Road to 2027 Memorial Cup: Eagles ready to soar
By Will MacLaren | Photo credit: Shane Wilkie
At this time last year, the Cape Breton Eagles were considered a team of the future. With a number of prospects poised to form a core designed to contend in two to three years, things were looking bright on the Cape.
Then, a key transaction with a soon to be Championship squad changed everything. Suddenly, the future was a lot closer.
“It had a lot to do with the Tomas (Lavoie) trade,” Eagles’ GM Sylvain Couturier confirms, discussing the deal that sent one of the league’s top blueliners to Chicoutimi and rearranged plenty of plans along the way. “We managed to maximize the return on that trade and, with the pool of young guys we had, we were very aggressive. There were guys we didn’t really like sacrificing but in the end, you have to give to get.”
And yet, Couturier and the Eagles did. In one transaction, a trio of defending champs went from Sagueneens blue to Eagles black and yellow; goaltender and Ottawa Senators prospect Lucas Beckman, Liam Lefebvre, an impact winger and LA Kings draftee and veteran defenseman Alonso Gosselin. Another Chicoutimi alumni and Washington Capitals prospect Maxim Schafer arrived in a separate transaction. Then there was a deal with Shawinigan that brought winger Elias Schneider – a point-per-game rookie last year – and Boston Bruins draft pick Cole Chandler into the fold. All of this under a memorable backdrop in Cape Breton.
“We talked about how this is the 30th year of the team and how we wanted to do something special,” Couturier explains. “That’s another reason why we’re at this point right now. There are a lot of longtime fans here and we want to give everyone something special this year.”
Those longtime fans are also long suffering. Since making their nest in Sydney nearly three decades ago, the Eagles are not only awaiting their first title but their first Final appearance as well. Although the franchise has one league championship and Memorial Cup to its credit, as the Granby Predateurs in 1996, the club’s high-water mark as Nova Scotia residents remains a pair of Semi-Final appearances in 2002 and 2024, respectively. The man known universally in the ‘Q’ as ‘Sly’ isn’t fazed by this. And he has a Memorial Cup ring, earned with the 2018 Acadie-Bathurst Titan, to prove it.
“I’ve been there,” Couturier says, both figuratively and literally. “In Bathurst, nobody gave us a chance. We were the smallest market in the CHL at that time. But we sold out in the playoffs and could’ve put 1,000 more in the building if we had room. That’s something I want to relive here this year.”
And what are a few of the lessons learned from that magical campaign that remain front and center in Couturier’s mind?
“You need depth,” he points out immediately. “But the other thing I’ve always said, and (Assistant GM) John Hanna feels the same way, is how we don’t want to do what a lot of other teams have done and leave the well dry the next year. The year after the Memorial Cup win in Bathurst, we won (eight) games. We don’t want to be in that situation and I don’t think we will be. We don’t have a first-round pick for the (2027 QMJHL) Draft but we have a lot of picks from rounds two to six. I think the franchise will be on solid ground for the future as well.”
If there’s a banner hanging from the rafters at Center 200 by this time next year, any dip in the standings would no doubt be forgiven by these patient Eagles’ fans.
Still, it would be comforting to know the chances for more could occur sooner rather than later. When you’ve waited this long, it’s okay to be greedy.
