Eagles select 14 skaters, one goalie at 2025 QMJHL Entry Draft
It was yet another busy draft weekend for the Cape Breton Eagles scouting staff and hockey operations team, as the club selected 14 skaters and one goaltender this past weekend in Quebec City, Quebec.
Leading into the opening night of this year’s draft, the Eagles were without a first round pick. However, talks between club general manager Sylvain Couturier and Chicoutimi general manger and head coach Yanick Jean intensified on the draft floor ahead of the first pick.
The Eagles would eventually acquire the 14th overall pick from the Sags in a trade that dealt them a 2026 first round pick (QUE) and a 2027 second round pick (CAP).
With that trade, the club selected forward Olivier Charron from the Grenadiers de Châteauguay of the Quebec U18 league. Charron, the younger brother of Eagles 2024 fourth round draft pick Hugo Charron, scored 22 goals and 23 assists in 41 games this past season.
“It is an incredible thing, hearing my name called by Cape Breton,” he said. “To join my brother is such an amazing thing too. It will be great to have some family in the Cape.”
“Like my brother, I have the same gritty side as him. I have some skill too…like Brad Marchand, Matthew Tkachuk, that type of player. I can bring physicality and I can score goals too, so (I am) a complete player.”
©Vincent Ethier 2025
Heading into day two of the 2025 draft, the Eagles made three selections in the second round to kick off the day.
At pick #23, the club selected the #5 ranked defenceman Julien Nadeau from Collège Notre-Dame. Last season, Nadeau scored four goals and eight assists in his first 29 games with Notre-Dame.
Two picks later, the Eagles chose the first goalie of the 2025 draft in Stellarton’s Sam Berthiaume. The 15-year-old was ranked as the second best goalie in this year’s draft after sporting a .902 save percentage in 33 starts with South Kent School U15 AAA in Connecticut this past year.
To close out the second round, the Eagles drafted PEI-born forward Drew Murphy from the Kensington Wild. Murphy, the younger brother of current Eagle Will Murphy, scored 15 goals and 17 assists in 36 games last season.
Later in the draft, the Eagles selected two Cape Breton-born skaters in Sydney River’s Charlie MacLeod of the Sydney Mitsubishi Rush and Membertou’s Jax Ginnish, who played this past season with the Halifax Macs.
(From left: Jax Ginnish, Eagles assistant general manager John Hanna, Charlie MacLeod)
For a full draft recap of all 15 Eagles selections, click here https://chl.ca/lhjmq/en/draft/lhjmq/2025/Cape+Breton/
