I watched him a bit at 13 and one game at Mount this year. He looked like an interesting prospect, but can't really tell how high he'll be.
2023 QMJHL Draft
- Thread starter TJHKY
- Start date
The CSR list A and B prospects.
Just wondering if anyone saw the Canada Winter Games Hockey and what did you think of the talent ? The Nova Scotia Team seemed to be the most competitive of all the Atlantic teams . They played in the STRONGEST division and really held their own The final scores were certainly not indicative of the competativeness of the NS team.
Saw pretty much every game of Q draft teams.
Thought New Brunswick actually performed better than Nova Scotia in the tournament. Even thought Newfoundland dominated Nova Scotia in their matchup despite NS winning 4-0 due to a strong goalie performance.
Overall, a few of the top QC guys really seemed to separate themselves from everyone (Desnoyers, Guite). Shawn Carrier was absolutely outstanding, which should help him rise back up in the rankings after a more difficult season. Really liked Lampron and Groulx as well for Quebec.
In terms of Nova Scotia, thought Peddle and Allison were their two best defenders. Stoddard was outstanding in net and Chandler could be the best maritimer in the draft this year the way he's progressing. Thought Foley did well on his line. I liked some of the smaller skill guys like Keiver, Sinclair or Rhyno, but also really liked the work of the Legere, Hayne and Dooley line... probably their best line all tournament if you exclude Chandler's line. Consistent hard work.
New Brunswick had a great performance in net as well with Quimper. Kilfoil was pretty good, and I really liked Michaud as well. Wheeler was very quiet, seemed like Daigle and Boudreau were actually driving his line. Allaby is always good, but teams probably will fear picking him because of his size.
The newfoundland guys which were expected to be good were good. Thought the team played really well to be honest. Really like their 08 Caylen Blake too.
Like beauty , many things are in the eye of the beholder lol !!!! I did attend 10 games involving mainly teams who will be sources of players for the upcoming Q League draft and I would have to disagree with your views that NB did better than NS and that NFLD "dominated " NS in their head to head contest . The only team that NB defeated was the Yukon and the teams in that group were really weak by any standards . NS outshot them by 16 shots in their game which was not nearly as close as the score indicated . Now I can't see how NFLD dominated NS when they were outshot by 14 shots and the lost 4 - 0 . This is certainly NOT domination . To me , Quebec was the strongest of the Q League teams . They had one line ... #'s 12 , 14 and 15 who were a dominant force !!! The Chandler , Sinclair and Foley line were very effective for the NS Team and as you mentioned , several other players worked very well together . The one thing that did catch my attention was that so many of those teams had five or six players from one Academy , and four or five more from another and thus they had players who were accustomed to playing together . Not like the Atlantic teams which had players from all over the various provinces who may have come together three or four times for practices . Hard to compete with players who know how to play as a unit because they have been doing it all year . Because they played in by far the strongest division and actually did well against the two finalists for the Gold , I would have to say NS was the strongest Atlantic team there . They had one line which had 18 points and that was against the TOP teams . They certainly were able to compete with the best players there !!!!
New Brunswick was in the pool with Quebec and Saskatchewan who only lost in the final.., I don't see how this pool is weak. They also almost beat Ontario lol
Of course Quebec was stronger than all maritime teams...
NS and NB were of similar caliber... and that showed when their game went to OT one against the other. I just thought NB played a better tournament overall, they were not destroyed by any team and unlike what you said, they never played a weak team except Yukon (like NS played NL).
I wasn't suggesting that NB was in a weaker group but rather they only beat the Yukon who played in the weakest group . Also when you attend the games you realize that final scores don't always reflect the competitiveness of the games . I can assure you NS wasn't destroyed by any team and even against Saskatchewan the shots on goal were 48 to 41 in favour of Sask. so the score is not indicative of how good that game really was . In all I felt that NS and NB both held their own against some very strong teams and we all should be very pleased with the quality of talent displayed by these players !!!
