Quebec looks to restock hockey talent
When t he two- day Quebec Hockey Summit took place in Montreal in 2011, it touched on issues including head injuries and ways to improve the game.
But the prominent topic of conversation in panels featuring former NHL players like Luc Robitaille, Guy Carbonneau and Bobby Smith was a potential crisis looming large over the province: where have all the Quebecois NHL players gone?
The province known for grooming many of hockey’s most charismatic stars has hit something of a developmental rut over the last two decades. Gone are the days of dominant French Canadian stars l i ke Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Gilbert Perreault, Guy Lafleur, Mario Lemieux, Patrick Roy and Martin Brodeur.
That may have never been more evident than at the NHL draft in June, when 14 players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League were selected, by far the lowest total since 2004. Of those 14 players, only eight were born in the province.
“It’s a major concern for us,” said Paul Menard, the director of player development for Hockey Quebec. “We want to have great numbers. We’re definitely trying to work on that. They’re not all going to be drafted in the NHL, so if we can help some other Quebec kids to be better athletes, better people, we’ve achieved that also. But what we want is to have players on the national team and have players drafted in the NHL.”
Since Vincent Lecavalier, arguably Quebec’s last can’tmiss prospect, was taken first in the 1998 draft, only one Quebec- born player has been the draft’s top pick: Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Marc- Andre Fleury, in 2003.
In fact, since Lecavalier was drafted by the Tampa Bay Lightning, just five Quebec- born players have been among the draft’s top five selections. The latest was forward Pierre- Luc Dubois, taken by the Columbus Blue Jackets with the No. 3 pick this year.
It is a startling showing for a province long synonymous with the Montreal Canadiens’ famous Flying Frenchmen teams.
In 2014- 15, Quebec had 100,599 registered hockey players, according to Hockey Canada. That is a marginal i ncrease from the previous year, and it accounted for 15.7 per cent of Canada’s registered hockey players.
“Back when I was a kid, everybody played hockey,” said former NHL goaltender Jocelyn Thibault. “If you had a son, he would play hockey, which is not necessarily true anymore. There are so many things to do that we can’t take for granted that kids are just going to play hockey.”
Few people are as well versed as Thibault in Quebec’s hockey c ulture. A Montreal native, Thibault was drafted by the Quebec Nordiques in the first round of the 1993 draft before being sent to Montreal in the 1995 trade that sent Roy to the Colorado Avalanche, who had relocated f rom Quebec the previous season. That trade remains an infamous moment in the province’s sporting history.
“Hockey is still very important here,” said Thibault, who is an owner and general manager of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Sherbrooke Phoenix. “The Montreal Canadiens draw so much attention and publicity. I don’t think it’s fair to say that hockey is on the downside here. But there is a challenge as far as bringing young kids to hockey. If we take things for granted, we might lose our base. That’s a fact.”
In Toronto at the World Cup of Hockey, the Canadian team, which will meet Team Europe in the best- of- three final beginning Tuesday, has only three Quebec- born players: Boston Bruins forward Patrice Bergeron, San Jose Sharks defenceman Marc- Edouard Vlasic and Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford. The eliminated North American squad, which consisted of American and Canadian players 23 or younger, had one Quebecborn player, Lightning forward Jonathan Drouin.
“There’s still some really good players from Quebec that are in this league,” Bergeron said. “There’s less this time around, but I don’t think it’s a decline. I think it’s a cycle. It’s going to come back and be fine.”
The startling statistics are part of a troubling trend that inspired Hockey Quebec to adjust its development model 10 years ago, when the organization introduced a new program made up of 15 regional clubs. Borrowing from a system developed in Europe, each club draws from the top youth players in its region, evaluating each player three times a year and sending those results to Hockey Quebec, which helps to fund the clubs while reviewing each coach.
The best players from each club are also identified by Hockey Quebec and invited to participate in elite summer clinics and tournaments.
“We evaluate to develop, not just to select players,” Menard said. “With t he evaluation, they also ask to pinpoint some of the areas the player has to work on. This is an evaluation that the teams in the club systems do and report to their directors. We receive those evaluations. We review them and give them an opportunity where we meet those clubs to talk about what we have to work on.”