Next generation
Screaming Eagles take Laaouan, Kalmikov at ‘Q’ draft.
Noah Laaouan dreamed of playing in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League from the first time he laced up skates as a young child.
The Halifax native is now one step closer to his goal after the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles made him their top pick at No. 14 overall at the QMJHL Entry Draft on Saturday in Saint John, N.B.
“There was a lot of relief,” said Laaouan. “I was kind of waiting around waiting to hear my name and when my name was called by the Screaming Eagles, my family and I were super happy.”
Last season, the defenceman played with the Steele Subaru Major Midgets of the Nova Scotia Eastlink Major Midget Hockey League. In 38 regular season games, the 15-year-old had 12 goals and 27 points.
“I think I’m a good two-way defenceman, I like to be physical and hard to play against,” said Laaouan. “It’s a goal of mine to make the team next year for sure, it’s probably going to take a bit of an adjustment making the jump from midget to major junior because it’s such a big jump.”
And with back-to-back firstround picks, the Screaming Eagles went on to draft forward Brooklyn Kalmikov with the No. 15 overall selection.
Kalmikov, the son of former Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick Konstantin Kalmikov, knew the Eagles were interested in him.
“It was a little bit of a surprise, but at the same time it wasn’t,” said the 16-year-old. “I thought that I could fit on this team and make good things happen.”
In 40 games with the Les Phénix du Collège Esther-Blondin of the Quebec Midget ‘AAA’ Hockey League, the Terrebonne, Que. native had 16 goals and 22 points.
Kalmikov’s overall goal for the upcoming season is to make the Eagles roster out of training camp.
“I’m a skilled player, good offensively and defensively too — I can create some plays and I can score goals.”
In total, the Screaming Eagles drafted 15 players in the 14round draft including 10 forwards, four defencemen and one goaltender.
Cape Breton made three selections in the second round of the draft, picking forward Ryan Francis of the Cole Harbour Pro Hockey Life Wolfpack, forward Antoine Rochon of the Les Vikings de St-Eustache, and goaltender Tommy DaSilva of the Les Riverains du Collège Charles-Lemoyne.
The Screaming Eagles went on to select forward Ludovic Lefrancois of Les Albatros du Collège Notre-Dame in round three, forward Mikael Martel of the L’Intrépide de l’Outaouais in round four, and defenceman Philippe Casault of Cole Harbour in round five.
In the middle rounds, Cape Breton drafted forward Gabriel Choiniere of Les Vikings de StEustache in round eight and Nicholas Yuill of the Halifax McDonalds in round nine.
In later rounds, the Eagles selected forwards Aaron Brown of the Charlie’s Pizza South Shore Mustangs and Liam Kidney of Cole Harbour, both in round 11, before drafting defenceman Michael Kennedy of Northfield - Mt. Herman PS Hoggers in round 12, and forward Jeremy Talbot of Les Gaulois du Collège Antoine Girouard in round 13.
Cape Breton finished the annual event drafting forward Jacob Banks of the Boston Junior Bruins in round 14.
On the trade front, the Screaming Eagles completed four trades, three of which involved swapping draft picks.
In a surprising move, Cape
Breton traded goaltending prospect Colten Ellis of the Cape Breton West Islanders to the Rimouski Océanic for a first-round pick, originally belonging to Sherbrooke, in the 2018 QMJHL Entry Draft.
Ellis, who backstopped the Islanders to provincial, Atlantic and Telus Cup titles this year, was originally drafted by the Screaming Eagles in round four, No. 59 overall, at the 2016 draft.
The Rimouski Océanic held the first overall pick at the 2017 draft, selecting forward Alexis Lafreniere. Samuel Poulin (Sherbrooke), Jakob Pelletier (Moncton), Xavier Parent (Halifax) and Maxence Guenette (Val-d’Or) rounded out the top five draft picks.