Rankings - Goaltenders and Defensemen

So as promised, here are rankings. Time restreints are forcing me to split the forwards from the rest, but you got to start somewhere, and there's no better place than between the pipes.

Goaltenders

1) Antoine Bibeau - Trois-Rivières
He has all the tools and puts them together quite well.

2) Marc-Olivier Daigle - Collège Charles-Lemoyne*

3) Philippe Trudeau - Châteauguay
Uses that big frame of his very well. Few are the goalies of his size who have his mobility, but he can have trouble with his blocker.

4) Derek Clavet - Lévis
A small framed goaltender who emulates J-S Giguère big time.

5) Carl Hozjan - Amos
A pretty big framed goalie who had a big year.

6) François Tremblay - Jonquière
His tools are just as good as Bibeau's, but he has trouble putting it all together.



Defensemen

1) Dillon Fournier - Lac St-Louis
A BIG reason why the Lions have had the playoff success they've had. He can do everything and he still has some untapped potential.

2) Dominic Poulin - Séminaire St-François
Started the season as an early favorite, but never developped as well as I'd hope for. But still, he's got all the tools and the toolbox. However, he has made it known he will be going to the States, which means either he wants to play in the NCAA or he says he'll play in the NCAA until the Remparts draft him.

3) Marc Biega - Lac St-Louis
Finally started working in the second half, and while he was very good, he still leaves you on your appetite a little bit.

4) Jérémy Fraser - Gatineau
Some say he'll be a safe stay-at-home type, but I don't buy it. I see a stallion like Jack Johnson or Shawn Belle back in his junior days. His tools are off the charts good, but he lacks some hockey sense.

5) Simon Desmarais - Collège Antoine-Girouard
A safe blueliner who progressed very well this season. Probably the most ready to make the jump to junior hockey, even if he won't be the best one in 3 years.

6) Michael Matheson - Lac St-Louis
He was having a big playoff until injuries sidelined him. Not as good defensively as Desmarais but has more offense in him. Not a finished product but one with tremondous potential.

7) Julien Leduc - Châteauguay
A smart offensive defenseman that lacks only in size.

8) Jordan Côté - Trois-Rivières
His tools are amongst the best in the draft (if not the best), but his hockey sense is nowhere as sharp as Biega's.

9) Julien Lepage - Jonquière
A smart defender but whom really needs to gain some strenght. His frame is much too frail for the next level. This would make him a project, but one with terrific upside.

10) Mackenzie Vézina - Gatineau*

11) François Michaud - Amos
A defensive defenseman with very good mobility. Makes a good first pass and should step into a junior line-up very quickly.

12) Cameron Romoff - Châteauguay
A poor man's version of Julien Leduc. Plays the same game, just a noth below.

13) Jonathan-Ismael Diaby - Collège Esther-Blondin*
Still a very raw prospect who needs to have his skills smoothen out to reach the next level.

14) Bruno Leblanc - Gatineau*

15) Austin Hardie - Collège Charles-Lemoyne*

16) Matthew Martin - Magog
A defenseman without a glaring weakness but without a 'bread and butter' strenght either. He has the potential to grow into a junior defenseman, but he'll need to bring his game up a notch.

17) Sébastien Latendresse - St-Eustache
Progressed very well in the second half of the season. He'll need some seasoning, but it could allow for his offensive upside to develop.

18) Guillaume Cloutier - Collège Charles-Lemoyne
A big framed offensive defenseman with all the right tools. He only lacks that 'quarterback' mentality of taking the puck and initiating a rush/play. He tends to let others bring it to the net and he'll rush there without it.

19) Alexandre Bergeron - Collège Antoine-Girouard
Has a small frame but some very good strenght, which allows him to win battles against larger opponents. Makes good reads and moves the puck well. He's only this far because I question how much better he can become.

20) Charles-David Beaudoin - Magog
Not an exciting prospect, but has enough hockey sense he could help a team out.

21) Elliot Bisson - Collège Charles-Lemoyne*

22) Jean-Philippe Lebrasseur - Jonquière
His tools (size, skating, puck skills) are all of the junior level, they truly are. But his hockey sense is a major red flag, and if he's having trouble making good reads at the Midget level, imagine junior....

23) Ugo Fontaine-Lefebvre - Collège Charles-Lemoyne
A big sized defender who enjoys joining the rush, those tools might entice a junior team to try and develop him but I just don't see him raising his game to a junior level.

