past year.