We can argue all we want about which province had the best team but at the end of the day, approximately 70% of the players who will be drafted in the first three rounds next June will come from Quebec. It's been the case for the last decade and it will apply again for this year's draft in my opinion.
I am certain that if someone took the time they could probably confirm your theory . On the positive side , it also means that in the later rounds , some teams are going to be selecting some very talented players . The round selected in is not nearly as important as how ready you are for that next level of competition .
I agree that the round of selection does not guarantee anything. Good players can come out of any round. Invite players can also have a great impact on any team.
That being said, a lot of very talented players don't get the chance to establish themselves in the QMJHL. Not because they don't deserve it but just because they don't fit at the time and place where they get drafted. They need to find the chair they fit in as a player considering the cycle of each team (Cycle Effect).
Take a look at the stats for players drafted after round 3 who play at least 100 games in the league. Chances to establish in the league drops significantly.
And probably rightfully so.
When you look at the top 50 point leaders in the Q, you have Kidney, Lawrence, Melanson, Allison, Cormier, Burns, Savoie, Huckins, Gill, Dean, Woodworth, Squires
That's 12 out of 50. You've got Ivan, Bourash, Loshko, and Brabenec as euros and Labelle from Ontario.
That means you've got 33 Quebec guys at the top of the league vs 12 Maritimers.
As for goalies, the difference is even bigger. In the whole league, only Goobie, Sheehan, Mercer are from the Maritimes in the league as far as I know.
You can even go and look at the history of very highly rated prospects from the Maritimes that have been disappointing in their Q career to some degree... Peter Reynolds was considered by some as the first overall in his draft class, and I would say he probably doesn't crack the first round in a redraft. Leighton Carruthers has established himself as a solid bottom 6 forward at 3rd overall, Ben Roode busted, Alex Drover never really became the star he was expected to be. I remember some people also thought Cam Whynot was the best prospect in his draft class, and he's being used as a second pairing defenseman on Halifax at 19 years old.
Oscar Plandowski also has not really developed in the last few years, and Cam MacDonald finally just came into his own at 19, another guy that was viewed by some as the top prospect in that 2003 class.
Tyler Peddle was also viewed as the best prospect in his class by some, and he's been having a rough time as well this year.
The maritimes obviously generate a lot of good players in the QMJHL and some that will go pro (Nause, Spence, Kidney, Savoie, Dean, R. Greene, etc...), but I do feel like they get overrated a little bit at times because of how dominant they can be in their leagues versus the Quebec guys who play in a much better U18 league. A guy that scores 35 points in QC Midget AAA probably challenges for the top scoring spots in the maritime leagues.
You can look at a guy like Shawn Carrier for an example.
Carruthers has been drafted 3rd overall. 31 points in 145 games so far. Usually, a 3rd overall reach that kind of production at 16.
3rd overall in the last few years:
2017: Jakob Pelletier
2018: Mavrick Bourque
2019: Zackary L'heureux
2021: Vincent Collard (Covid year - No season)
2022: Maxime Massé
He still have a couple of years to catch up.
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Out of curiosity, I downloaded the Q draft lists from 2001-2022 into Excel just to see how Atlantic provinces faired, in particular NL players but the #'s were interesting.
143 NL players Q drafted 2001-2022 (22 yrs)
37 of those players (26% of 22 yr total) drafted during 3 Fog Devils seasons (2005-14/2006-10/2007-13).
NL avg 6.5 players/yr, 4.8/yr if you remove the FD yrs. Those FD years resulted in approx. 2x more NL players drafted as compared to non FD years.
Drafted vs actually playing are two different things but the benefit of having a local Q team did give open up opportunities to NL locals.
If Gov of QC has mandate to increase # of QC players in NHL, could we see that 74% increase at the Q level, who knows.
NL | PEI | NB | NS | QC | Total | |
| Total 2001-2022 | 143 | 139 | 339 | 527 | 3250 | 4398 |
3% | 3% | 8% | 12% | 74% |
Being drafted is one thing. Playing at least 100 games in the league is another. Out of the 143 NL players drafted, I'm curious to see how many established themselves in the QMJHL.
