MONTREAL – Caleb Desnoyers shows up to the meeting smiling, looking relaxed. He is wearing a black cap and a red hoodie that reads “Commit to win.” It is behind this slogan that the leaders of the Moncton Wildcats wanted to rally their players during the last playoff series.
“It’s rare that I wear this one, the other is in the wash,” apologizes the young hockey player. When I see people for interviews, I like to wear Wildcats stuff to represent the brand, but let’s just say don’t show it too much, last year’s. It didn’t go very well. »
Desnoyers would prefer to forget his first experience in the QMJHL playoffs. The Wildcats, third seed in the Eastern Conference, holders of the fifth best record in the entire league, were opposed to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens in the first round. They had been swept in four games.
A few months later, the New Brunswick team is well on its way to redemption. After 20 games, the Wildcats have only lost three games. They scored more goals than any other team on the Cecchini Tour and were the defensive benchmark before allowing six goals to the Saint John Sea Dogs on Thursday.
At just 17 years old, Desnoyers is at the center of these successes.
No matter how you approach them, the numbers speak for themselves. The second-year player is the team’s leading scorer with 25 points in just 16 games. Only six of those points came on the power play. His +19 differential is only a shadow of his teammate Julius Sumpf’s +21.
In the face-off circles, he has a success rate of 61%. Among all the center players who have taken at least 200 faceoffs, he only has Markus Vidicek, a 20-year veteran, to envy.
No wonder he is considered Quebec’s best hope for the next National League draft.
“To be honest, I’m very, very zen about it. I’m lucky to have a support group around me that is very present. It doesn’t matter whether it’s positive or negative, the comments or the lists that come out, never too high, never too low. I try to just play my game and stay in a good state of mind. Whether I’m tenth, fifteenth or fifth on a list, it’s draft day that everything will be decided. I think this is the right mentality to adopt because in the end you don’t want distractions, just fun. »
“It’s the nature of the hockey player to watch this, but honestly, without saying that it goes a couple of feet over my head, in the end I really don’t want it to affect me,” reiterates- he. I want to stay myself. Through it all, it’s just about staying in control and keeping your cool. »
Laliberté in the nose
Unsurprisingly, Desnoyers’ start to the season earned him an invitation to the Prospects Challenge, a competition that will pit the best “prospects” in the Canadian Hockey League against their counterparts in the American development program. He will be one of the two representatives of the QMJHL with Justin Carbonneau of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada.
For the occasion, the boy from Saint-Hyacinthe was designated as one of three assistants to Captain Porter Martone. Desnoyers is used to wearing additional embroidery on his jersey. He was captain of Team Quebec at the Canada Games. He also wore the “A” with the national team at the Under-17 Challenge and the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup.
He doesn’t really care about the letter. But he wants leadership to be recognized as a fundamental element at the heart of his personality.
“It’s something that is very important to me,” he confirms. It is a value […] which was instilled in us from a very young age by our parents, me and my brothers. Just being a good person, being respectful and wanting the best for your teammates. »
Caleb Desnoyers’ older brother, Elliot, was a fifth-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Flyers. He is currently playing his third season in the American League. The family is completed by a third boy, Théo.
“Whether it’s at home or at the arena, it’s always been about family values, pride, loyalty. I believe that these are important values that are found in leadership, continues the youngest of the trio. It’s fun to have a letter, but in the end it mostly starts in the bedroom, with your commitment to being a good person yourself to make the people around you better. My parents took pride in teaching it to us, the three guys at home, and it’s a quality that we all cherish very much. »
Desnoyers grew up with obvious positive role models in his chosen field. His father David spent four years in the QMJHL in the early 1990s and played in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). His stepfather, Pascal Trépanier, played some 230 games in the NHL before continuing his career in Europe.
But it would be a mistake not to put his mother, Martine Laliberté, at the center of his influences. “She has a dog in her nose too! », assures the teenager.
“We are lucky to have both our mother and our father who know their hockey very well. Often my mother, after my matches, she will call me and talk to me about forechecking, tracking, little details… Sometimes, it will be annoying to hear that from your mother, but in the end I notice that She’s pretty much always right. She’s a really intelligent woman and she’s always been involved in hockey since she was born. I’m really lucky to have him. »
Figuratively speaking, we could say that Desnoyers is in a class of his own, alone in his world, among the Quebec prospects who will be coveted by teams in the National League. But in reality, there is a whole village surrounding it.
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