Olympiques load up roster

By the time the next Quebec Major Junior Hockey League trading period comes around in mid-December, the Gatineau Olympiques will be almost 40 games into the regular season and should know whether they are buyers or sellers — which is one way of saying contenders or pretenders.

Just the same, Olympiques head coach and general manager Benoit Groulx couldn’t let the August trading period go by without a couple of deals to add depth on defence and grab one valuable asset — a firstround pick in the 2014 QMJHL draft — to give him three first-round picks to dangle should he decide to load up down the stretch.

Groulx started by sending former first-round pick Kameron Kielly to his hometown Charlottetown Islanders along with a couple of late round picks in 2015 in return for 19-year-old defencemen Alexandre Chenier-Allard and the Islanders’ first-round pick next spring, as well as a fourth-round pick in 2016.

Things just never worked out in Gatineau for Kielly, who still doesn’t turn 17 until mid-December. Kielly was only able to strike for four goals and six points in 60 games as a rookie and the Olympiques didn’t think of him as much more than a third or fourth liner heading into 2013-14.

The trade leaves Groulx with not only Gatineau’s own first rounder in 2014 but those of Charlottetown and Chicoutimi, the latter acquired in the trade for Ottawa Senators prospect Jean-Gabriel Pageau at the deadline in 2011-12.

And Groulx wasn’t done, obtaining 18-year-old defenceman Élie Bérubé from Blainville-Boisbriand for draft picks. Bérubé becomes a top-four defenceman for the Olympiques. He managed just four points in 46 games and was plagued all season by an ankle injury, which has now healed.

The Olympiques went 1-1 in their home-and-home exhibition series last weekend against BlainvilleBoisbriand and have a date in Vald’Or Friday before Val-d’Or returns the favour Aug. 30 at the Robert Guertin Arena.

Then it’s a home-and-home with the Ottawa 67’s (Sept. 6 in Kemptville and one night later in Gatineau) and right into the regular season.

First though, Groulx still has 29 players in camp, including nine defenceman and 18 forwards. That means at least one rearguard and four forwards have to go. He also has five 16-year-olds and only three are expected to stick. The 16-yearolds have to start school in a week, so that’s the deadline Groulx is facing.