QMJHL
Riley Kidney and the Gatineau Olympiques kick things off in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on Friday at 7:00 p.m. when they go head-to-head with the Quebec Remparts. A productive first half of the season in Acadie-Bathurst was only a taste of what Kidney had to offer Gatineau, finishing the 2022-23 campaign tied for fourth in league scoring and second in the assists department with 82 helpers in 60 games. The Canadiens' second-round pick in 2021 is in the midst of an impressive playoff showing with 18 points in nine games thus far.
Should the Olympiques escape victorious in their best-of-seven series against Patrick Roy's club, a date with Joshua Roy in the QMJHL final could be on the horizon.
A standout performance at the 2023 World Junior Championship set the table for Roy's return to the Sherbrooke Phoenix, where he continued his dominance in the Q, filling the stat sheet in the goals and points columns. No less than 27 points in 11 games earned him the league's player of the month honors in March, in a season during which the forward finished with the best plus-minus differential in the league at plus-69. Roy is in the running for the Michel Brière Trophy, awarded to the league's Most Valuable Player, as well as the Paul Dumont Trophy, an honor he won in 2022 as the league's Personality of the Year.
On Saturday, Roy and the Phoenix will open their series with the Mooseheads in Halifax. The Canadiens' fifth-round pick in the 2021 NHL Draft has continued to make noise in the playoffs with 21 points to his name in just eight games to date.
OHL
Across the Ontario border, 2021 first-round pick Logan Mailloux is set to face off with the Sarnia Sting on Friday evening. The London Knights' blueliner paced the league's defenseman in goals, lightning the lamp 25 times in 59 games, while producing at a near point-per-game rate. Mailloux's offensive touch translated seamlessly to the playoffs, where he's totaled four goals and six assists in nine games thus far.
Owen Beck is a name that Habs fans will remember, having made his NHL debut with the Canadiens this year after being recalled on emergency basis in late-January. The 33rd overall pick from last year's draft opened his season with the Mississauga Steelheads before being traded to the Peterborough Petes on January 7, days after winning a gold medal alongside Roy and Team Canada at the WJC. Beck is considered an exceptional talent in the faceoff circle. The Yanic Perreault of the OHL won 58.6% of the 1245 duels he took part in this season. As for his point production, the 18-year-old has recorded seven points in 10 games during this year's playoffs. The North Bay Battalion welcome the Petes to town for a seven-game series that opens on Friday night.
WHL
The Seattle Thunderbirds and their leading scorer Jared Davidson will square off with the Kamloops Blazers, hosts of the 2023 Memorial Cup, as of Saturday. The 20-year-old forward is in his fifth season with Seattle. Davidson's perseverance and character caught the attention of the Canadiens' brass, who selected the Edmonton, AB native in the fifth round of the 2022 NHL Draft. To date, he has posted 13 points in eight games in the Western Hockey League's postseason.
The Memorial Cup will be played May 25 to June 4 in Kamloops, BC, following the conclusion of the CHL playoffs.
Cover photo credit: Vincent Levesque Rousseau
