Three Newfoundlanders make their mark on QMJHL teams this season
Brett Budgell played less than half a season with the Charlottetown Islanders, but the young forward from St. John’s was impressive enough in his abbreviated time to earn rookie of the year honours with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League club.
The 16-year-old Budgell had 10 goals and 12 assists in 32 QMJHL games after joining the Islanders post-christmas. That didn’t make him Charlottetown’s top first-year point-getter — that was German/russian forward Nikita Alexandrov (1318-31) — but his performance down the stretch drew rave reviews.
The Islanders had made Budgell their second-round pick (25th overall) in the 2017 QMJHL draft, taking a chance on a player who had been leaning towards the American university
route. Budgell did attend Charlottetown’s training camp, but left after less than two days in order to protect his NCAA eligibility.
He started the season with the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League, a junior A circuit, but the Islanders kept in touch and signed him on New Years Day.
——— Another Newfoundlander winning an end-of-the-season award with his team was defenceman Adam Holwell, named the Acadie-bathurst Titan’s top defenceman.
The 20-year-old from St. John’s had 10 goals and 40 assists in 67 games and had an eye-popping plus-43 rating, which was best on the team, best of any player in the Maritime Division and fourth overall in the QMJHL.
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Also noteworthy among team award-winners in the QMJHL was Mount Pearl’s Jesse Sutton, a centre with the Quebec Remparts.
Sutton, who turned 20 on Wednesday, won the Marius Fortier Award for a third straight year. It’s given to a Remparts player for dedication to community service. Among Sutton’s many charitable works is his annual end-of-the-season shaving of his head to raise money for children’s cancer research.
His father, Newfoundland and Labrador Basketball Hall of Famer Clarence Sutton, died of cancer in his 40s.
Sutton had a good season on the ice, too, with 22 goals and 46 points in 68 games. He had been battling the injury bug for much if his major junior career.