Cataractes built to go the distance in 2015-16
The 2015-16 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League regular season is upon us and the Shawinigan Cataractes are poised for success.
Shawinigan kicks off the season tonight on the road against the defending champion Rimouski Oceanic. Being the only game on the leagues opening day schedule, all eyes will be on the Colisee Financiere Sun Life when the puck drops at 7:30pm eastern time.
With the Cataractes at the top of several media members predicitions, it likely won’t be the last night where they have all eyes on the them.
After an off-season that saw the team add some promising prospects through the draft and bolstering his teams depth charts, General Manager Martin Mondou believes his team has the tools to win a championship.
“Our goal is to win the Presidents Cup and return to the Memorial Cup tournament” he said “We believe we have the assets (players and picks) to help us achieve our goal.”
In total 12 of the Cataractes forwards on their season opening roster have QMJHL experience under there belt. Mondou believes this will have the greatest impact on the teams success in 2015-16:
“Our team is built on the development over the last 2-3 years and we believe that the experience of our players should have a direct impact on our results this season.”
Among the returning players is off-season acquisition Samuel Guilbault. The 18-year-old was acquired from the Charlottetown Islanders back on August 15th for a 5th and 6th round draft pick in the 2016 draft. Guilbault recorded 15 points in 49 games with the Islanders last season.
Despite some intriguing newcomers to the team this year, Cataractes fans should keep an eye on a trio of players who they already know quite well.
“Anthony Beauvillier and Dennis Yan are the players most often in the spotlight but I think that despite being only 17-year-old, Samuel Girard is super spectacular and will play big minutes for us this season” said GM Martin Mondou when asked who the fans should keep an eye on this year.
Between the pipes, two of Shawinigans three goaltenders have never played a game in the QMJHL. Frederic Foulem and Mikhail Denisov will backstop the Cataractes this year, along with Antoine Samuel.
Denisov, who is Russian born, was selected in the second round(36th overall) of the 2015 QMJHL Draft after playing last season with the Boston Jr. Bruins U16 program. Spending the last two years playing in Massachusetts made him eligible for the draft. The 17-year-old had a 2.17 goals against average and a .926 save percentage in 25 games last season.
Foulem, 18, was originally drafted in the 7th round of the 2013 QMJHL Draft by the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. The Dieppe, New Brunswick native did not report to the Titan and instead decided to play prep hockey. The Cataractes acquired Foulem from the Titan in 2014 for a 10th round pick in the 2015 draft.
The 6-foot-1, 161 pound netminder spent last season in the Shattuck St. Mary’s Midget prep program where he had a 1.97 goals against average and a save percentage of .911 in 29 games.
On the blueline, Martin Bernards squad will look Samuel Girard, Gabriel Sylvestre, Zachary Taylor, and Nicholas Welsh to lead the way. 2015 first round pick Jocktan Chainey is also one of eight rearguards on this years team.
While he is confident in his youthful defence group and goaltending trio, when asked which area of the 2015-16 roster is the strongest, Mondou said “Definitely our forwards, we have a lot of depth in attack and speed.”
The Cataractes home opener is September 18th as the host the Quebec Remparts for a 7:30pm tilt at Centre Gervais Auto.
