The Chronicle Herald (Provincial)
Peddle living up to hype early in season
Tyler Peddle is meeting the high expectations so far with the Drummondville Voltigeurs, perhaps even exceeding them.
The 16-year-old winger from Antigonish is off to a blazing start in his rookie season after being the second overall pick in this summer's QMJHL draft. Peddle has six goals in his first six games, which is just one off the league lead. He also has two assists to give him eight points, which puts him in the top 20 in Q scoring.
Peddle already has two twogoal games and is on a rare pace, although I concede it is still very early. At his current rate, Peddle would finish the season with 90 points in 68 games.
Only five 16-year-olds in the past decade have produced at a point per game or better — Alexis Lafreniere (60 GP, 80 Pts), Antoine Morand (48 GP, 50 Pts), Daniel Sprong (67GP, 68 Pts), Nathan Mackinnon (58 GP, 78 Pts) and Anthony Duclair (63 GP, 66 Pts). Of those players, Morand is the only one who has yet to play in the NHL but he's at the AHL level and there's still plenty of time for him to earn a promotion.
As Peddle's stats suggest, he is also more of a goal scorer than a playmaker and it's possible he could end up finding the net more than all of those players mentioned earlier. Lafreniere scored 42 times in 2017-18 so that's the high water mark but only four others since 2011-12 have hit the 30-goal plateau - Mackinnon (31), Duclair (31), Sprong (30) and Zachary Bolduc (30). Peddle has 62 games left to reach - or surpass - that echelon.
It's worth mentioning it's another Nova Scotian who is literally assisting Peddle so far in his quest to hit those heights. Bridgewater's Luke Woodworth, who was Drummondville's first-round pick in 2020, has six assists and eight points in his first six games, including passes to Peddle for goals on the power play. It's a local connection worth tracking the rest of the way.
RYAN FRANCIS'S EXTENDED PRO STAY COMPLICATING MATTERS FOR SEA DOGS
Ryan Francis must be creating mixed emotions in Saint John these days.
As you likely already know, the Sea Dogs are hosting this year's Memorial Cup. They have an excellent roster from top to bottom but Francis is one of their most important pieces.
After a strong training camp with the Calgary Flames in September, the Beaverbank native earned an assignment to their AHL affiliate, the Stockton Heat. The soon-tobe 20-year-old forward signed a professional tryout contract last week, which buys the organization time to evaluate where he should spend the rest of the 2021-22 season.
A 'PTO' as it's commonly referred to around hockey gives the Flames and Heat up to 25 games to decide whether Francis should stay in the pro ranks for the remainder of the year or return to junior to wrap up his career at that level. The Sea Dogs must certainly be proud of Francis for doing so well for himself but you can be sure they'd be just as pleased to have him back in the fold in such an important year.
Francis put up 29 points in 17 games for Saint John after being acquired from the Cape Breton Eagles at mid-season a year ago. If he were to return there for his overage season, he would easily be the Sea Dogs' most valuable forward and would take tons of pressure off general manager Trevor Georgie in his ongoing responsibility of icing the best team possible to represent the league at the Memorial Cup in May.
TITAN FORCED TO WAIT ON HENDRIX LAPIERRE
The same conflicted emotions are certainly playing out a few hours north in Bathurst as well.
The Titan paid a steep price to acquire star centre Hendrix Lapierre from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in the off-season in what is designed to be a boom year in Bathurst. The Titan painstakingly rebuilt their roster the past three years after winning the President Cup and Memorial Cup in 2018.
Like every team that has to go back to square one after winning it all, there were some lean times during that period. But many pegged the Titan as the team to beat heading into the current Quebec league season, in large part based on the impact Lapierre would make as a 19-year-old franchise player.
But Lapierre surpassed expectations at Washington Capitals training camp and made the team. He even scored his first career NHL goal in his debut on Oct. 13. But since that memorable night, Lapierre has been scratched twice and only saw 9:51 minutes of ice time in his other appearance, which was the lowest on the team for that night.
It's common for NHL teams to give young teenaged players a nine-game audition before sending them back to junior for more development. Dressing a player for his 10th game in the first year of his entry level deal triggers certain elements of his contract teams usually prefer to avoid.
So it's possible that will be how it eventually plays out with Lapierre but since few expected him to crack the Capitals lineup in the first place this year, there are far from any guarantees. Should he be reassigned to Bathurst, it's intriguing to think how much more intimidating the Titan would seem to the rest of the league.
They're already in first place overall with a 6-1-0-1 record and other players have really elevated their play in Lapierre's absence. Most notably, Enfield's Riley Kidney is one point off the league scoring lead with 14 points in eight games.