any pressure on Peter Delmas.
“I just want Peter to be
Peter,” said the Quebec Remparts owner, head coach and general manager
on Friday after officially acquiring Delmas from the Lewiston Maineiacs
in a blockbuster trade.
“I want him to come to Quebec and have fun and contribute. I don’t
have any objective of what he should or shouldn’t do.”
The Bedford native and former
Halifax McDonald’s goalie went to Quebec along with fellow Maineiacs
veterans Danick Paquette, Dominic Savoie and Patrick Cusack for Samuel
Carrier, Sebastian Trudeau and the 11th and 39th overall picks in Saturday’s
draft.
The clubs also swapped first picks in the Canadian Hockey League
import draft.
Delmas, highly touted while
backing up Los Angeles Kings first-rounder Jonathan Bernier as a 16-
and 17-year-old, is coming off an 18-year-old season to forget. He had
a 4.19 goals-against average and a ghastly .864 save percentage on a
team that struggled defensively.
“I think that’s what allowed
us to get him,” said Roy, of the bad year.
The Maineiacs said they were
simply looking to get younger and added four assets that will help them
accomplish that. They have little doubt Delmas will put together a bounce-back
season.
“Peter is a fine young man,
he just needed a change of scenery,” said Maineiacs president and
head coach Don MacAdam. “He struggled this past year and he really
needed to go somewhere and get his game started again. He really needed
a fresh start. He’ll do fine there.”
Roy has plenty of familiarity
with Delmas, as both have ties to the Colorado Avalanche. Delmas was
drafted by the Avs in the second round (61st overall) of last June’s
NHL draft. Roy, a former Avs star, is close friends with the team’s
assistant GM, Craig Billington.
Roy said he is looking forward
to working with Delmas to “help him achieve his goal (of playing)
at the NHL level.”
“He’s a butterfly goalie,
he’s a big man, he covers a lot of space,” Roy said. “I think
that’s what we’ll focus on with him.”
If things go well, Delmas will
backstop the Remparts to a championship, but Roy isn’t getting overconfident
after the big trade.
“The message is clear,”
Roy said. “We’re looking to try to go the distance … But we also
understand there are a lot of good teams.”
Here’s a look at some other
notable trades Friday.
• The Saint John Sea Dogs loaded
up with acquisitions of 91-point man Nicholas Peterson from Shawinigan
(completing last season’s Alex Grant deal) and 52-goal scorer Mike
Hoffman from Drummondville (completing an earlier trade involving Chris
DiDomenico).
• The Cape Breton Screaming
Eagles landed power forward Luke Adam from the Montreal Junior for forward
Nicholas Chouinard, defenceman Spencer MacDonald and the 14th overall
pick. They also picked up Glace Bay’s Marc Bourgeois from Lewiston.
• The P.E.I. Rocket landed
forward Samson Mahbod from Drummondville. Mahbod had 79 points and cost
a third-round pick. They also grabbed goaltender Francois Levesque from
Chicoutimi.
• Truro forward Travis Moore
was dealt with three draft picks from Lewiston to Bathurst for Stefan
Fournier, while Eskasoni tough guy went from Shawinigan to Cape Breton
for a fifth-rounder.
• Halifax’s No. 2 overall
pick has changed hands again. First it went to Val-d’Or to complete
the Brad Marchand trade, then it went to Shawinigan with the No. 13
pick for Simon Lacroix and the No. 4 pick.
