LW/RW Justin Carbonneau - Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, QMJHL (2025 Draft)

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
36,249
16,420
If their lineup sheets are correct, he has been consistently playing in their top 9 over the last month or so, with some games on the top line. He had 3 goals and 1 assist in 8 games in the month of January, and currently has 5 points in his last 6 games. Looking for more info on this player, seems like someone to keep an eye on.

 
  • Like
Reactions: Dominance
Offensive winger who plays with a lot of confidence. Skating was the weakness in the past, it's being worked on it seems. Has great hands, executes plays quickly in traffic, a threat both as a shooter and playmaker. A guy that does well on the power play. He's a guy that you watch play and wonder how he can miss so many scoring chances at times despite having a pretty decent shot.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Frk It
2 goals and an assist tonight. Believe he’s playing on their top line. Having a pretty nice -1 season.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Dominance
He's one of the Q player I have on my radar.

He's spirited and talented. An exciting difference maker. Big body too.

End of 1st rd/early 2nd is where I see him actually.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: dr1234
wow he's looking great so far. Could he slip into 1st round territory if he keeps this up?
He’s been ranked as high as 12oa by Corey Pronman. I personally wouldn’t go that high but he’s so dynamic I’d be shocked if he’s not gone in the 20-32 range.
 
  • Like
Reactions: wetcoast
Hat trick in past game. 10 points in last 4 games

My main concern with Carbonneau this year has been and remains some question marks that I have concerning his Hockey IQ. It's the reason why I don't have Carbonneau top-10 despite impressive skills, good skating, a great work ethic, and a strong frame to boot.

The uptick in production is fun to see, and I do think Carbonneau has been plain more effective in the last few games in all aspects, but he still hasn't made significant-enough progress to assuage my concerns over his decisions on the ice.

More specifically, the ambivalence that I have with Carbonneau's hockey sense comes from how he can sometimes look like a guy with simultaneously both high and low Hockey-IQ on any given night for Blainville-Boisbriand.

Carbonneau'd show some creative playmaking, nice vision with the puck, do a really nice one-touch play to a teammate, and show some pretty impressive anticipation of where defenders/vulnerabilities would be on the ice with the puck on his stick, the proverbial "good hockey sense plays" if you will. Not to mention how good Carbonneau can look as a rush/transition player.

Only, Carbonneau would then proceed to "tank" my evaluations of him as a prospect with the Armada by demonstrating a VERY frustrating lack of patience/anticipation whilst the puck isn't on his stick. He'd demonstrate great work ethic in a pretty useless way by being a pure puck-chaser instead of just identifying his man and sticking to him, cutting passing lanes, maybe stopping near the boards in the neutral zone to put pressure on wingers/defenders trying to make a play. Carbonneau also often bungles assignment switches defensively I've found.

Then there's also the fact that on some of his "off-nights" a lot of plays tend to die on Carbonneau's stick since he seems to have a propension for shooting a lot of pucks even from bad angles, often directly in the opposing goalies' chests.

So yeah, I will admit that seeing all of this, and also how Carbonneau doesn't stick to his wing and instead plays a bit like a rover, going all over the ice, I have some doubts as to whether or not Carbonneau's hockey sense is any good compared to NHL standards or not.

Which makes me think that perhaps Carbonneau has been "masking" some hockey sense issues with his skating/skill/hustle advantage over most of the players in the CHL.

Inversely, maybe what I've seen is simply an immature defensive game and consistency issues on Carbonneau's side that I "overblow" into a more structural issue than it needs to be, it's possible too.

We should have more information on this aspect of Carbonneau's game as he starts playing more and more important games for Blainville, and into the playoffs. But sadly, I don't think we'll be able to definitely statuate on this until after Carbonneau has played some pro games and has been "put to the test" some more against top opposition.

Those would be my two cents, and I sincerely hope for his sake that I'm overstating things as far as Carbonneau's hockey IQ goes.
 
Last edited:
He reminds me of Kevin Fiala stylistically. The good and the bad. Very similar traits: athletic ability, skill, size, skating are all plus and he is relentless. But sometimes plays like he is on an island, with questionable decisions.
 
I was pretty critical of him during the regular season. I picked some bad games to watch, mostly. But I definitely noted a lot of the same negatives people notice. But I didn’t see as much of the positive.

He’s been SPECTACULAR so far these playoffs. What I’ve seen from him the first few games of this series is better than what I’ve seen from most of the players in the top 15 of this class. He’s got consistency issues but his high water mark is as high as almost any other player in this class.

He’s converted me entirely in just a few games. I like big game players that step up in big moments. I like players that have another gear of intensity for when it matters most. That combined with the skill and the production. He’s going to end up on my top 12 easy or even my top 10.
 
I was pretty critical of him during the regular season. I picked some bad games to watch, mostly. But I definitely noted a lot of the same negatives people notice. But I didn’t see as much of the positive.

He’s been SPECTACULAR so far these playoffs. What I’ve seen from him the first few games of this series is better than what I’ve seen from most of the players in the top 15 of this class. He’s got consistency issues but his high water mark is as high as almost any other player in this class.

He’s converted me entirely in just a few games. I like big game players that step up in big moments. I like players that have another gear of intensity for when it matters most. That combined with the skill and the production. He’s going to end up on my top 12 easy or even my top 10.
I'll admit I've only seen parts of the Blainville/Sherbrooke series. so I might be similarly unlucky in my viewings. But honestly I've seen a lot of both the good and bad with Carbonneau these playoffs.

Granted, the good is real good. Whenever he has the puck it feels like something is gonna happen. His puckhandling, shot, offensive instincts are fantastic. He's such a threat that opponents have to constantly focus on him, which opens space for his linemates. He's strong (though I wish he was more consistently physical) and he's competitive. He's the reason the Armada won Game Two (his second goal was just a beauty), and he's the main reason they could still win the series.

But man he can be frustrating. He still tries to 1-on-1 Dmen too often, when he has better options available. He's prone to bad penalties; after taking 3 minors last game, he took an unsportsmanlike tonight when his team was leading 3-1, which sparked a comeback by Sherbrooke who scored 3 goals in 5 minutes. I'll forgive him batting the puck into his own goal with 4 minutes to go in the game, because hey, shit happens, but I think it's characteristic of his play in the D zone: he tries, but he's not yet any good at it. He's shown improvements over the year about tamping down those bad habits, but I think his decision-making and all-around game are still well short of what I'd expect from a likely top-15 pick who's in his third year of junior hockey. Whoever drafts him better have a solid plan in mind about how to turn him into a pro player.

That said, I don't really disagree with him being top-12 on a draft list. If you were to rank the forwards in this class based purely on their physical toolkit, he'd be comfortably top-5.

Sherbrooke is now 2-1 in the series; if they win, it'll be the third time in a row that Carbonneau and the Armada are booted out of the playoffs in the first round by the same team. I expect Carbonneau to be really fired up and dialed-in in the next two games.
 
Last edited:
It’s probably the worst officiating I’ve ever seen in any playoff series in any league at any level. The game results im not that concerned with. I don’t they’ve a rooting interest. And I hope carbonneau goes to the ncaa regardless.
 

Ad

Ad