Les Gaulois du Collège Antoine-Girouard

A quick note before I begin, as I know I have some of you saying 'well, this is all great, but where are the rankings?' I really want to get mine out before the CSR gets theirs out (I'd hate to be accused of plagerism), so I'm getting the final touches done on mine. Expect some 5 goaltenders on it, 20-something defensemen, around 40 forwards and a much different opinion than what those paying services on the Internet are charging you for.


But now, on to the Gaulois, in what should be a much shorter analysis than the last team I covered.

On top of the list is defenseman Simon Desmarais, who really shot up the charts this year. Early in the season, he showed a lot of promise but was a very raw player. His skills still needed some 'smoothing' out, and did they ever do just that. The player he is at the end of the season is a much improved one from the start, as all those abilities in that frame of his came out. One of the bigger players available amongst top prospects, he's got some good wheels and decent puck skills, just not of the 'offensive wizard' category. But, he's still smart enough and dependable enough to be used in all situations and contribute positively in them. It's just that at the next level, while he'll still be a valuable penalty killer, he'll probably see his power play time cut down. He could still help out, but there will be other, more skilled blueliners for those specific situations. It's obvious he's spent a lot of time doing defenseman-specific drills and it's really paying off for him. A headache free defenseman who'll go in the first round.


Desmarais' progress this year also brings up an interesting point. He was a raw prospect who got the benefit of developing on a strong team this year (i.e. practicing with very good players all season long). This situation really brought out the best in him, and I can't help but wonder what some other players on weaker teams would have looked like had they been on stronger teams. I'm not sure how much more natural talent Desmarais has over Jonquière's Julien Lepage for instance, but their level of play differed quite significantly at season's end. This brings up the question of how much better of a player Lepage would have been had he been practicing with the Gaulois all season long. While there will always be teams better than others in any league, this situation makes me wonder if the Midget AAA league wouldn't benefit from cutting down a few teams in order to help elevate the level of play of weaker teams and thereafter, the entire league. Just some food for thought .....


By now, you've probably figured out that I love the idea of drafting 16 year-olds who are a year older, more mature and more ready to step into the line-up than a 15 year-old. So, like I usually do, I want to touch on a 93' birthday, in this case, forward Sébastien Sylvestre. He is truly a terrific defensive forward, the best one on his team, who has the smarts and size to step right into a junior line-up and contribute. While not an offensive machine, his pucks skills are still good enough that he was seeing power play time and tied for second place on his team for power play goals with four. Not bad for a defensive specialist.


Some random notes:

- The Quebec Remparts sure did get a steal in the fifth round last year with Dominic Beauchemin. The depth of Quebec allowed them to send Beauchemin back down for the season and the move agreed with the development of the player. He'll be able to step right in next season.

- I would fully expect a team to take a chance on D Alexandre Bergeron. While not the biggest blueliner, he has good speed, is very strong on his skates, handles the puck confidently, doesn't shy from the rough stuff and makes good reads. He has a good chance at grabbing a depth role next season in the mold of a player like Francis Bouillon.

- A general team observation. The Gaulois are by far the most impressive team in the league size-wise, and their big bodies sure can move. But they truly lack that perfectionist mentality. They compete hard, but if someone misses a pass, the receiving player always seems to stop working for a second to shrug his shoulders, and then it's back to competing. This stoping in the middle of the action happens a number of times during the course of a game and it definitely hurts them. If they had that perfectionist mentality to do everything right every time, they would cut down on these incidents and even start discovering how good they can be. For instance, in their playoff series against Châteaguay, they are much too big around the net for the Patriotes to handle them, yet they only seem to wait for a 3 on 2 or 3 on 1 to go there. That series tied at 2 should have been a sweep, but the hard working Patriotes are making the Gaulois pay for that lack of attention to the smallest details. As a team, taking that next step mentally would move them from a very good team (that in spite, should still be league champions this year) to a great team (that could be the best in Canada).