Making the most of his opportunity
Acadie-Bathurst Titan sign Chad Arsenault for QMJHL season
Chad Arsenault got his shot and made the most of it.
The Acadie-Bathurst Titan announced Tuesday it had signed the 18-year-old goalie from St-Raphael for the rest of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) season.
“It’s nice,” he said Tuesday afternoon.
“Now I get to play more than 10 games.”
As an affiliate player, Arsenault was only permitted to play 10 games in the QMJHL before the Christmas break. But the Titan applied for, and was granted, an exemption by the league to sign Arsenault.
Acadie-Bathurst took Czech Republic goalie Jan Bednar with the second overall pick in the Canadian Hockey League import draft in June, but his status remains up in the air due to travel restrictions in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Titan brought in Christian Sbaraglia from Ontario, but he is out for at least a few weeks with an upperbody injury after playing three games.
The team also can’t bring in someone from Quebec to help right away due to the pandemic.
Acadie-Bathurst acquired Arsenault from the Charlottetown Islanders on Oct. 2 for a ninth-round draft pick. The Islanders drafted the Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild netminder in the 12th round of 2018.
“I think Chad was waiting for his break. He definitely took advantage of it,” Titan GM Sylvain Couturier said. “We’re happy to have a guy like Chad for the rest of the season and we’ll have to make some decisions when, and if, Bednar comes in. … We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
Arsenault, the top goalie of the 2019 Atlantic major under-18 hockey championship in Charlottetown, grew up watching the P.E.I. Rocket and aspired to play in the QMJHL.
He played junior A last season with the Valley Wildcats, going 5-21-2-0 with a 4.38 goals-against average (GAA) and a .886 save percentage. He said the season helped prepare him for the next step.
“I got a lot of playing time and saw a lot of pucks,” he said.
“We had a great coaching staff, great group of guys, and I really benefited from that year.”
Arsenault attended training camp with the Islanders in the summer before preparing to head to Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley.
He was appreciative of the Isles for making the trade and giving him a chance to play major junior.
“I was fortunate enough to get an opportunity. I knew I had to take it and run.”
That he did.
The five-foot-eight, 180pound goalie is 5-4 with a 3.16 GAA and a .916 save percentage. Acadie-Bathurst started the season 7-0-0-1 but has gone 0-3-1-0 the past two weeks.
Couturier acknowledged he didn’t know much about Arsenault before the trade but had heard some really good reports from his scouts.
“He’s not the biggest guy in the net, but he never quits on the shot. He competes. He’s a battler out there,” he said.
“He gave us a chance to win every night so we cannot ask for more from a goalie.”
Arsenault said having three other Islanders (forward Bennett MacArthur and defencemen Cole Larkin and Zach Biggar) on the Titan roster helped make for a smooth transition.
“It was really nice coming in already knowing some of the guys.”
While Arsenault knew the 10-game mark was approaching he tried not to think about it.
“That was kind of out of my control, so I just went game by game and wait to see what would happen,” he said.
Now that he knows where he will be don’t expect him to relax.
“I have to keep performing,” said the composed young man.
The Titan host Halifax this evening.
“I think Chad was waiting for his break. He definitely took advantage of it.”
Sylvain Couturier Acadie-Bathurst Titan general manager