Q Round-up: Gauthier-Leduc sets QMJHL scoring record

Rimouski Oceanic blueliner Jerome Gauthier-Leduc’s season keeps getting better.

The 19-year-old defenceman snapped a 31-year-old QMJHL record last Friday in a 5-2 win over the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

Gauthier-Leduc scored a goal and added an assist to set the QMJHL record for most consecutive games with a goal with eight. He got an assist in the game the next night against the same Huskies, but failed to score.

The goal streak was originally set at seven by former original Remparts defenceman Gaston Therrien, who set the mark in the 1979-80 season. Therrien went on to play parts of three seasons with the Quebec Nordiques.

Gauthier-Leduc, a Buffalo Sabres prospect, has 26 points in 12 games to lead his team in scoring by six points. He also leads all QMJHL defencemen in scoring, despite missing his team’s first five games.

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The QMJHL announced its 2011 inductees to the QMJHL Hall of Fame.

The league will induct four players and a builder into the hall. Forward Michel Goulet, defencemen Steve Duchesne and Pierre Sevigny and goaltender Richard Brodeur will be inducted in the player category, while Charles Henry will be inducted in the builder category.

Original Rempart forward Michel Goulet played two seasons in the QMJHL, collecting 170 points, including 80 goals, in 109 games from 1976 to 1978. He later went on to score 548 goals and 1152 points in an illustrious 15-year NHL career with the Quebec Nordiques and Chicago Blackhawks. He was the greatest goal-scorer in Nordiques history, and his number 16 was retired by the Nordiques in 1995. He is a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.

Voltigeurs defenceman Steve Duchesne played three seasons with the club from 1982 to 1985. He had 137 points in 198 games in the QMJHL. In his final junior season, he set a Voltigeurs scoring record for defencemen with 81 points and he was named to the QMJHL first all star team. In his 17-year NHL career, Duchesne played in three all star games and for six teams, amassing 752 points in 1113 games. He won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings in 2002.

Defenceman Pierre Sevigny was an offensive juggernaut on the blue line for four seasons in the QMJHL with the Quebec Remparts, Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Trois-Rivieres Draveurs. In those four seasons, Sevigny collected 318 points in 256 games. He once held the record for most playoff points for a defenceman with 40 in the 1982 playoffs, since broken. He currently holds the record for most career playoff points for a defenceman with 82.

Goaltender Richard Brodeur played two seasons in the QMJHL and recorded 62 wins. He won the QMJHL President’s Cup and the Memorial Cup in 1971-72 with the Cornwall Royals, where he was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Brodeur went on to play 17 years in the NHL and the WHA, including a trip to the Stanley Cup final in 1982 with the Vancouver Canucks.

Charles Henry was a major piece of the Hull-Gatineau Olympiques from 1985-2010, including time spent as governor and as general manager. During his time in the organisation, the team won seven President’s Cups and won the 1997 Memorial Cup in Hull. The team were runners-up for the Cup in 1986, 2003 and 2004. Henry was the face of the team during his time with the organisation, where he not only found great players, but also great coaches such as Pat Burns, Alain Vigneault and Claude Julien. He was also a scout for the Phoenix Coyotes.

The induction ceremonies will be held on April 4, 2012 at the Hyatt-Regency Hotel in Montreal, and broadcast live on RDS.

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The QMJHL roster was announced earlier this week for the 2011 Subway Super Series in November.

The Victoriaville Tigres and the Quebec Remparts will be hosting games this season. The QMJHL will play host to a Russian travel team for two games beginning on Nov. 7 in Victoriaville. The Russian team will then play an OHL squad for two games, and conclude by playing a WHL team for two games.

Tigres head coach Yanick Jean and Remparts head coach Patrick Roy will handle coaching duties, alternating the head coaching position for the game in each team’s home arena; Jean will coach in Victoriaville, and Roy will coach in Quebec City.

The team will see P.E.I.’s Maxime Lagace and Quebec’s Louis Domingue between the pipes. On defence, the team will be led by the Oceanic’s Jerome Gauthier-Leduc, the Wildcats’ Brandon Gormley and the Sea Dogs’ Nathan Beaulieu. Up front, Jonathan Huberdeau of the Sea Dogs, Michael Bournival of the Cataractes, and the Titan’s Zach O’Brien and Matthew Bissonnette will lead the charge.

