Saturday, June 4, 2016

First round recap

The Halifax Mooseheads surprised nobody with the first overall pick in the QMJHL Entry Draft on Saturday, selecting Benoit-Olivier Groulx.

Groulx was ranked first by QMJHL Central Scouting and HockeyProspect.com.
Then, in another not-all-that-surprising move, the Mooseheads made a big trade to acquire the second overall pick.
As expected, Halifax selected defenseman Jared McIsaac, who was the consensus No. 2 pick. It was reported earlier in week that McIsaac, a Truro native, did not want to report to Baie-Comeau.

The first goaltender to be taken in the draft went third overall to the Drummondville Voltigeurs. Olivier Rodrigue is considered the top netminder available in this draft class.
The Sherbrooke Phoenix had the fourth overall pick but traded the selection to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens.
And then the Sags traded the pick to the Drakkar.
Finally, the Drakkar used the fourth overall pick to select forward Gabriel Fortier. He is the younger brother of Halifax’s Gabriel Fortier.
But because there hadn’t been enough trades yet, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan traded the fifth overall pick to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada. That pick was then sent to the Drakkar who, finally, drafted Xavier Bouchard.

The Titan then picked sixth and, as many predicted, selected defenseman Noah Dobson. The PEI native played for Red Bull Salzburg last season.

The Armada followed the Titan’s model and chose to keep the selection. With the pick, Blainville-Boisbriand chose Mathias Laferriere, who was the second Lac St-Louis Lions player to be picked.

The Sags picked eighth, taking forward Samuel Houde, who was ranked 13th by Central Scouting and 14th by HP.

Baie-Comeau picked yet again at No. 9. With their third pick in the top 10, the Drakkar selected forward Shawn Element. Element was ranked 18th by Central Scouting and 22nd by HP.

With the 10th overall pick, the Sherbrooke Phoenix selected Anderson MacDonald of the Saint John Vito’s. MacDonald becomes the highest selected Vito’s player in Q draft history.

Saint John picked at 11th overall and selected Olivier Mathieu, a speedy forward from the Magog Cantonniers.
At 12th overall, Drummondville selected defenseman Xavier Bernard.

With the 13th overall pick, the Screaming Eagles went off the board a bit, taking goaltender Kevin Mandolese. The netminder was ranked 21st by Central Scouting and 30th by HP.

After acquiring the 14th overall pick from Cape Breton, the Quebec Remparts chose forward Andrew Coxhead. The Bedford, NS native has stated his intentions to play US hockey. He was ranked fifth by Central Scouting and 11th by HP.

The Moncton Wildcats had the 15th overall pick but, as usual, traded out of the first round.
With the pick, the Armada chose defenseman Jeremy Bucheler, who was ranked seventh by both Central Scouting and HP.

The Drakkar, with their fourth pick of the first round, picked forward Eduoard St-Laurent 16th overall.

At 17th overall, Victoriaville picked forward Cedric Desruisseaux.

The hometown Islanders finally got to take the stage with the 18th overall pick. Charlottetown selected defense Marc-Olivier Alain with the pick.

With the last pick of the first round, Rouyn-Noranda chose forward Evan MacKinnon from the Steele Subaru Major Midgets.

Photo: Vincent Ethier/QMJHL Media

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