New Eagle
Screaming Eagles reportedly acquire top forward
Cape Breton Screaming Eagles reportedly acquire Michael Joly.
Media outlets in Québec are reporting that 20-year-old forward Michael Joly will soon be joining the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.
The reports, first published online by L’Avantage newspaper, suggest that Joly, who is in his fourth season with the Rimouski Océanic, will be moved to the Screaming Eagles in return for two draft picks and a player.
Cape Breton head coach and general manager Marc-André Dumont said Québec Major Junior Hockey League rules prevent him from commenting on specific transactions until they are officially approved by the league.
However, he said the organization is always looking to improve the team.
“For us, trades have to make sense - if it makes sense and it’s available, we’re always looking to improve the team,” said Dumont.
“So that’s the philosophy we’ve had for a number of years and I think it helps our team to grow and to keep going in the right direction.”
For its part, Rimouski also refrained from making an official announcement, however the team issued a message via Twitter that suggested Océanic fans might be interested in watching Joly play in Friday’s home game against the Baie Comeau Drakkar.
The overager from Gatineau, Qué. has 14 goals and 11 assists in 20 games this season. Overall, he has scored 95 goals and 173 points in 179 QMJHL regular season games, while adding 21 goals and 12 assists in 36 career playoff games. Joly scored the doubleovertime goal that gave the Océanic a 2-1 win in the seventh and deciding game of the QMJHL final series last season, before adding two goals and four assists in Rimouski’s four games at the Memorial Cup.
The Screaming Eagles sit third in the Martimes Division with a record of 13-12-3-0. But with one of the top lines in major junior hockey in Evgeny Svechnikov, Maxim Lazarev and Pierre-Luc Dubois, many pundits predicted that Cape Breton would be one of the top teams in the league this season.
The team has been playing with only two (goalie Alexandre Bélanger and defenceman Alexandre Gosselin) of its allowed 20-year-olds this season after forward Alexandre Ranger, who was acquired in a summer trade, signed instead for the Norfolk Admirals of the East Coast Hockey League.