Lewiston franchise bites dust
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DRUMMONDVILLE, Que. – The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League no longer has a presence in the United States.
The league reached an agreement yesterday to purchase the financially struggling Lewiston MAINEiacs for $3.5 million. The league will fold the club and hold a dispersal draft this week to send its players to the remaining 17 teams.
The league held a meeting for its team owners yesterday and then struck a deal with Lewiston majority owner Mark Just to purchase the franchise. QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau was in a meeting late last night and was unavailable for comment.
The league will keep the franchise dormant next season and then sell it to a new ownership group that will operate the club in Sherbrooke in 2012-13. That will bring the league back to 18 teams once again.
The money-losing Sherbrooke franchise was transferred to Lewiston in 2003-04. Ten seasons later, the franchise will be returned to Sherbrooke where an ownership group will be headed by former National Hockey League goaltender Jocelyn Thibault.
“Following a vote from league members, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is purchasing the Lewiston MAINEiacs franchise,” said league commissioner Gilles Courteau in a news release that was sent out late last night.
“The franchise will be dissolved and the players submitted to a special draft. Details surrounding a special dispersal draft will be unveiled as soon as they become available.
“The QMJHL is very excited to welcome Sherbrooke back into its fold. With strong local ownership, I am convinced that major junior hockey will once again flourish in Sherbrooke.”
There are still unanswered questions for next season and that’s the backdrop with the 2011 QMJHL draft set to take place on Saturday in Victoriaville.
Will the divisions by realigned now that it’s an uneven 17-team league? Will this impact the playoff format? What effect will this have on the length of the regular season schedule?
Multiple sources indicated last night that the league will have a dispersal draft tomorrow to ship Lewiston’s players to the other clubs. But there was no clear word on how the dispersal draft will work.
The selection order for a dispersal draft could be based on the reverse order of the league’s overall standings from this season. There were also rumblings the selection order could be determined simply by luck of the draw in a lottery format.
Moncton played against Lewiston in the opening round of the playoffs. Wildcats head coach and director of hockey operations Danny Flynn knows the MAINEiacs roster well.
“I’m hearing rumours about the Lewiston franchise just like everyone else, but I can’t confirm anything because I haven’t heard anything official from the league,” he said. “We’ve got a list prepared ranking the players in Lewiston in case there is a dispersal draft.
“Lewiston made it to the third round of the playoffs and deservingly so. If there is a dispersal draft, there’s a number of very good players in Lewiston that could help any team. Some teams would be the beneficiaries and get significant players.
“For my money, there’s five outstanding players and five to eight more very good players on their roster that could help any team. We’ll have to see how that plays out and see if in fact there will be a dispersal draft.”
Lewiston was the third highest scoring team in the league this season with a roster that includes skilled forwards Etienne Brodeur, Michael Chaput, Kirill Kabanov, Pierre-Olivier Morin, Stefan Fournier, Matthew Bissonnette, Cameron Critchlow, Samuel Henley and Francis Beauvillier.
Brodeur finished tied for ninth in the league’s scoring race with 83 points, including 53 goals, in 68 games. Morin, Brodeur and Critchlow will be 20-year-olds next season. Kabanov, Chaput, Fournier and Bissonnette will be 19. Henley and Beauvillier will be 18.
Lewiston was expected to be among the top three clubs in the league next season. Other attractive talents on its roster are defencemen Samuel Carrier (age 19), Samuel Finn (20) and Dillon Fournier (17) and goaltenders Andrey Makarov (18) and Antoine Bibeau (17).Fournier was the first overall pick in the 2010 QMJHL draft.