24) Anthony Cortese - Lac St-Louis
Spent a LOT of time at forward, even if he is much better suited to be a defenseman. He works hard but you have to wonder about all that lost development this season he'll have to catch up on.


*Indicate a player whose ranking is based on very limited viewing. I don't want to rank people based on stats, but truly on an informed opinion reached through a sufficent amount of views. Some I sadly don't get to see too much of, so I rather be upfront about it. Also, it should be noted that both Collège Esther-Blondin and Collège Notre-Dame only got very limited viewings. So, for the former, I am going with what I have, but for the ladder, I rather not pronounce myself rather than speak of ignorance.

The Lac St-Louis Lions

It's been a tough year for the Lions, but things did pick up in the second half (keep an eye on them in the playoffs - they've been finding ways to win lately). The weird thing with the Lions is that the 15 year-olds were terrific, generally it's the 16 year-olds who didn't do their part. From a scouting perspective, performing 15 year-olds are a God send, so the Lions were a popular destination this season.



With Halifax finishing last and the Maritimes supposedly producing one or two spectacular talents, I'll play along and say the Mooseheads will draft the local kid first overall. But sooner or later, someone will have to draft a Quebec player, and if the first Quebec player drafted isn't Dillon Fournier, that team will have a lot of explaining to do.

Fournier is really a terrific defenseman. A large framed, smooth skating, puck moving defenseman with the hockey sense to back it up. I actually like him better than I did Simon Desprès in his QMJHL draft year. Dillon is just that impressive. He competes very hard every shift, never shies away from physical play (but sadly doesn't initiate it often enough - because when he did, he truly flattened out some players) and what I like best about him, is that he simply kept getting better as the year went along. He went from a skilled defenseman to one who can take control of the play is his own end - truly impressive.

This consistant progress as they year went along also happened to be the undoing of Marc Biega. Playing as a 14 year-old last season, he started the year as an early favorite to go first overall. However, while still maintaining first round status, he has long fallen out of the race for first. With Biega, it isn't a question about tools, because his skill level is probably the highest of any Quebec AAA player, it isn't about hockey sense, because he actually makes smart decisions look easy. No, with Biega, it's all about hard work (or lack thereof). From the start of the year until Christmas, Biega was on the ice working only to make it seem like he was working. When he made a soft pass that became a turnover, you would see him smash his stick as if he was upset. But next shift, he would go back out there with the same indifference in his play, completely lacking intensity. And when he'd get burned, he'd go back to acting upset, with no response in his play to follow. He really was working to just make it seem as if he was working.

I heard a number of different theories over this -he's just bored with the caliber of play, he's hiding an injury, the new coach doesn't push him like the old one- but I don't buy any one of them. My feeling is he simply let his status go to his head. But, when the second half of the season started, his work ethic began to show progress. Playing on a team that dresses 7 defensemen (with one playing the wing), Biega found himself on some nights as the designated defenseman to go play the wing. And while it did little to spark his play in the first half of the season, the best hockey he played in the second half came with him playing the wing. Most notably, in one of the best games I saw this season pitting the Lions against Séminaire St-François, Biega was on the wing and setting the standart for hard work. While his hockey sense is definetely better suited for the blue line, that intensity with his skill on the back end equals one dominant defenseman. And for that reason, he will be a first round pick, but, by not competing, he sure missed out on a lot of development and even saw some players pass him by (most notably, Dillon Fournier).

The final Lion I want to touch on today (got to save something for next time) is Patrick Walsh. Simply put, this guy is money. Now I can already hear some of you telling me that 29 points in 37 games is nothing special, but that's because the numbers don't tell the whole story. Walsh is the best two-way player out there, bar none. I've seen him play with success at both center and left wing, and at 15, he's already a skilled penalty killer with good size and speed. Lost in the shuffle would be his skill set. Don't be fooled, this guy can finish, and I have seen him raise his game to dominant levels on some nights. He's got early first round pick written all over him, because the demand for a hard working, two-way player who can score is always there. He's not the offensive dynamo Quebec usually produces in top end players, but he's just so reliable. Plus, he's pretty sure to go early, because he's exactly the type of player Pascal Vincent wants to build the Montreal Juniors around, and if he's there when they pick, they'd be nuts not to grab him, and since they're picking no later than mid-first round ....

I'll make sure to cover the rest of the prospects next time.