The Eagles have landed
Main camp opens for island’s major junior hockey team.
Phélix Martineau’s heart and tenacity earned him a spot on the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles roster four years ago.
Now in his final season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Martineau is an elder statesman and enters his final training camp with the team.
Being through it all before, the Laval, Que., forward had some sound advice for the young players hoping to make the squad just like he did in 2014.
“It’s a bit of a cliché, but when I first came in, the older guys told me to enjoy it because it goes by really fast. And it went by really fast,” said Martineau, a fifth-round draft pick by Cape Breton in 2014. “I just tell them to enjoy every part of it they can, live day-to-day and make it through.”
The 2017 training camp officially opened Monday at the Membertou Sport and Wellness Centre.
The rookie portion of the camp concluded on Sunday, with the Eagles players taking part in the Rookie Challenge tournament in Moncton. Cape Breton finished with a 1-1-0-1 record, and wrapped things up with a 5-1 win over the Saint John Sea Dogs rookies.
A total of 13 players have moved on from rookie camp to the main camp: Aaron Brown, Phillippe Casault, Tommy DaSilva, Ryan Francis, Brooklyn Kalmikov, Liam Kidney, Noah Laaouan, Ryan MacLellan, Jérémie Major, Jake Martin, Antoine Rochon, Nicolas Sauvé and Daniel Thompson. Seven players — defencemen Antoine Casimir (who suffered an upper body injury) and Matt McKay, along with forwards Gabriel Choinière, Alexandre Roy, Ludovic Lefrançois, Mikael Martel and Jérémy Talbot — have been reassigned.
The main camp includes 33 players: four goaltenders, 10 defencemen and 19 forwards. Of the 33, 17 are returning fulltime players from last year’s squad.
“We have a good group of guys and everybody likes each other,” said Martineau. “I think it’s going to be a plus for us this season, so I can’t wait for the season to get started.”
Cape Breton’s first exhibition action will be on Wednesday at the East Hants Sportsplex in Lantz, N.S., against the Halifax Mooseheads. They’ll then host a pair of games in Membertou: Friday versus the Mooseheads and Saturday against the Moncton Wildcats, both starting at 7 p.m.
“We want to be focused,” Martineau said about camp. “We want to have fun, but at the same time, we need to be sharp everyday. Be ‘everydayers’ all the time.”