On March 3rd, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles will host a special 20th anniversary game against the Halifax Mooseheads. The Eagles are rolling back the clock two decades as fans will be able to attend the March 3rd contest at 1997 ticket prices. There will plenty of prizes and giveaways as well as live entertainment in the main concourse. Leading up to the big anniversary game we are counting down the top 20 moments in the history of the franchise.
#13: WITH THE FIRST OVERALL PICK THE EAGLES SELECT…
Everyone knew the effects of the infamous “boomerang trade” between Cape Breton and Halifax would last for multiple seasons. But few could have envisioned the scenario it created for the Screaming Eagles to land a franchise player.
In the middle of the 2002-03 campaign a rebuilding Cape Breton club moved Stuart MacRae, Steeve Villeneuve, and George Davis to the Mooseheads for players and draft choices. The following year the Screaming Eagles would send picks to Halifax in exchange for the returning Villeneuve along with Jean-François Cyr, François-Pierre Guénette, Alexandre Picard, Marc-André Bernier, the latter three whom would return back to Halifax in 2004-05.
Much controversy ensued and the QMJHL instituted a rule that once a player was traded, he could not return to that team for three seasons. (It has since been reduced to two seasons.) With so much discussion about the “boomerang” element of the deal, perhaps overlooked was the fact that Cape Breton and Halifax swapped first round selections in 2004 to help facilitate all of the movement.
While the Mooseheads took aim at the league title in 02-03, at the other end of the standings, the Rimouski Oceanic sank like a stone. In ultimate defeat was ultimate victory, as with the top pick in the 2003 draft the Oceanic tabbed Cole Harbour phenom Sidney Crosby. The Oceanic’s intentions were so obvious that the QMJHL decided that starting in 2004, there would be a lottery for the top selection to prevent “tanking”.
Having dealt the boomerang boys to Cape Breton, the Mooseheads plummeted in 2003-04, and finished 15th, only placing ahead of Bathurst. With the new rules in place, Halifax’s pick- now belonging to Cape Breton- could become #1. And the luck of the draw was with Cape Breton as the Eagles won the first ever draft lottery despite finishing with the second best record in the league in 2003-04.
On June 5th, 2004, in Baie-Comeau, Screaming Eagles would ironically take someone at #1 who grew up a Halifax Mooseheads fan- James Sheppard of Lower Sackville. (The following June, Saint John would take Alex Grant at #1, marking three straight years a Nova Scotian was chosen first.) Bathurst, who would have selected first if not for the implementation of the lottery, made the somewhat surprising selection of defenseman Alex Lamontagne at #2. The blueliner would actually play his 19 year old season in Cape Breton.
Sheppard did not play at 19 in Cape Breton, though, because he was off to the National Hockey League. The star forward became the second Eagle to be chosen in the opening round of the NHL draft when the Minnesota Wild called his name at #9 in 2006. The former Dartmouth Subway would play 394 games in the NHL before heading to Switzerland, where he twice captured gold in the Spengler Cup for Canada.
His impact in Sydney was massive, as Sheppard’s 225 points over three seasons have him tied for fourth all time in that category for the club. He produced at a torrid pace at 18, racking up 96 points in just 56 games. The future NHLer captained the Eagles in 2006-07, at the time the youngest captain in club history.
Halifax traded Cape Breton’s pick in 2004 to Victoriaville, and at spot #17 the Tigres nabbed defenseman Maxime Noreau, who would actually be teammates with Sheppard in Minnesota during part of his six game stint in the NHL. The Mooseheads did not select until round two in 2004, and with pick #18, they chose Ryan Hillier- a forward who’d been teammates with Sheppard on the Subways.