Q Round-up: Kabanov traded to Shawinigan

New York Islanders Russian prospect Kirill Kabanov was traded this week, and is expected to make his QMJHL season debut.

Kabanov was traded from the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, a team he didn’t report to, to the Shawinigan Cataractes, the hosts of the 2012 Mastercard Memorial Cup.

The teams swapped Europeans as the main features of the package. The Armada acquired defenceman Nikita Kolesnikovs, prospect netminder Storm Phaneuf and a sixth round pick in the 2012 QMJHL Entry Draft. In return, the Cataractes get Kabanov and defenceman Alexandre Gauthier.

Prior to the trade, Kabanov had signed a one-month tryout contract with Farlestads in the Swedish Elitserien, but he will instead join the Cataractes. He has been in Shawinigan since Sunday and is expected to make his Cataractes debut this week.

This is the fourth team for the young Russian, who now has had drama follow him to two teams. He was traded from the Moncton Wildcats, his original QMJHL team, to the Lewiston MAINEiacs last season, in light of several on- and off-ice problems, including getting kicked off the Russian under-18 team in 2010.

Kabanov had a sub-par regular season with Lewiston, but he had a great playoff with the MAINEiacs in 2011, tying for their point lead with 20 points in 15 games.

Lewiston disbanded last season, and all their players were available in a dispersal draft. Kabanov was finally taken by the Armada with the 16^th pick in the draft, after other, less talented players and Lewiston draft picks were taken.

The Quebec Remparts, considered to be one of the most “Russian-friendly” teams in the QMJHL, with Alex Radulov, Dmitry Kugrashev and Belarussians Roman and Ruslan Bashkirov playing with the team in recent seasons, as well as Mikhail Grigorenko this season, chose to take Lewiston’s third round pick over the unpredictable Kabanov.

Kabanov decided not to report to Blainville-Boisbriand training camp, instead focusing on the Islanders and hoping to catch on professionally somewhere. However, Kabanov is not old enough to play in the AHL, and would have to return to the QMJHL to play in North America if he didn’t make the team.

He didn’t, and now he’s a member of the Shawinigan Cataractes, and will add major talent to the team this season.

The Armada, in turn, swap the forward for a European defenceman with offensive flair to their defence corps. Kolesnikovs, 19 at the end of the month, has 10 points in 13 games so far this season.

This trade can be immediately considered a win for both sides.

Shawinigan acquires some huge offensive firepower for their top 6, so long as Kabanov stays happy and produces as he should. Kabanov can add to a potent offense led by Peter Sakaris, Anton Zlobin, Michael Chaput and Michael Bournival. The team is deep, but only has Sakaris in the top forty in scoring in the QMJHL.

The Armada acquire an offensive defenceman who can bolster their young defence corps led by Xavier Ouellet and Jonathan Narbonne, without giving up anyone on the current roster.

In other trade news, the Rimouski Oceanic acquired defenceman Pier-Luc Pelletier from the Victoriaville Tigres for two draft picks.

Pelletier, 20, has six points in 13 games so far this season, and had 35 points last year.

The Tigres received a third round pick in 2013 and Saint John’s sixth round pick in 2012 in return for their overage defenceman.

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Rimouski Oceanic defenceman Jerome Gauthier-Leduc will attempt to break a 31-year-old QMJHL record this week.

Gauthier-Leduc, 19, has made the league his whipping boy since returning to the league from Buffalo Sabres camp. He currently has 21 points in nine games.

With a goal on Wednesday at home against the Val-d’Or Foreurs, Gauthier-Leduc would tie Gaston Therrien’s record of most consecutive games with a goal by a defenceman with seven. If he does, he could break it on Friday in Rouyn-Noranda against the Huskies.

Therrien set the record in the 1979-80 season with the league’s first rendition of the Quebec Remparts. Therrien went on to have a cup of coffee with the Quebec Nordiques in the early eighties, playing in 22 games in three seasons, tallying eight assists. He also played in nine playoff games for the Nords in 1981-82.

Gauthier-Leduc leads his team in scoring by four points. Alex Belzile’s 17 points sit in second in Oceanic scoring. He currently leads all defencemen in scoring in the QMJHL.

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The QMJHL released their TELUS three stars of the week for the period ending Oct. 16.

Drummondville Voltigeurs forward Jerome Raymond was named first star of the week last week. He had seven points in three games, including four against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles last Thursday. Teh Volts won two of those games, defeating the Eagles, 5-1, on Thursday and the P.E.I. Rocket, 4-3 in overtime, on Sunday. They fell 4-3 to the Halifax Mooseheads Saturday.

