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F Zachary Bolduc - Quebec Remparts, QMJHL (2021, 17th, STL)

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tealhockey

tealhockey

@overtheboards
Jun 2, 2012
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Didn't see a thread for this guy, let me know if I missed it somehow. He's tearing it up for Mount-St. Charles new hockey academy, he's just out of place in U16 hockey. I put out today the likely finalists (this is the middle of recruiting season, things are fluid) for his recruitment, should he stay stateside and not end up back in the Q with Rimouski or someone else: Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan, North Dakota, Nebraska-Omaha and Boston College. He's already visited UMass, BU, BC and Maine. Very talented forward from Quebec, his offensive game is scary, he's hard to knock off the puck, plays off checks well, great shot, strong passer, strong skater, quick, etc. Would love to see what he could do in junior hockey. Either way I feel strongly that if he keeps it up over the next two years he could be a top 60-type pick (at least) in the draft, it's all in his hands.
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Dominance said:
I really wish he chooses the CHL route, but I’m not holding out hope.

@tealhockey what college program(s) do you think would be best for his development, if he does go that way?
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I wrote a good amount about him and that specifically today on my website. But I'll just reiterate here.. of the programs I've heard are likely landing spots. Penn State, Wisconsin and Boston College. Penn State from a systems perspective, as long as they have a quality center for him to play with, he would fit in perfectly. They just push the pace on guys and he could go off there. Wisconsin because I think they're going to be positioned well as a pro hockey development house over the next few years, even if many of the current stars could be gone by then.

BC because I think they like to play an overall strong on puck, skilled style and he could fit in perfectly there to push them over the top. I would have thought BU might be a lead because they love those high-end kids but it doesn't seem they are likely for him at the moment. Another school I thought would be in the mix was Providence, his team is 20 minutes from there and they love guys with good size and skill, Bolduc is a solid 6'0~ right now.. could do damage for them. But they aren't in on him at the moment, so, yeah PSU, WI, BC.

Obviously Michigan, NoDak, UNO all great spots to land as well and I'm sure he could do well anywhere.
 
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tealhockey said:
I wrote a good amount about him and that specifically today on my website. But I'll just reiterate here.. of the three programs I've heard are likely landing spots. Penn State, Wisconsin and Boston College. Penn State from a systems perspective, as long as they have a quality center for him to play with, he would fit in perfectly. Wisconsin because I think they're going to be positioned well as a pro hockey development house over the next few years, even if many of the current stars could be gone by then.

BC because I think they like to play an overall strong on puck, skilled style and he could fit in perfectly there to push them over the top. I would have thought BU might be a lead because they love those high-end kids but it doesn't seem they are likely for him at the moment. Another school I thought would be in the mix was Providence, his team is 20 minutes from there and they love guys with good size and skill, Bolduc is a solid 6'0~ right now.. could do damage for them. But they aren't in on him at the moment, so, yeah PSU, WI, BC.

Obviously Michigan, NoDak, UNO all great spots to land as well and I'm sure he could do well anywhere.
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I know next to nothing about the NCAA, but as an outsider, I’d be pretty excited if he landed in Wisconsin. With all the truly elite fresh draft talent they’ve got on their hands right now, logic would dictate they’d be an excellent place to handle his development.
 
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Dominance said:
I know next to nothing about the NCAA, but as an outsider, I’d be pretty excited if he landed in Wisconsin. With all the truly elite fresh draft talent they’ve got on their hands right now, logic would dictate they’d be an excellent place to handle his development.
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I think it would be a great fit with the staff who are great at recruiting and developing players. Selfishly I would love that too since I'm writing a lot about the Big Ten (where Wisconsin play) and it would keep things interesting since it is probable that WI lose a lot of those upper-echelon guys within two (maybe three years tops), and he would come in right after them.

If I was a betting man, though, I'd bet on BC if he goes NCAA. They've got a legendary coach, some strong recruiting for a few years out already including some top eastern Canadians in Peter Reynolds and Cameron McDonald. Plus, it's east coast, a lot closer for his family.. since he started out looking at Maine and UMass, BU, it seems like he is leaning to the east coast.
 
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UNO has been snagging future commits from a lot of French Canadians lately IIRC (a few anyways at least which seems geographically odd for Nebraska). Is there a story behind that?

The Mount St Charles roster is just stacked with their transition to prep/youth hockey...fair to say they are looking to become a SSM/Culver type yearly powerhouse hockey program?
 
BKarchitect said:
UNO has been snagging future commits from a lot of French Canadians lately IIRC (a few anyways at least which seems geographically odd for Nebraska). Is there a story behind that?

The Mount St Charles roster is just stacked with their transition to prep/youth hockey...fair to say they are looking to become a SSM/Culver type yearly powerhouse hockey program?
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Can't speak to the UNO thing directly but have to figure UNO is looking for an edge in that region, one can assume the assistant coach who is from Quebec has some sort of contact or general 'in' there. The whole staff is Canadian (mostly western) so there is that too. I agree kind of random for UNO to be pulling players from Quebec but at the same time, not like they can fill the roster with kids from Nebraska and in a general sense the mid-west is heavily contested when it comes to recruits. They can't exactly walk into Minnesota or Detroit and expect to come out with top players every year. So the Quebec aspect actually seems pretty smart to me. Especially if they get a kid like this -- and they are right there in the race according to my sources.

