Since something-for-everyone regionalism is sacrosanct in this country, a Team Canada with potentially zero players from the QMJHL will be a cause of hand-wringing, even if it’s cyclical and not at all surprising.

Only three players from the eastern league will be in Hockey Canada’s 32-player selection camp in St. Catharines, Ont., this week: the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles’ Drake Batherson (OTT), the Victoriaville Tigres’ Maxime Comtois (ANA) and goalie Samuel Harvey from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. The overarching concern is that the most successful Canadian teams at the world junior championship, going back over the last decade, had a small-in-numbers, long-in-contributions contingent from the QMJHL.

Then-Saint John Sea Dogs star Thomas Chabot was the top defenceman for the silver-medal earning 2017 iteration, which boasted seven QMJHL players. The gold-winning ’15 team had four Quebec leaguers, including Anthony Duclair as a top-six forward and goalie Zach Fucale, who started the gold-medal game.

Having only three can be chalked up to circumstances, with 19-year-old Pierre-Luc Dubois and Samuel Girard each gaining a foothold in the NHL with the Columbus Blue Jackets and Colorado Avalanche, respectively, but there is a trend line since the last NHL draft had only three QMJHL players among the first 100 picks – Comtois, fellow Anaheim forward prospect Antoine Morand and Charlottetown Islanders defenceman Pierre-Oliver Joseph (ARI) – who will be eligible to play for Canada in 2019. Others could surprise, and erstwhile exceptional-status player Joey Veleno, who’s evidently headed to Drummondville from Saint John once the QMJHL trade window opens, might rate consideration.

An easy ketchup answer – something that goes on everything – is that this is symptomatic of the contagion in youth hockey, where the zealousness to go all in at a too-early age helps fast-track the development of the few to the detriment of the many (and many parents’ retirement nest egg). That system works well enough, for the time being, in more populous Ontario and western Canada. Its effects could be a little more evident in Quebec and down east in the Maritimes, where the population is smaller and older than the national average.

To the QMJHL’s credit, this hasn’t affected the league’s parity. Only seven points separate league-leading Blainville-Boisbriand from 10th-placed Sherbrooke.

All Hockey Canada can do is work with the best teenaged talent available; those issues with access and affordability are on someone else’s desk. But it’s hard not to picture a straight line from the gonzo world of minor hockey to who emerges as the best available 19-year-olds every December.

The national junior team will certainly have some knowhow in the brain trust department, with Drummondville coach Dominique Ducharme taking his second tour as head coach and the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada’s Joël Bouchard being part of the team’s business management group. That’s no surprise at all given the gamesmanship the QMJHL is known for and the challenges of building a winning culture in a league that draws players from a myriad of backgrounds. That does call to mind the immoral line that legendary Wisconsin Badgers coach Barry Alvarez once had about his approach to recruiting: “Our heart and soul will come from Wisconsin, but the hands and feet will come from somewhere else.”

Among the trio presently repping the Q, pending NHL loan outs, Batherson is an argument for not being rushed along the hockey assembly line. The centre didn’t even play in the Q full-time until joining the Eagles as an 18-year-old last season.

Nizhnikov resets with Sudbury

Kirill Nizhnikov moving to the Sudbury Wolves is a classic challenge trade, as much for the Sudbury Wolves’ reworked hockey operation as the 17-year-old Russian forward.

Nizhnikov’s play often has done the talking, as was the case last week when he posted six points across three road games with the Wolves after getting a new hue of blue in an intra-division trade with the Barrie Colts. While hope is eternal in major junior hockey, the Wolves really could stand to have a high pick pan out since it would validate the culture change they are attempting under general manager Rob Papineau and coach Cory Stillman.

Thus far in his OHL career, Kirill Nizhnikov has been dealt for 14 draft picks (a few of them conditionals) in two trades over the span of a year and a half. — Lucas Punkari (@lpunkari) December 7, 2017

The original Colts deal for Kirill Nizhnikov last season saw Barrie give up 10 picks, but four of those were conditional. The final deal sees seven picks dealt for Nizhnikov with 3 2nd Rdrs. and 4 3rds going to Mississauga. — Gene Pereira (@GenePereira1) December 8, 2017

Quite the debut by Kirill Nizhnikov so far. Excited to have him with the Wolves. — Ryan Yessie (@RyanYessie) December 8, 2017



Nothing is automatic in player development but the last Wolves first-round choice to blossom into a long-term NHLer was current New York Rangers defenceman Marc Staal, who entered the OHL in 2003 as a can’t-miss No. 2 overall choice. The jury, of course, is out on any current player, or recent OHL grad who is now in his early 20s and playing mostly in the AHL, but since the mid-aughts it’s been a skein of players who found their professional ceiling at a lower echelon than the NHL. So it will be an interesting experiment with Nizhnikov teaming up with countryman Dmitry Sokolov (MIN) for the duration of the season.

One parlour game among OHL observers is keeping track of how many first-round picks move for a fresh start. Nizhnikov is the third to change teams since the end of last season.

The Battle for St. John’s

Any Canadian centre with a modicum of urban density will usually get multiple chances to pass muster as a hockey market. While it’s unclear whether the QMJHL is into sweet on returning to St. John’s, N.L., the city’s sports promoters are into the QMJHL.

The Newfoundland capital is team-less after the Montreal Canadiens moved their top farm team to Laval, Que. The ownership group that has stepped into the breach by installing a minor pro basketball team at Mile One Centre also wants a Q team.

“The next best thing is Quebec Major Junior,” promoter John Graham told the St. John’s Telegram last week. “We want quality. Anything less than that, we don’t consider quality.”

That comment was an allusion to another group that is kicking tires on landing an ECHL franchise.

The St. John’s Fog Devils lasted only four seasons (2005-09) before financial losses led to a sale and a move to the Montreal area in 2009. The QMJHL is at capacity with 18 teams, so expansion would seem unlikely. The long and short of this, though, is that if the QMJHL has interest from an investor with enough liquid capital to make a St. John’s team workable – i.e., one that would help opponents with some of the expense of flying in for two-game series – then it’s going to take that meeting.

Canadian NHL Team Prospect of the Week: Josh Brook, D, Moose Jaw Warriors

Win-win for the Warriors and their 18-year-old defenceman. Brook, the Montreal Canadiens second-rounder (No. 56 overall) has returned from wrist surgery and has six points in seven games, helping Moose Jaw go 6-0-1 in that span to take over first overall in the WHL.

Playing nearly two months without a defensive cornerstone was less than optimal for the Warriors, but with an .813 point percentage, the small-market club is no worse for wear after having other defenceman pick up the slack.

Brook, meantime, comes into the final week before the holiday break on a four-game point streak.

New name to know: Jake Goldowski, G , Saginaw Spirit (WHL)

Eschewing a commitment to Penn State, Goldowski joined the Spirit’s quiver of promising 17-year-olds by leaving the U.S. national team development program on Dec. 1. The six-foot-three, 190-pound forward met the size-skill-speed specs to be invited to join the NTDP, so needless to say it will be interesting to see how Goldowski applies that to the OHL.

The Spirit have won three of four games since Goldowski arrived, with the Thornhurst, Pa., native finishing as a plus player in all three of those wins. Goldowski scored his first OHL goal during a win at Oshawa on Sunday.

Goldowski’s arrival enhances Saginaw’s return on a bumper priority selection draft crop from 2016. General manager Dave Drinkill included a few home-run cuts when he had seven of the first 64 choices, and six of those selections are now on the roster.