QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — After being the first pick overall by the Baie-Comeau Drakkar, right winger Nathan MacKinnon became the premiere subject of discussion in town, whether he will or won’t report to the QMJHL team.
After several meetings between Baie-Comeau general manager Mr. Steve Ahern and the MacKinnon family, it became obvious the youngster did not want to come to Baie-Comeau. So instead of losing everything and see another very good player opting to go to the USHL to keep his college eligibility, the Drakkar GM decided to explore the possibility of trading the young forward.
Before letting MacKinnon go to Halifax, Mr. Ahern had serious discussions with two other organizations, the Rimouski Oceanic and the Quebec Remparts. At the end, the best offer came from Halifax Mosseheads.
In return for what is supposed to be one of the best young forward in the league, Baie-Comeau received Halifax’s best offensive leader, left winger Carl Gelinas, and right winger Francis Turbide who will play his second year in the league.
The Drakkar also acquired the Mosseheads’ first round pick in 2012, 2013 and the Quebec Remparts first round pick in 2013 previously obtained by Halifax for Adam Erne.
Ahern seemed happy to finally announce the trade after working really hard in trying to make the best trade possible. “We made our team better in short, mid and long term”, Drakkar GM told the Sun Newspaper. “Our seasons lately were very difficult and now we won’t look behind. This morning Wednesday (back on July 14), Mario (Pouliot) (the head coach), woke up with a much better team under his hands.”
With training camp only a few days old, the Drakkar head coach seemed very confident his team will be better.
“The training camp will be very interesting, said Pouliot to the Sun newspaper before first training session. “We expect great competitions in camp with 22 players who played major junior hockey last year. Veteran will have to battle hard to keep their job since we have couple players (Thomas Gobeil, Charles Poulin) who knock at the door.”
Offensively the team won’t certainly be the same as last year. With newcomer Carl Gelinas, Tomas Filippi and Jonathan Lessard who scored a total of 107 goals, and the young kids who has already have one year of junior hockey under their belt like Raphael Bussieres, Lucas Cingel, Frederick Gamelin and Alexandre Durette, the team expect to get better dept.
On defense, the biggest acquisition is certainly Samuel Carrier, the second selection at the QMJHL special draft after the Lewiston MAINEiac had been dissolute.
Forty-seven players will try to earn the privilege to wear the Drakkar uniform for the upcoming regular season. The first scrimmage was Monday, others will follow on Tuesday. Team won’t be shy about making decisions, the first cut will be announced on Wednesday.
After establishing a record for the worse team offensively with only 151 goals scored, 2011-12 is a new beginning for Baie-Comeau.
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.