Gilles Courteau | 35 years at the helm of the QMJHL
It’s at the age of 18, in 1975, that Gilles Courteau began his career in junior hockey, working as a statistician for the Trois-Rivières Draveurs, his hometown team. He would then work on a staff of only three full-time employees at the league office.
Following a brief stint at the league’s headquarters, Courteau took the role of General Manager of the Quebec Remparts.
After several seasons at the helm of the Remparts and a few more working for the Quebec Nordiques in the NHL, the time had come for a new challenge for the Trois-Rivières native.
On February 13, 1986 Gilles Courteau became the new president of the QMJHL at the age of 28. The League had known nine presidents in its first 17 years of existence. Courteau, who was originally appointed as interim president, has held the leadership role for 35 years, first as president, and then as commissioner.
When Courteau took over, the league was comprised of 10 teams, all based in Quebec: the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, the Drummondville Voltigeurs, the Shawinigan Cataractes, the Granby Bisons, the Hull Olympiques, the Laval Titan, the Longueuil Chevaliers, the Saint-Jean Castors, the Trois-Rivières Draveurs and the Verdun Junior Canadiens.
Under Courteau, the League expanded to new cities in the Province of Quebec and headed eastward to the Maritimes.
The expansion into the Maritimes remains a source of great pride and, above all, one of his finest achievements. Today, a third of the league’s teams play in the Maritimes. Among the six teams, three have managed to capture Canadian junior hockey’s top prize, the Memorial Cup: The Saint John Sea Dogs (2011), the Halifax Mooseheads (2013) and the Acadie-Bathurst Titan (2018).
The past ten years have been some of the league’s best. Between 2010 and 2019, the QMJHL has capture five Memorial Cup championships.
In 35 seasons at the helm of the QMJHL, hundreds of quality players have made the jump to the National Hockey League, included several who were chosen first overall: Pierre Turgeon (1987), Alexandre Daigle (1993), Vincent Lecavalier (1998), Marc-Andre Fleury (2003), Sidney Crosby (2005), Nathan MacKinnon (2013), Nico Hischier (2017) and most recently Alexis Lafrenière (2020).
During his tenure, several coaches have used the QMJHL as a steppingstone to the NHL, including a few Jack Adams trophy winners. The list includes, among others, Jacques Lemaire, Pat Burns, Alain Vigneault, Michel Therrien, Claude Julien, Patrick Roy, Bob Hartley and Gerard Gallant.
Developing talent is key and the impact of nurturing that talent has had major impacts on attendance over the years with average attendance jumping from 1,618 in the mid-80s to over three thousand today.
In 2016, Gilles Courteau was inducted into the Quebec Hockey Hall of Fame.
In addition to his role as Commissioner of the QMJHL, Courteau holds several other key positions, including vice-president of the Canadian Hockey League; member of the Board of Directors of Hockey Canada; and representative of the Canadian Hockey League on Hockey Canada’s Junior Hockey Council.
Over the past 35 years, Gilles Courteau has not only increased the league’s notoriety in Eastern Canada, but also throughout the world. Today, the QMJHL is considered, along with its sister leagues the OHL and the WHL, as the top development league in the world.
Congratulations on 35 years at the head of the QMJHL!