QMJHL preview: Gatineau, Blainville-Boisbriand look to lead West Division

With the QMJHL season starting Thursday, we will look at each division in the Q and make 14 fun facts and fearless forecasts for the upcoming 2013-14 season. This is the West Division. The East and Maritime Divisions will be available Wednesday and Thursday.

The wild, wild West was wide open last season, with only the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada finishing in the top seven in the league in total points. It could be just as wide open this season, with only Sherbrooke really knowing who they are come season’s open.

1. 2013-14 in the West Division will be the year of the overage goaltender — Four of the West's six teams are using a 20-year-old netminder: Blainville-Boisbriand, Gatineau, Rouyn-Noranda and Sherbrooke. All four were picked to help out younger defensive corps. All four will be factors at the top of the goaltending leaderboards at season’s end, and it will make for a very tough division to score.

2. The Sherbrooke Phoenix will still have trouble — Last season, the Phoenix got a boost from dressing five 20-year-olds for the transition to the league as an expansion team. This season, coach Judes Vallée's charges don’t have that benefit. They are still a very young team, with 18 players 18-years-old or younger. Look for them to make a trade with a team that needs goaltending and forward help at the December trading period to collect some more prospects. They have plenty of young forwards, but they won’t be good enough to make a run this season. They may suck out loud this season, but they will make great strides in the development of their players for future years. They could be a force in two years time.

3. Val-d’Or will take a step backward this season — Val-d’Or had a good run last season, reaching the second round before falling to division rival Blainville-Boisbriand. They made their run last season, and now they will have a more trying situation. Still left over are forwards Anthony Mantha, Samuel Henley and newcomer Louick Marcotte who can bend the twine, but they will need more firepower if they want to equal their year last year.

They hope for big years from their two new Europeans Timotej Sille and Lukas Sladkovsky, but they are both young. Anthony Richard returns after starting last season with the team, leaving the team for more ice-time in midget, then returning to the Foreurs and demanding a trade. He could have an impact offensively, but that may just lead to more fun in the Abitibi-Témisquamingue.

4 .Rouyn-Noranda won’t score the second-most goals in the league again — The Huskies scored the second-most goals in the QMJHL last season, but most of the depth of that team is gone; only top-line center Jean-Sebastien Dea remains from the team’s top-five scorers. They will lean on the team’s depth from last season to make the jump to prime time, like Marcus Power, Maxime St-Cyr, Steven Mercier and Liam O’Brien.

5. Gatineau will have star pedigree standing in the crease — The Olympiques signed Anthony Brodeur to play this season behind overage Robert Steeves. Brodeur produced good numbers behind a stacked Shattuck-St. Mary’s team the last three seasons, and was drafted by the New Jersey Devils in the seventh round at last year’s entry draft. He will set out to prove that his pick wasn’t a favour to his father and that his numbers are legitimate.

6. New coaches in Rouyn and Drummondville will make an impact — Both teams made changes behind the bench thanks to Patrick Roy; he hired both coaches to join his staff with the Colorado Avalanche. They replaced their head men with new faces to the QMJHL coaching ranks.

Martin Raymond is no stranger to the Drummondville bench. He was an assistant to Guy Boucher when the man with the mysterious scar was coaching the Volts. He spent time coaching the McGill Redmen in the meantime. Gilles Bouchard will take André Tourigny’s spot as bench boss for the Huskies.

7. Val-d’Or will dress high-profile rookies — All three of the Foreurs’ first round picks from 2013 will open the season with the club. Forward Julien Gauthier and defencemen David Henley and Olivier Galipeau are set to go for the Foreurs. Henley is the younger brother of former Foreurs forwards and local boys Cédric and Samuel Henley.

8. B-B will fill the net — The Armada return most of their impact forwards, losing only Cédric Paquette and Tommy Giroux. They will be deep up front again this year, led by Christopher Clapperton, Marc-Olivier Roy and Ryan Tesink, if he returns to junior hockey.

An issue would be the missing Samuel Carrier and Xavier Ouellet, big names on the back end who help get the rush going, but the Armada are hoping rearguards Olivier Picard and Aaron Hoyles will be able to handle that. The impact of parting with Stefan Matteau Jr. will be explored in another installment.

9. Gatineau will battle Blainville for that top spot — The Olympiques made excellent trades to load up for this season, acquiring forwards Marc-Olivier Brouillard and Vincent Dunn to their already deep and gritty forward group. The adds make Gatineau a very tough team to play against, with captain Taylor Burke leading the charge. They also have plenty of pieces to deal, with three 2014 first-round picks in their hands. They could make a massive push between now and January.

10 . Aréna Robert-Guertin will be the toughest place to play in the league this year — Not only are the Olympiques gritty this season, but they also have excellent home ice advantage to call home. It’s loud, it’s cramped, it’s dark, it’s foggy, but it’s a throwback to a bygone era, and it can be downright scary for rookie QMJHL defencemen to face the fast Gatineau forecheckers in the black jerseys. Then come to the bench and see all the fans dancing and going nuts. Not to mention Gatineau coach-GM Benoît Groulx turning the “Bob” air blue many-a-cold-night in January. It’s one of the best home-ice advantages in the CHL, and worth the trip if you’re ever in the Ottawa area or up the Outaouais.

11. Julien Nantel could be the league’s impact rookie — Nantel will be 17-years-old this coming season and will look to fill the holes left by the impact Huskies forwards who left for the pro game, namely Sven Andrighetto and Nikita Kucherov. Nantel had over a point a game in midget hockey last season, and followed it up with 17 points in 17 games in the playoffs while being named playoff MVP. If Nantel can prove that his extra year of midget hockey was worth the wait, and add some muscle onto his 168-pound frame, he could be an

impact forward immediately in this league.

12. Sherbrooke’s Daniel Audette could make a big leap — The son of Donald Audette had a trying rookie season last year with the Phoenix, where the 2012 No. 1 overall pick often looked outmatched on the ice. He finished with 29 points in 54 games, good enough for fifth on the team in scoring, and he did spend a significant amount of his season on the shelf with a couple nagging injuries. He will hope to prove to the Phoenix that their first-overall selection in the 2012 QMJHL draft wasn’t a mistake. He could turn himself into a NHL first round pick with a good step forward this season.

13. Drummondville could surprise — The Volts return a lot of their core from last season, though it looks to be another year of growth culminating in a run next season. If Louis-Philippe Guindon can look as good as he did last season, and Jerome Verrier, Olivier Archambault and newcomer Christophe Lalancette can ignite the offense, a second place finish in this division wouldn’t be too far off.

14. No more golf puns on Twitter — On account of Val-d’Or’s Cédric Henley graduating to pro hockey and Matteau getting traded out of the division, there will sadly be no more of this.

But it’s the QMJHL, something will turn up.