The Flames know a thing or two about Moncton Wildcats defencemen.
Consider prospect Etienne Morin, who won a title with the QMJHL club before embarking on his first full pro campaign this past winter.
This year, there’s a new blueliner from the New Brunswick club that has NHL teams champing at the bit. And it was in Moncton that Tommy Bleyl had a season to remember in advance of the NHL Draft later this month in Buffalo.
Bleyl is sure to hear his name called by an NHL club in his home state of New York, but the Schenectady product figures his first season in the Maritimes had a lot to do with putting him on the Draft radar.
“Cushing (Academy) is a really high level, you know, they play in a really good high level league, but the Q, it's a step up,” said Bleyl, who spent a season at the Massachusetts prep school before the move to Moncton. “It’s faster, it's more physical, and it took a couple games to adjust to, you know, to correct my place down.”
But after that, Bleyl shone on the Wildcats back end. He led all QMJHL skaters in assists with 66, and all defencemen in points (81), totals that also put him tops on a Moncton squad that featured six NHL-drafted players including former No. 4 selection Caleb Desnoyers and 2026 QMJHL Playoff MVP Gabe Smith.
As a result, Bleyl’s name featured prominently on the QMJHL awards ledger, and his personal trophy cabinet now includes an Emile Bouchard trophy (given to the QMJHL’s Defenceman of the Year) and a Raymond Lagacé trophy (awarded to the circuit’s best Defensive Rookie).
It didn’t take long, either, for the 5-foot-11, 170-lb. blueliner to feel right at home in the Hub City.
“I would say after October, when a lot of the players started coming back - Caleb Desnoyers from his wrist injury - him coming back really helped polish and bring the pieces together with the team,” said Bleyl, who told reporters he met with 30 of the 32 NHL teams at the Combine in Buffalo. “Individually I started getting adjusted in early to mid-November.
“It just kind of got better from there.”
Those 81 points Bleyl put up on the Wildcats blueline stand as a QMJHL rookie record, and Bleyl - ranked No. 17 among North American is the second player in league history to be anointed as Rookie and Defenceman of the Year in the same season (joining Florida Panthers rearguard Dmitry Kulikov).
He owes part of those accolades to his head coach, Gardiner MacDougall. The veteran bench boss has a winning history in New Brunswick hockey, capturing countless honours in Fredericton with the UNB Varsity Reds before winning a Memorial Cup in Saint John in 2022, and a QMJHL title with Moncton a season ago.
“It's a really winning environment, and they always make everything kind of competitive in a way, which is really needed for a team,” Bleyl said of MacDougall and his son, Taylor, who serves as Moncton’s GM. “It's pretty impressive that they're able to maintain a competitive environment off the ice and on the ice.”
Bleyl will head back to Canada next week, where he’s up for both CHL Defenceman and Rookie of the Year honours. He told reporters in Buffalo this past weekend that he's planning on heading back to Moncton in the fall, calling their seven-game, semi-final playoff loss to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada fuel for next season.
And while several of the other defencemen in his Draft class might have an edge size-wise, there’s no question Bleyl is confident his tool kit can translate to the next level, when it comes time to make the jump.
“I’ve never really had a lack of confidence that defencemen like me couldn't play in the NHL,” Bleyl noted when asked about the impact made by the likes of Canadiens blueliner Lane Hutson this past season. “Guys like them really do boost that confidence. That was already there in the first place. It's really fun to see how they are, how they manage to be successful.
“The number-one thing is being competitive, staying positive throughout adversity and stuff like that.”
