A surprisingly solid playoff run masked a very poor offensive season.
It definitely wasn't the most exciting regular season in Gatineau.
They finished bottom of the Western conference, and were really unable to score many goals at all. They sat in between the two non-playoff teams in terms of total goals for this year, and their leading scorer had just 35 points.
The playoffs seemed like the same story. They fell behind 3-0 in the series to Rouyn-Noranda, and it seemed like just a total throwaway season for the Olympiques.
But, they turned it around, forced a game seven and by doing that, showed some positivity for the future.
Maxim Dube had a strong sophomore season, and will look to become an offensive leader on this team in the future. (Photo: Dominic Charette)The big pros from this group in 2025-26 was the defending, and particularly the play of goaltender Danai Shaiikov.
While the team struggled to score, their Kazakh goaltender kept them in games, ending the season with a .903 save percentage in 50 games.
This helped Gatineau to actually be a middle of the pack team in terms of goals against, which is what helped them get into the playoffs.
Their big question going forward will always come down to the offence, though. Justin Boisselle led the team in scoring with just 35 points, and he'll be aging out next year.
It'll be up to names like Nicholas Petrut, Maxim Dube, Simon-Xavier Cyr, Peter Legostaev and other young talent to take some big steps and figure out how to score more goals next year for this team to take a step.
It probably wouldn't be the worst idea to acquire a scoring forward through trade as well, but Olympiques management will have to decide how they want to build this team.
They certainly debuted a lot of 16-year-olds down the stretch, so you can envision where the timeline of this team is.
It might not have been the most exciting year in Gatineau, but there seems to be a plan moving forward, and there are clear places where the team will know they need to improve.
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