Ahead of the 2025 QMJHL draft, league commissioner Mario Cecchini has announced a few changes that will begin to take place by start of the 2025-26 season.
Firstly, the league has agreed to a seven year partnership with strreaming service FloHockey. The US-based streaming service is already the official partner of the AHL, ECHL, USHL and NCAA (Atlantic Hockey Division) among others. They will take over streaming rights from CHL.TV, and will broadcast over 600 regular season games as well as premium events such as the playoffs, QMJHL draft and hall of fame.
FloHockey subscriptions begin at $39.99 CDN monthly, or just over $200 dollars for an annual subscription. They will also offer both English and French languager commentary as well.
In other news, Cecchini has announced a format change to the QMJHL playoffs, specifically that the first round will remain sorted by conference (1-8) however, the league will ensure that the No. 1 and No. 16 teams as well as the No. 2 and No. 15 teams will face off in the first round. Afterwhich, teams will then face based on standings.
This should make it all the more important for teams to push for finishing higher to prevent the chance of facing the toughest teams in the league in the first round.
Additionally, the QMJHL has abolished divisions completely, leaving just the eastern and western conferences.
Lasttly, the league is talking with USA Hockey on potential American expansion. Additionally, they are having conversations with the CHL to official define territorial rights within the US for players and teams between the OHL, WHL and QMJHL.
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