Help requests denied
There will be no compensation for Quebec Major Junior Hockey League teams that loaded up for the playoffs.
Commissioner Gilles Courteau said Wednesday he received formal requests from the Moncton Wildcats and Chicoutimi Sagueneens after the playoffs were cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID19 strain) pandemic. Courteau said he expressed his point of view at a league meeting, and it was supported by the majority of the members without requiring a vote to be held.
“No compensation is going to be given back to the five teams that built a team to have a chance to win the league championship and represent the league at the Memorial Cup mainly because of the fact that it was not appropriate to penalize the other 13 teams in a situation where they didn’t have nothing to do with it.”
The other three teams were the Sherbrooke Phoenix, Cape Breton Eagles and Rimouski Oceanic, who were ranked first, fourth and fifth, respectively, in the overall standings when the season was halted March 12.
“They weren’t looking to get compensation of any nature because they understood the situation,” Courteau said. “They realized they took a risk and could have been eliminated in the first round.”
Courteau said he discussed the issue with his counterparts in the Ontario and Western hockey leagues and neither league compensated teams.
The Wildcats, who were second overall, made three big trades between Dec. 22 and Jan. 6, acquiring Bo Groulx and Jared McIsaac from Halifax and Gabriel Fortier from Baie-Comeau. They also acquired goalie Olivier Rodrigue from Drummondville at the draft in June.
The cost to acquire the quartet included three firstround picks, five seconds, four thirds and two fourths.
The Sagueneens acquired Felix Bibeau from Quebec, Dawson Mercer from Drummondville, Ralphaël Lavoie from Halifax and Karl Boudrias from Val-d’Or during the in-season trade period. It also acquired Ethan Crossman from Baie-Comeau, Rafaël Harvey-Pinard and Felix-Antoine Drolet in the pre-season.
They relinquished three firsts, nine seconds, four thirds and two fourths, plus two highly touted prospects to acquire the top-end talent.
Sherbrooke, Cape Breton and Rimouski also made significant investments in terms of players and picks to give their team the best chance to win.
The league has sent a schedule with the normal start date to its teams, plus some other proposals in case the beginning of the year has to be pushed back due to COVID19.
“There’s lots of questions that are still unanswered as of today,” Courteau said.
“We’re still waiting for Health Canada to get back to us with some recommendations and the government from each (of the four) provinces before we come up with a decision on when we will be able to start our ’20-21. As of today, we don’t know.”