Rocket goaltender Maxime Lagace was named second star of the week. The Rocket grabbed three points in four games this week thanks to outstanding play by Lagace, who made 35 saves in a 2-1 win on Friday against the Wildcats and made 44 saves against the Voltigeurs. Lagace had a 2.40 goals against average and a .940 save percentage in the two games.

Victoriaville Tigres forward Philippe Halley was named third star of the week. He scored four goals and added two assists in his team’s two games. He had two points in the Tigres’ 3-2 victory over the Gatineau Olympiques on Friday. On Sunday, Halley had a hat-trick and added an assist in a 7-0 win over the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. Halley was a career-high +6 in the game.

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The Chicoutimi Sagueneens have been giving fans their money’s worth this season.

The team has played in six overtime games so far this season, three more than any other team.

Miraculously, the team has only won two of the six games in extra time, and none in the shootout. They have lost three times in the post-game-breakaway-relay so far this season. Either way, the extra time has given the Sagueneens eight points.

The Tigres, Armada and Mooseheads are the only teams undefeated in overtime. They each have a win in overtime and in the shootout.

The Olympiques and Baie-Comeau Drakkar are the only teams without an overtime game so far this year.

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Saint John Sea Dogs goaltender Mathieu Corbeil received an interesting call Monday from Columbus Blue Jackets general manager Scott Howson.

Corbeil has been called up by the Columbus Blue Jackets to dress in their game Tuesday night against the Dallas Stars. He will then return to the Sea Dogs Wednesday. The Sea Dogs don’t play this week until Friday in Halifax.

For the Blue Jackets, backup goaltender Mark Dekanich is on injured reserve, and his replacement, Curtis Sanford, was hurt in practice on Monday.

Corbeil was called up for insurance in case starter Steve Mason can’t play, and isn’t likely to see action. He has a 7-2-0-0 record so far this season, with a 2.61 goals against average and a .899 save percentage.

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Zach O’Brien of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan retook the QMJHL scoring lead by the end of last week.

O’Brien finished the week with 28 points, one better than his rival this season, Yanni Gourde of the Tigres.

Matthew Bissonnette, O’Brien’s linemate, continues to sit in third with 13 goals and 25 points. Marc-Olivier Brouillard of the Voltigeurs and Alex Saulnier of the Wildcats round out the top five with 23 points apiece. Brouillard’s 10 goals are two better than Saulnier’s eight.

Rounding out the top ten are Rimouski’s Gauthier-Leduc and the Titan’s Sebastien Trudeau, each with 21 points.  Teammates Yannick Dube and Philippe Halley of the Tigres make their first appearances on the top ten leaderboard with identical 10-goal, 20-point stat-lines, and lead a group of six players tied with 20. Baie-Comeau’s Raphael Bussieres, Drummondville’s Andre Bouvet-Morrissette, Rouyn-Noranda’s Denis Kamaev and Val-d’Or’s Michael Beaudry all sit with 20 points.

Behind Gauthier-Leduc in defenceman scoring is Mikael Tam of the Remparts and Mathieu Gagnon of the Olympiques, tied with 14 points. Samuel Carrier, a Lewiston pickup by the Drakkar, has 13 points, and Tam’s teammate Martin Lefevbre sits in fifth place with 12 points.

Bissonnette leads the circuit in goals with his 13, followed by O’Brien’s 12. Anton Zlobin of the Cataractes and Benjamin Casavant of the Foreurs sit with 11.

Kamaev took over the rookie scoring lead this week, overtaking Quebec’s Mikhail Grigorenko. Grigorenko sits in second with 19 points, tied with Halifax’s Nathan MacKinnon and one back of Kamaev.

Baie-Comeau’s Jimmy Appleby took over the league lead in goals against average and save percentage. In six games, Appleby has a GAA of 2.18 and a save percentage of .914.

Alex Dubeau of the Shawinigan Cataractes sits in second place in save percentage, but dropped to fourth in GAA by the end of the week. Dubeau has a GAA of 2.62 and a save percentage of .908.

Four goalies have seven wins on the year, including Dubeau. Saint John’s Mathieu Corbeil, Val-d’Or’s Francois Tremblay and Moncton’s Roman Will are the others. Tremblay and the Tigres’ David Honzik each have two shutouts.

P.E.I.’s Maxime Lagace is third in the league in save percentage with a .905 mark, despite his 3-7-1-0 record. He has also make the most saves so far, with 371 in 12 games, for an average of almost 31 shots a game.