HUBERDEAU, DESPRES NAMED ALL-STARS

MONTREAL – He didn’t win any major awards, but Jonathan Huberdeau was recognized by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Wednesday at the annual Golden Puck Awards show.

Huberdeau was named to the first all-star team after an all-star caliber season. The 17-year became the first Sea Dog to reach the triple-digit plateau in points in one season as he recorded 105 in 67 games. He led the squad in goals with 43 and assists with 62.

Joining Huberdeau on the first all-star team was fellow Sea Dog Simon Despres. The ‘Big Horse’ was named the QMJHL’s Defenseman of the Year on Wednesday night as well.

Despres had a long stay at Pittsburgh Penguins training camp and then missed more time as he represented Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships. In 47 games with Saint John, he averaged just under a point-per-game with 13 goals and 28 assists.

Forwards Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault of the Quebec Remparts, defenseman Ryan Kavanagh of the Shawinigan Cataractes, and goaltender Christopher Gibson were also named to the first all-star team.

The second all-star team and all-rookie team can be seen below:

2nd All-Star Team
G – Evan Mosher (PEI)
LD – Brandon Gormley (MON)
RD – Jean-Philippe Mathieu (DRU)
C – Philip-Michaël Devos (GAT-VIC)
LW – Étienne Brodeur (LEW)
RW – Guillaume Asselin (CHI)

All-Star Rookie Team
G – Domenic Graham (DRU)
LD – Daniel Milan (MON)
RD – Dominic Poulin (CHI)
C – Mirko Hoefflin (QUE)
LW – Charles Hudon (CHI)
RW – Zach O’Brien (BAT)

Photo Credit: Maxime Morin/RDS

FOUR SEA DOGS WIN AWARDS

MONTREAL – Four members of the Saint John Sea Dogs were honoured Wednesday in Montreal as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League held their annual awards night.
Defenseman Simon Despres, goaltender Jacob DeSerres, head coach Gerard Gallant, and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly were all awarded trophies for their accomplishments during the regular season.

Despres was named the league’s best defenseman, picking up the Émile “Butch” Bouchard Trophy. Along with representing Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships this past holiday season, the ‘Big Horse’ enjoyed a solid regular season. In 47 games, Despres recorded 13 goals and 28 assists and was a plus-29.

DeSerres won the Jacques-Plante Trophy as the QMJHL goaltender with the best goals against average. Since arriving on the scene in Saint John in the fall, DeSerres registered a 2.22 GAA, a 0.916 save percentage, and had an impressive 27-3-0-0 record with the Dogs.

For the second year-in-a-row, Gallant was named the Coach of the Year, winning the Ron-Lapointe Trophy. ‘Turk’ led the Sea Dogs to an incredible 58-7-1-2 record in the regular season and guided the Dogs to a division and regular season title for the second straight season.

Gallant won this award and the Canadian Hockey League’s top coach honour last season.

Finally, associate coach and director of hockey operation Mike Kelly won the Maurice Filion Trophy as General Manager of the Year. Kelly made some solid moves this season to ensure the Sea Dogs would be a strong contender this year and next. His biggest moves this season saw the club pick up DeSerres, Alexandre Beauregard, and Eric Gelinas.

Sea Dogs leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau was nominated for three awards but will come empty handed. Zack Phillips and Nathan Beaulieu were also nominated for awards but were beat out by fellow Quebec Leaguers.

The full list of award winners can be found after the jump:

Jacques-Plante Trophy - Best Goals-Against-Average: Jacob DeSerres - Saint John Sea Dogs

Ron-Lapointe Trophy - Coach of the Year: Gérard Gallant - Saint John Sea Dogs

Émile "Butch" Bouchard Trophy - Defenseman of the Year: Simon Després - Saint John Sea Dogs

Maurice Filion Trophy - General Manager of the Year: Mike Kelly - Saint John Sea Dogs

RDS Cup - Rookie of the Year: Charles Hudon - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Jean-Béliveau Trophy - Top scorer: Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres

Marcel-Robert Trophy - TELUS Scholastic player of the Year: Nicolas Therrien - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Humanitarian Player Award: Gabriel Lemieux - Shawinigan Cataractes

Frank-J.-Selke Trophy - Most sportsmanlike player: Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres

Michael-Bossy Trophy - Best professional prospect: Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs

Paul-Dumont Trophy - Personality of the Year: Louis Leblanc - Montreal Juniors

Michel-Brière Trophy - Most Valuable Player: Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs

Photo Credit: QMJHL

GOLDEN PUCK PREDICTIONS

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will host their annual Golden Puck Awards Gala this evening at some hotel in downtown Montreal.