There's a lot of pride in that Mount program and Rhode Island high school hockey has been down in the dumps. They seem to lose anyone decent to prep school these days. So Mount switching to the Shattuck model is definitely the plan and they have some serious resources it seems. The guys who run hockey at Mount (Devin Rask, Matt Plante and a few other guys) started 'Selects Academy' at South Kent when they did that same switch to the Shattuck model. If you follow prospects in the lower age groups in America you know a lot of real good players have come out of there since the inception of that program. Joel Farabee, Andrew Peeke, Emilio Pettersen, Zac Jones, Shane Pinto more recently. Time will tell but I think Mount has a lot of potential if they can sustain this over the next few years. It seems to me that the 16 team looks like one of the best in the country and the other teams are strong too. U18 has a number of D1 recruits and the U15 has a pretty deep d corps with some good forwards.
 
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Couple goals from Bolduc (and some other players). Also, don't know that BU or UMass are out of the picture for Bolduc. Could very well end up anywhere but NoDak and Michigan seem more likely from what I'm hearing. He also may end up staying uncommitted for a long time considering he wouldn't step onto campus until 2021 and anyone would gladly make room for him.
 
I'd imagine after this year he'd want to move up in level, wonder where he'd go, maybe the USHL.
 
BKarchitect said:
UNO has been snagging future commits from a lot of French Canadians lately IIRC (a few anyways at least which seems geographically odd for Nebraska). Is there a story behind that?

The Mount St Charles roster is just stacked with their transition to prep/youth hockey...fair to say they are looking to become a SSM/Culver type yearly powerhouse hockey program?
Click to expand...

I don't claim to be an expert but I share the opinion of tealhockey that it is very smart of UNO to recruit in Quebec. There is a growing trend here for top players to seek out NCAA scholarships. Since they are mostly raised in French and with little knowledge of the US programs, they don't really have a preference for a university like a kid from Michigan or Boston. Anyone who actively recruits in Quebec and presents a good program has a chance.

Southern Div.1 teams who are looking to expand their program should also get at it, Quebec kids who are used to -30C temperature would probably enjoy a few winters playing hockey under the sun
 
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Yeah he's gone. Will be interesting to see what happens with Guillaume Richard from that team. Victo got a first rounder back in 2020 after he opted to go to the US (Maine commit)
 
Drats. Oh well, still excited to see him play. Bolduc and Robidas sound a lot like the 2003 born version of Poulin and Pelletier (Bolduc being somewhat analogous to Poulin and Robidas the smaller and shifty one like Pelletier).
 
Gotta admit, I find it a bit funny for this to happen now, after the comments that Serge Beausoleil (Rimouski GM/coach) made this summer about Quebec players taking the US college route.

Still it's not a bad move for Bolduc. A team that has a serious need for offensive talent, and will give him a ton of visibility to scouts.
 
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SympathyForTheDevils said:
Gotta admit, I find it a bit funny for this to happen now, after the comments that Serge Beausoleil (Rimouski GM/coach) made this summer about Quebec players taking the US college route.

Still it's not a bad move for Bolduc. A team that has a serious need for offensive talent, and will give him a ton of visibility to scouts.
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Serge Beausoleil is the King of Hypocrites! Patrick Roy agreed with Beausoleil but he still pursued Malatesta and won. Whatever works for them.

I never believed that Bolduc would eventually play in the NCAA. I always thought he and his family loved being pursued by the top NCAA programs. Even the kid said before the Q Draft that he was still considering joining the league but the team that would take him had to pay for his release from Mount St.Charles.
 
SergeConstantin74 said:
Serge Beausoleil is the King of Hypocrites! Patrick Roy agreed with Beausoleil but he still pursued Malatesta and won. Whatever works for them.

I never believed that Bolduc would eventually play in the NCAA. I always thought he and his family loved being pursued by the top NCAA programs. Even the kid said before the Q Draft that he was still considering joining the league but the team that would take him had to pay for his release from Mount St.Charles.
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You're probably right. Honestly, good for those kids, for using what little leverage they have in their favor. And I get that Roy and Beausoleil have to play that game; it's their job. It just rubs me the wrong way when they loudly complain about this situation because their teams are the ones that benefit from it. When a prospect suddenly decides to play in the Q, it's rarely to play in Baie-Comeau, Val-D'Or or Bathurst.

Serge Beausoleil, 07/06/19: "If you go to the US, it's OK. Go. But I can't be your plan B. It needs to stop and kids need to assume their choices."

Way to keep a hard line, Serge.
 
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SympathyForTheDevils said:
Gotta admit, I find it a bit funny for this to happen now, after the comments that Serge Beausoleil (Rimouski GM/coach) made this summer about Quebec players taking the US college route.

Still it's not a bad move for Bolduc. A team that has a serious need for offensive talent, and will give him a ton of visibility to scouts.
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This is a way better move than playing AAA hockey and prep teams in the states, he’ll be seen by way more scouts than against the NJ Avalanche or Dexter Prep for example. He’s on a team with lafreniere.
 
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After watching him play once, I'll co-sign what @tealhockey has been saying. Looked good. First round level talent. And that comes with the caveat that a lot of these guys have first round level talent at this stage, and it's paired down at some point to a more manageable amount that do, but that applies to all these guys at this point that we talk about as potential first round guys.
 
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