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GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s | Rest Easy #13
The Fighting Saints have signed '07 forward Liam Kilfoil to a tender agreement for the 2023-24 season. Welcome to Dubuque.
Kilfoil leaves and that makes the Q draft a weak one ? I haven't watched enough games that he played in, but his performance in the important games at the Winter games did not convince me that he was a top 5 Q draft player. But yes a deception for sure...but allot of similar players out there.
What I noticed is that the atlantic province team could not compete with the final top 5 teams. Which makes it look like the atlantic leagues are a bit weaker than the others (I know Kilfoil played in the US...). Kilfoil made the right decision to play US, probably sees better hockey over there.
But the important step is to get drafted no mater the rank, and BE READY FOR THAT FIRST IMPRESSION at camp...Will other good players end up in the USHL: probably like every year.
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I don't think Kilfoil was a top 5 prospect in the draft, but he was a clear cut first rounder. That makes two of them with Morin that are gone.
It's already a bit thin in terms of high-end talent this year, that doesn't help the draft at all.
But it's nothing new, there's always a few that don't come to the Q. Last year, it was Boisvert, Veilleux, Boilard. We're still in normal territory.
GermanSpitfire
EU Video Scout for McKeen’s | Rest Easy #13
sorry for the late response.
It was already a weak year, in my
opinion.
From what I have seen this year, all 3 of Morin, Kilfoil and Sim had good shots at being top-10 selections. With 3 of Sim, Kilfoil and Morin choosing different paths(so far) I’m not a biggest fan of this year.
I’ll be the first to say don’t follow these kids as much as some on here, the QMJHL is my weakest region of understanding. Definitely my least prefered region to get to know. So perhaps there is some information I’m being blind to and I’m happy to hear more of what you have to say.
I personally wouldn't have Sim in the top 10 as of today, but not sure how others view him.
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That would take more work than my interest level:
Off the top:
Jesse Sutton
Joel Bishop
Clark Bishop
Dawson Mercer
Tyler Boland
Brett Budgell
Zack O'Brien
Adam Pardy
Marcus Power
I think the NS team was the strongest of the Atlantic Province teams at the Canada Winter Games . They not only defeated NFLD and NB at this tournament but also defeated both of them as well as PEI in a previous tournament . I was surprised that the Second Prospects list came out before the Winter Games concluded . This tournament , as you suggested , did indicate that a lot of the highly touted players didn't measure up to the expectations many had for them . Also , several players indicated that they could perform at this level against the best players in the country . These guys should have moved up in the rankings and the others who struggled should have dropped down . However , that doesn't seem to be the case . Several of the NS players really rose to the occasion and they really did well against the strongest teams in the tournament . But the fact remains , the top four or five teams were stronger than the Atlantic teams . However , if you look at the lineups for these teams , you would see that there would be four or five players from one Academy and three or four more from another etc . These players were accustomed to playing together throughout the year unlike our teams which were made up of players from all over the provinces . Getting together for three or four practices certainly doesn't create a coordinated unified team . Our guys did extremely well under the circumstances and perhaps our leagues are not that far behind other leagues in the country .
To be fair, I was impressed by New Brunswick and Newfoundland mainly because I had higher expectations for Nova Scotia to begin with. I actually thought they had a pretty strong line-up on paper but thought they performed similarly to New Brunswick during the tournament and even NL seemed to be quite close to me.
Thought some of the highly rated NS players did poorly versus expectations and some others did very well versus expectations. I don't know that this should have a huge impact on where they are ranked on a list when trying to project their impact in 3 years at the QMJHL level, it's just one week of hockey, but it sure is going to be reflected on some of the lists at some point (rightfully so). Scouting is a process, rankings move around. Even at the end of the year, you usually have 5-10 guys that are pretty much the same level but personal preferences can end up dictating whether a guy is ranked 23rd or 34th on your list.
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