After an unreal regular season, the Saint John Sea Dogs will have plenty of chances to take home some hardware tonight. Jonathan Huberdeau is nominated for three awards while Simon Despres, Zack Phillips, and Nathan Beaulieu are all in contention as well. Head coach Gerard Gallant and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly are also included in the long list of nominees.

Goaltender Jacob DeSerres will be awarded Jaques Plante Trophy for the league’s best goals against average.

Saint John did quite well at the awards show last year with Mike Hoffman being named the league’s Most Valuable Player and Gallant winning Coach of the Year.

Like in the past, the coverage of the event will likely be poor. But in a shocking turn of events, the QMJHL Twitter page is expected to post updates and pictures.

Mikaël Lalancette of Metro Montreal posted his predictions for the awards in a post on Sunday. Telegraph-Journal columnist Peter McGuire also made some predictions yesterday.

So without further to do, here are SN’s predictions for this evening’s trophy festival.

Michel-Brière Trophy - Most Valuable Player Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Philip-Michaël Devos (Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres), and Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs)

Prediction: Jonathan Huberdeau - led the top-ranked team in Canada in scoring basically all season long. He led the team in assists. He led the team in goals. He was a league best plus-59. He did all this at age 17 under the pressure of playing in front of dozens of scouts each game. He is the QMJHL’s MVP.

RDS Cup - Rookie of the Year Martin Frk (Halifax Mooseheads), Charles Hudon (Chicoutimi Saguenéens), Zach O’Brien (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), Domenic Graham (Drummondville Voltigeurs), David Honzik (Victoriaville Tigres), and Dominic Poulin (Chicoutimi Saguenéens)

Prediction: Charles Hudon - had an unreal rookie campaign with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. He had 23 goals and 37 assists and finished second in rookie scoring. He did this on an average Chicoutimi team that scored only scored 197 goals, one of only five teams to not score over 200 markers.

Émile "Butch" Bouchard Trophy - Best Defenseman Brandon Gormley (Moncton Wildcats), Simon Després (Saint John Sea Dogs), and Ryan Kavanagh (Shawinigan Cataractes / Rimouski Océanic)

Prediction: Simon Despres - has been shut-down city all year long. He played solid with Team Canada at the World Juniors and had a long look at Pittsburgh Penguins training camp.

Frank-J.-Selke Trophy - Sportsman of the Year Philip-Michaël Devos (Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres), Zach O’Brien (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), and Zack Phillips (Saint John Sea Dogs)

Prediction: Zach O’Brien – played in 58 games as a “rookie” and didn’t record a single penalty minute.

Michael-Bossy Trophy - Top Professional Prospect Nathan Beaulieu (Saint John Sea Dogs), Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs)

Prediction: Sean Couturier – despite all the talk about Jonathan Huberdeau possibly overtaking Couturier as the top prospect from the QMJHL, there are still plenty of agencies that have Couturier going ahead of the Sea Dogs forward. 96 points in just 58 games isn’t too shabby either.

Marcel-Robert Trophy - TELUS Scholastic Player of the Year Pascal Amyot (Halifax Mooseheads), Michaël Bournival (Shawinigan Cataractes), Guillaume Goulet (Victoriaville Tigres), Jean-Philippe Mathieu (Drummondville Voltigeurs), and Nicolas Therrien - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Prediction: Pascal Amyot - difficult to predict this one but we’ll take Amyot because his education is talked about in the media as much as his hockey playing abilities are.

Ron-Lapointe Trophy - Coach of the Year Mario Duhamel (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Gérard Gallant (Saint John Sea Dogs), and Patrick Roy (Québec Remparts)

Prediction: Gerard Gallant – ‘Turk’ won the award last year as well and is just as deserving this season. Sure he has ultra-talented players to work with, but he is faced with the task of keeping a handful of high NHL draft eligible players focused on playing a team game and not as individuals. Gallant has certainly done that.

Maurice-Filion Trophy - General Manager of the Year Sylvain Couturier (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), Mike Kelly (Saint John Sea Dogs), Pascal Vincent (Montreal Juniors), and Jacques Beaulieu

Prediction: Mike Kelly – made some good trades at the deadline, most noticeably Eric Gelinas and Alexandre Beauregard. He also picked up Jacob DeSerres from the WHL. Kelly has helped make this team a contender last year, this year, and next year.

Paul-Dumont Trophy – Personality of the year Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs), and Louis Leblanc (Montreal Junior)

Prediction: Jonathan Huberdeau – we don’t even understand this award so we’ll go the homer route and take Huberdeau.

Humanitarian Award Alex Émond (Rimouski Océanic), Kirill Kabanov (Lewiston MAINEiacs), and Gabriel Lemieux( Shawinigan Cataractes)

Prediction: Kirill Kabanov – another award that is difficult to predict. We’ll take Kabanov simply because he is a unique human being.

Photo Credits: QMJHL, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, QMJHL