Two players in the top ten in league scoring aren’t on the roster for the QMJHL in the super series. Moncton’s Alex Saulnier and Drummondville’s Marc-Olivier Brouillard were left off the roster for the two-game set.

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The Gatineau Olympiques were busy, making three trades this week.

The Olympiques acquired forward Maxime Provencher from the Victoriaville Tigres for an eighth round pick in the 2013 QMJHL entry draft. Provencher, 18, has appeared in two games for Gatineau so far this season, with no points. He had three points in four games with the Tigres.

Gatineau wasn’t done, upgrading their defence by sending out Guillaume Rousseau to Victoriaville and acquiring Alex MacDonald from Rimouski in separate deals. The Tigres sent the same pick back to the Olympiques, and the Oceanic paired up a sixth round pick in 2012 with MacDonald to receive a third round pick in 2014. Both Rousseau and MacDonald are overagers, and both had two points each so far this season.

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The Acadie-Bathurst Titan shuffled the deck of their front office this past week.

The team reassigned general manager Sylvain Couturier as a special consultant to overlook player development. Leo-Guy Morrissette will take over as general manager.

Morrissette had previously been a general manager for a lengthy period during his 27 year stint with the team as owner. Couturier will now have more time to devote to his family, and will work daily with Morrissette on Titan matters.

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The QMJHL selected its three stars of the week.

Saint John Sea Dog center Danick Gauthier was selected as first star of the week. He scored six of his teams 21 goals in their three wins this past week. He had a hat trick in Saint John’s 10-3 victory against the P.E.I. Rocket.

Rimouski Oceanic defenceman Jerome Gauthier-Leduc was named second star of the week. In addition to the record he set this past week (see above), he managed five points in three games, including points in each of the Oceanic’s three victories.

Saint John Sea Dog center Jonathan Huberdeau was named third star of the week. He managed two goals and eight points in the Sea Dogs three victories this week.

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Yanni Gourde of the Victoriaville Tigres made a game of it this week, retaking the scoring lead from incumbent Zach O’Brien of the Acadie Bathurst Titan.

Both players have been alternating weeks atop the league’s scoring race. The two players are the only ones to lead the league in scoring.

Gourde’s 37 points is three up on O’Brien, who sits with 34. O’Brien’s linemates, Matthew Bissonnette and Sebastien Trudeau, are third and fourth in scoring with 30 and 27 points respectively.

Rimouski defenceman Jerome Gauthier-Leduc is fifth in scoring with 26 points, leading all blueliners in scoring.

Rounding out the top ten are Alex Saulnier of the Moncton Wildcats with 25 points, Benjamin Casavant of the Val-d’Or Foreurs and Marc-Olivier Bouillard of the Drummondville Voltigeurs with 24 points and rookies Mikhail Grigorenko of the Quebec Remparts and Nathan MacKinnon of the Halifax Mooseheads, each with 23 points.

Behind Gauthier-Leduc in defenceman scoring are a pair of Remparts: Mikael Tam and Martin Lefebvre. Tam has 10 goals and 18 points, and Lefebvre has 15. Mathieu Gagnon of the Gatineau Olympiques and Gabriel Bourret of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens each have 14 points.

Newcomer to the league leaders Danick Gauthier of the Saint John Sea Dogs is tied with O’Brien with 16 goals to lead the league. Bissonnette is third with 14, and Casavant has 13. Four players have 12 goals: Gourde and teammate Philippe Halley, along with Shawinigan’s Anton Zlobin and P.E.I.’s Victor Provencher.

Grigorenko and MacKinnon lead the league in rookie scoring with their 23 points apiece. Sven Andrighetto and Denis Kamaev of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies are third and fourth with 22 and 20 points apiece. Christopher Clapperton of the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada has 19 points and rounds out the top five.

Three goalies have nine wins on the year to lead the league. Saint John’s Mathieu Corbeil, Shawinigan’s Alex Dubeau and Val-d’Or’s Francois Tremblay each have nine wins. Tremblay, Corbeil, Dubeau and the Tigres’ David Honzik each have two shutouts.

Only Dubeau and Corbeil have save percentages over .900 with a minimum of 406 minutes played. They both have save percentages of .915. Christopher Gibson of the Chicoutimi Sagueneens has a .899 mark for third in the league.

Corbeil leads in goals against average, with a mark of 2.11. Dubeau sits in second at 2.38, followed by Victoriaville rookie Brandon Whitney with a 2.58.