Our 18 | Despite Turnover, Phoenix Should Remain Competitive

The Sherbrooke Phoenix, a club that had to work long and hard to reach the top of the QMJHL standings, had to stand idly by as the COVID-19 pandemic erased any opportunity it had to continue what had been up to that point a truly dominant season.

On what would prove to be the last day of the 2019-2020 regular season, the squad had already notched 51 wins, the last 13 of them coming in a row. And although this year’s edition may be lacking some of the star power of that phenomenal Phoenix squad, what remains is a core that will continue to push towards the right side of the standings.

Despite losing three of its top four scorers, the Phoenix should still find plenty of ways to find the back of the net thanks to players such as star winger, 2018 Pittsburgh Penguins first-rounder and team captain Samuel Poulin, who needed only 46 games in 2019-20 to rack up 32 goals and 77 points. Also leading the way will be fellow wingers Benjamin Tardif and Bailey Peach. Center Patrick Guay returns for his third “Q” campaign after notching 21 goals last year while another center, Xavier Parent, re-enters the lineup after suiting up for just 25 games during an injury-plagued first year in Sherbrooke.

Size and strength will be the order of the day on top of defensive depth chart as Olivier Crete-Belzile, Xavier Bernard and Jaxon Bellamy all offer both veteran and big body presences. Fourth-year blueliner Gregory Kreutzer also returns to the blue and white after recording a career-high 35 points last season. Russian rearguard Pavel Grishin is slated to appear in Sherbrooke after splitting 2019-20 with CSKA’s Under-17 and Under-18 programs.

In net, size and skill also takes precedence as last year’s QMJHL Second-Team and Rookie All-Star, 6’3” Slovakian Samuel Hlavaj will be making his way back to the club while 6’4” rookie Jasmin Simon takes over backup duties after being selected by the Phoenix in the third round of the 2020 QMJHL Draft.

Now in his fifth full season as Head Coach, this will probably be the first time Stephane Julien will not experience improvement in the standings with his Sherbrooke charges. However, one of the most critical common threads between last year’s club and this one was one that could not be measured in statistics; the degree of competitiveness with which it plays the game. One should continue to expect no easy wins against this group.

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2019-2020 Phoenix Stats: