2023 QMJHL DRAFT

[Jack Bauer]

Awesome post cb. The history lesson is recent and really shows how easily things can change with 1 good or bad personnel decision.

I think the key in that story are a couple of things:
A) Your rebrand seemed to play right into the teams culture change. On our Island our rebrand kept basically everything the same. 99% of the people already called the team "the Eagles" in conversation. So its more of a joke of why drop a word and keep the logo, colors, etc the same?

B) When things settled down Hulton didn't try and rush anything. He made smart deals. Looked long term. Bought when it was time. Sold when it wasn't. So your peak was multiple years of solid teams with a solid high point.

Now your drafts seem to be easier from the outside looking in. I'm sure you've gone from a "lets see what somewhere else looks like" market to agents and families to a "Hulton seems like he has a good program to be in, lets take a closer look" and I think every Maritime market looks great when that is the initial perception and not so great when you can't tie that "great progam" statement to it.

[hal]

Jun 15, 2023 11:52:48 GMT -4 countryboy said:

Sure seems like a sad state of affairs over there.

Not watching closely, I'm almost left to imagine that the Eagles are making a documentary about the days of the PEI Rocket. I just can't figure out if Simon or Couturier is playing the role of Serge Savard Jr.

When Savard sold the PEI Rocket to our local ownership group, Grant Sonier was hired as GM and Gordie Dwyer was retained as head coach (holdover from the previous regime).

Everybody got a free pass in year one 2013-14. We sold large at the deadline (traded away 20 y/o captain Jack Nevins, 20 y/o Euro forward Matej Beran, traded away 18 y/o Yan-Pavel Laplante who just wasn't working out, traded away 17 y/o former first round pick Alexis Pepin who also wasn't working out, traded away Ryan Graves, traded away Antoine Bibeau).... with the plan to build around Daniel Sprong, Alex Goulet, Mason MacDonald, David Henley, etc.

Sonier was a well traveled hockey man, but he really did not have much experience in junior hockey. In 2014-15, after a loss in the second round, Sonier let Dwyer go. A second round appearance was a success for our franchise and it was also a great achievement for such a young core of players. It also must be mentioned that Mason McDonald went down in round one with a season ending injury and we still won the series with our backup goalie. Our loss in round 2 was to Quebec who went to game 7 of the finals and lost. Was Sonier to hasty to let Dwyer go? Maybe. But also, Dwyer was there before Sonier so maybe Sonier was just looking to hire "his guy"....like most GMs want to do at any level.

Anyway, Sonier's "guy" he hired was Jim Hulton, who was an unknown in hockey circles in this area. But along the way, someone with some power decided to pay attention to what Hulton was doing and where his strengths were as a hockey coach.

In 2015-16, Hulton's first season behind the bench, drew Rimouski in the 2nd round, and managed to knock them off and advance to the second round where we lost to Shawinigan who made it to the President's Cup final where they lost to Rouyn-Noranda. That year we had 77 points, which would have to be considered a disappointing year considering what the GM was trying to build with our team. Sonier was let go after the 2015-16 season.

At this point, were the Charlottetown Islanders looking like the PEI Rocket? Maybe....but someone with some power and insight had the smarts to realize that they would be wise to stick with Hulton. The head coach and GM job were consolidated and Hulton was given his chance to put a stamp on the team. We made it to the semi-finals in 2017 and again in 2018. 2019 was 87 points and a first round loss to Cape Breton. 2020 was 71 points in 64 games at the Covid shutdown and a likely first round loss. 2021 was a loss in the semifinals and 2022 was a loss in the finals with a great team.

When I read the article about Couturier justifying why Goyens had to be fired, etc. etc.....It just makes me wonder...

Sure, Goyens is an analytics guy first, but he's a very smart young hockey mind. Is the rush to get clear of him to make sure that someday Couturier isn't fired only to be replaced with Goyens? In firing Goyens, did they just fire the guy who is maybe the smartest hockey mind in their organization?

One major difference in this is that when Hulton came here his family moved down and really settled into living on the East coast. It sounds like Goyens and his family just wasn't into doing a similar move to Sydney.... which is fine, but does make things a little harder.

I just don't know what comes next for the Eagles...But things sure don't look to be showing any improvement as far as the disfunction that this franchise has been circled in for years.

Goyens downplayed the Family still in Montreal thing at his 1st Press Conference by saying that there was a Direct Flight Daily from Sydney to Montreal and that his Family were less than 2 hours away but separation is separation when it is a daily thing .


* Waiting for Goyens to respond . I read Syl's interview in the CB Post again and it's almost like he wants an Absolute Pass on this 1st Hiring .....He was a Bad Choice but yeah I am responsible for making that Bad Choice . Gerard Shaw's Hands are not clean on this one either . I can't be the only Poster who heard him at C200 as he made his Rounds cast shade on The Eagles Head Coach ?

[hal]

Just throwing this out there but was there not talk from some of the PEI Posters that they thought that Billy MacGuigan of the Summerside Capitals Jr A Organization was a hot name ? Would Syl consider an up and coming Coach or is he looking to recycle a Former Q Coach ? I know nothing about his Family Situation in regards to his potential willingness to move here and the fact that Simon is insisting on it this time . Might be a Good Time to be a Young Single Guy looking to advance up the Coaching Ladder .

[islander19]

Jun 15, 2023 16:30:37 GMT -4 hal said:

Just throwing this out there but was there not talk from some of the PEI Posters that they thought that Billy MacGuigan of the Summerside Capitals Jr A Organization was a hot name ? Would Syl consider an up and coming Coach or is he looking to recycle a Former Q Coach ? I know nothing about his Family Situation in regards to his potential willingness to move here and the fact that Simon is insisting on it this time . Might be a Good Time to be a Young Single Guy looking to advance up the Coaching Ladder .

Billy just signed an extension with Summerside…could be a clause of course, but with his family all here I doubt he makes the move.

And in all honesty, if he hasn’t been given the chance to make the jump already, I’m not sure he will…he’s been kind of gifted great teams for most of his time in Summerside

[jamesnorris]

Jun 15, 2023 16:30:37 GMT -4 hal said:

Just throwing this out there but was there not talk from some of the PEI Posters that they thought that Billy MacGuigan of the Summerside Capitals Jr A Organization was a hot name ? Would Syl consider an up and coming Coach or is he looking to recycle a Former Q Coach ? I know nothing about his Family Situation in regards to his potential willingness to move here and the fact that Simon is insisting on it this time . Might be a Good Time to be a Young Single Guy looking to advance up the Coaching Ladder .

I'm not sure why a coach from Summerside would ever consider leaving for CB... It's an actual operation in Summerside, they even just hired a Director of Player Development. That's a league below the QMJHL btw.

Makes no sense to go from that to an absolute gongshow. Unless they were bringing him in with a blank cheque to recreate what he was doing in Summerside.... but I don't see that being the offer.

[eagle78]

The town hall meeting scheduled for Tuesday night should be a good one , Couturier and Hanna will speak on draft and exciting future lol , hopefully some tough questions will be directed at them .

[hal]

Well if "WE" don't take advantage of this opportunity to go to it and fire a snowball or 2 then.....we can't come on here saying we didn't have any chance for them to hear what we think ........Pretty Simple really .

[eagle78]

One question that should be asked is hire more staff for example maybe more scouts , assistant coach eye in the sky like they did years ago , bring in knowledgeable hockey people for starters

[jamesnorris]

Jun 16, 2023 19:03:15 GMT -4 eagle78 said:

One question that should be asked is hire more staff for example maybe more scouts , assistant coach eye in the sky like they did years ago , bring in knowledgeable hockey people for starters

That was asked last go and they seemed to dismiss it as unnecessary as they trusted the current coaching staff

[JEagle]

[hal]

Note : 6 PM Start

[jboyz]

Eagles added a few free agents to their pre season roster on the website and one of them happens to be CB West Goalie Rhyah Stewart.

[sherwood1020]

Jun 20, 2023 11:55:27 GMT -4 jboyz said:

Eagles added a few free agents to their pre season roster on the website and one of them happens to be CB West Goalie Rhyah Stewart.

Too bad she's NCAA committed, we need some competition in goal

[Briwhel]

Jun 20, 2023 12:19:45 GMT -4 sherwood1020 said:

Jun 20, 2023 11:55:27 GMT -4 jboyz said:

Eagles added a few free agents to their pre season roster on the website and one of them happens to be CB West Goalie Rhyah Stewart.

Too bad she's NCAA committed, we need some competition in goal

Apparently, there is nothing stopping a female from playing QMJHL and NCAA.

[knuckles]

The NCAA-Q rule has been written to only apply to males. I believe in the past this did apply (Szabados and Tri-City, 2005ish), however, has been changed to only apply to male players. It makes sense from an NCAA perspective to keep top female athletes that have the opportunity to pursue Major Junior in an AP role, which helps to grow the female game.