QUEBEC CITY, P.Q. — After being able to settle some players files on positive note (Mikhail Grigorenko, Nick Sorenson, Adam Erne, Mike McNamee, Anthony Duclair) the Quebec Remparts general manager and head coach Patrick Roy won’t be able to count on young Matthew Peca.
The seventh round selection of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2011, refused to play in the Ontario Hockey League where his rights belong to the Windsor Spitfires selecting him 8th round 141st overall.
Unable to convince him and his family to come to play in Windsor, the Spitfires traded his right to the Kingston Frontenacs. After getting same answer from the Peca family (refusing to play in Kingston), Kingston put the young Petawawa, Ontario-native on wavers where the Kitchener Rangers claimed him.
For Peca, the only choice to play junior hockey would have been in Quebec nowhere else, but living in Penbroke where he played last year for the Lumberjacks in Tier 1 junior A hockey league, he didn’t want to play in the OHL, he preferred to come in the QMJHL.
Since neither Commissioner (QMJHL Gilles Courteau and OHL David Branch) won’t be involved in that case, the Tampa Bay prospect will pursue his career with Quinnipiac University in Division I NCAA.
Phase one of Quebec training camp concluded and players were rostered in intra-squad games, the phase twosecond portion will begin with first two pre-season games where Quebec will face Rimouski Oceanic in Rimouski on Friday night and in St-Marie de Beauce on Saturday.
After evaluating goaltenders Nicholas Joron, Tomas Bolland and Forwards Guillaume Taillefer and Mitchel Jones, Roy reduced his roster to 34 players informing defenseman Ugo Fontaine-Lefebvre and forwards Frederic Bergeron, Brandon Boutillier, Mikael Gervais, Jean-Philippe Gagnon-Ouellet and Ben Malka that their training camp with the team came to an end. William Breton he left the camp by himself.
In Chicoutimi, the Sagueneens’ first round selection, Jeremy Gregoire stepped on the ice for the first time. Well aware of his intention to go to the United States, Guy Carboneau (team President) and his organization took their chances and drafted him and worked to convince their first round pick to come to Chicoutimi.
In the end, they were successful as Gregoire suited up for the Sagueneens.
“You always want to do your best when you are at your first training camp in the QMJHL,” said Gregoire to local newspaper le Quotidien. “You squeeze your stick a little bit more at first, but it went well after that.”
For his part, the new head coach Marc-Etienne Hebert already knew the Sagueneens first round pick.
“I worked with him in Sherbrooke at the Team Quebec evaluation camp,” said the
Chicoutimi head coach. “My first impression was already done. He had been nominated the best player of the tournament so I would lie to you, if I told you that I didn’t like him.”
Contact the author at: serge.poulin@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.