Jean-François Grégoire wins Maurice-Filion Trophy
The QMJHL is proud to announce that Jean-François Grégoire of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar has won the Maurice-Filion Trophy as General Manager of the Year.
The first highlight of Grégoire’s 2023-2024 season was convincing the Boilard brothers to opt for Baie-Comeau instead of the NCAA. Raoul finished third on the Drakkar in scoring and Jules seventh. He then traded for Justin Gill from the Sherbrooke Phoenix, who finished the season as the QMJHL’s second leading scorer with 98 points. Another great find for Grégoire last summer was Julien Paillé, who was previously playing college hockey. Paillé collected 53 points and was one of the finalists for the Frank-J.-Selke Trophy as the league’s Most Sportsmanlike Player. Finally, before the trade deadline, the GM solidified his roster at all positions with the addition of forward Donovan Arsenault (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), defenseman Angus Booth (Shawinigan Cataractes) and goaltender Charles-Édward Gravel (Blainville-Boisbriand Armada), all of whom helped the Drakkar finish with team records of 53 wins and 109 points. The Drakkar finished first in the overall standings.
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Other finalists were:
Yanick Jean, Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Jean went all out at the 2023 QMJHL Entry Draft presented by Fenplast by selecting Émile Guité (2nd), Nathan Lecompte (4th), Alex Huang (5th) and Jonathan Prud’Homme (8th), all of whom were regulars for Chicoutimi this season. Guité won the Rookie of the Year award while Huang was in the running for the Defensive Rookie of the Year award. Jean also acquired forward Jérémy D’Astous and goaltender Rémi Delafontaine from the Cataractes over the course of the season. Delafontaine took over as the Sags’ number-one goaltender and, in 18 games, maintained a 2.74 GAA and .910% save percentage. The young Saguenéens finished sixth in the Eastern Conference.
Yanick Lemay, Drummondville Voltigeurs
On June 10, 2023, two weeks after starting his new position, Lemay showed his true colors by completing a deal with the Phoenix to acquire Ethan Gauthier, the Voltigeurs’ leading scorer (36) and point-getter (71) this season. Then, during the season, Lemay acquired three solid veterans: Noah Reinhart, from the Saint John Sea Dogs, as well as Kassim Gaudet and Mikaël Huchette, both from the Quebec Remparts. He also hit two home runs with the additions of Vsevolod Komarov, another former Remparts, and Alexis Gendron, of the Gatineau Olympiques. Komarov is currently in the running for QMJHL Defenseman of the Year honors. With all these additions, the Voltigeurs climbed from 13th overall last season to second in the league standings this year, finishing first in the Western Conference.
