Cape Breton coach and GM Dumont moving on from summer Roy drama; likes his team’s will to win and compete every night

Cape Breton Screaming Eagles head coach and general manager Marc-André Dumont loved the effort his team put forth in the third period of a 3-1 loss to the Moncton Wildcats Sunday.

“That was the kind of effort we want,” he said of the 17-shot stanza, where the Screaming Eagles didn’t score, but put up a wide margin in shots and gave up an empty-netter. “We put pressure on their team; put pressure on their Ds. There were shifts where we got three line changes before they were able to change.

“That’s the kind of pressure we need to have on a consistent basis. That’s what’s going to happen sometimes with a young team they aren’t going to be consistent.”

It’s going to be a trying year in the Cape this season, but so far the Screaming Eagles are making the most of it. The team sits in 12^th place in the league with a 4-3-0-2 record so far this season. This comes after a disastrous 14-46-3-5 record last season, and a 23-42-1-2 record in 2011-12, where the team just squeaked into the final playoff spot to get smoked by eventual-champions the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Dumont said that he’s most impressed by his team’s compete level and their sense of urgency every night.

“[I love seeing] the will to win; the will to earn success,” Dumont said. “They know success is not free. My group of players, for those who’ve been with the team for three years like William Carrier and Loïc Leduc, it’s been three difficult years. They want to have success. They are very hungry to succeed.

“The new guys, they want to make a difference. They want to show that their arrival on the team is the sign of a new era so there’s a big motivation from our players to have success. That’s what I like the most. It carries into practice; it carries into games. It carries into situations where we feel we’re playing well but we aren’t getting that second goal we’re still going at it, you know?”

The Screaming Eagles earned the first overall pick last June after bottoming out last season. They used that pick on potential franchise forward Nicolas Roy, who then refused to report, wanting to finish his schooling in the Quebec school system he started in. The efforts of convincing Roy to join Cape Breton didn’t daunt Dumont on the struggles of convincing players to join the team, nor did it faze him in that task.

“We believe in our program,” Dumont said. “The past players on our team have shown that they can be successful. Every player on our program can be successful on a sports aspect.

“You see guys like Marc-André Fleury, Ondrej Pavelec and Morgan Ellis going into the pros, and then you see guys academically like Jonathan Brunelle, who’s at McGill, and in the last five years was a two-time [winner] of the CHL’s student of the year.

“Then on a personal level, I have yet to meet a player who came to Cape Breton and played at least a year here and didn’t like it. So, on a personal, sports and academic level, we’ve proven we can support any player in any language and any grade. So we were confident in our program and we presented it. They [made] their decision of not coming.”

Dumont had his hand forced with Roy’s no-show. He had to recoup some assets in exchange for the prospect, and he did, sending Roy to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens for three first round picks, one each in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The team also receives the fifth overall selection in 2014 in response to Roy not reporting to the Cape.

Dumont said that the trade gives his team much needed flexibility in assets for future deals and future prospects.

“The trade brought us buying power,” he said. “It’s a fair trade for Chicoutimi. I think they’re getting a franchise player.”

In trading Roy, the team looks ahead again to the following years, but Dumont won’t say the r-word.

“With those picks, we’re delaying still,” Dumont said. “We had the top ’97 player in our territory, possibly one of the top in the world, and he’s gone. Now we’ll have to turn ourselves to ‘98s, because we have our picks next June. The pick we have the year after that is a ’99. The pick we have the year after that is a kid born in 2000.

“That delays our building process. We aren’t rebuilding, we’re building. We want to build a strong team. I think it’s a fair price for us to get but we’re moving forward. For us, it’s in the past, and we have a fantastic program to whoever wants to come.”

Even without the star centerpiece in Roy, who, after a slow start, has points in five of his last six games, the Screaming Eagles have a collection of good young players moving forward. Cameron Darcy, an American from Boston, leads the team with 15 points in nine games and has been a beast in the face-off circle. Rookie Julien Pelletier is a point-a-game player so far, and fellow rookie Jason Bell has been steady on the blueline at 16. Players like Clark Bishop and Michael Lyle have continued their development.

Dumont likes the team he has going forward and his team’s ability to attract good players.

“A guy like Cameron Darcy left the USHL to come play for us,” he said. “A guy like Max Lazarev, a highly touted Russian ’96 player, decided to come and play for Cape Breton. Three free agents from Toronto chose to come here: [Matthew] Nosella, [Nicholas] Dozzi and [Matthew] Donnelly. We’ve been able to attract some free agents and top players. Jason Bell, drafted first round, he’s in Cape Breton. I think that we’ve proven that [we can attract players] and we’ll continue to prove that.”

Dumont won’t tip his hand for what’s in store at the QMJHL trading period, opening up in early December. He has a few highly-touted assets available for building his team for upcoming seasons. Defencemen Justin Haché, 19, has Memorial Cup winning experience from his time as a Shawinigan Cataracte, and could be the best defenceman available on the market come December. Fellow defenceman Jérémy Beaudry, 20, can run a powerplay effectively and is scoring at above a point-a-game pace so far, so he could be a good piece for a team looking to shore up their defensive unit. Goaltender Maxime Lagacé, also 20, is an overager but an effective netminder who could be the best one available to a team looking desperately for a goalie.

Forwards like hard-worker Kyle Farrell, power forward Raphaël Corriveau, feisty Will Carrier, gritty Charles-Eric Légaré and solid blueliner Loïc Leduc could all be had for teams looking for depth at the right price this season.

Dumont is staying mum on the subject of December plans and taking the evaluation route. He could stand pat if the team is doing well. He could sell off his assets and really bottom out this year, or he could trade some veterans for younger prospects and not picks. There are options available to the coach and GM of the Screaming Eagles.

“We have to wait to see and evaluate our personnel,” he said. “We’re only the beginning of October, so we want to take at least the next two months and then in December assess our needs and assess if those needs can be met through trading.

“We do have buying power with our [draft] picks, because we have five picks in the first two rounds next June. We have a third round pick and two fifth round picks. We still have both our import picks next year. The year after we have two first round picks.

“We have good players in our system too. We have Colby Tower playing Junior A at 16. Max Baillargeon is playing Midget AAA in Quebec, so we have some assets we can use and we want to look at how our team evolves and develops because we’re still early. You don’t want to make a final assessment early October; you want to wait to see how all your players evolve, perform, progress and improve and then you make that assessment.”