Each league in the Canadian Hockey League has its own culture and flavor. So what does a fan of the OHL think about the QMJHL?
Our Rocket Sports staff writer, Mike Raschle, is a huge fan of junior hockey, particularly the Ontario Hockey League. So we asked him his impressions of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. These are his thoughts.
The Canadian Hockey League (CHL) has 60 teams across Canada and the northern United States organized into three separate leagues that all compete for the Memorial Cup.
Dating back to 1919, the Memorial Cup trophy was established to annually honor the Junior Hockey Champion of Canada. It is considered to be the hardest trophy to win in hockey and because of this, often makes a consistent rotation around the three leagues within the CHL.
However, in recent years, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) has captured the crown four consecutive times. In fact, the trophy hasn’t left Quebec since 2017. That six-year run also unfortunately includes two cancelled tournaments in 2020 and 2021 due to the global pandemic.
As an Ontario Hockey League fan, this is the one stat that absolutely blows my mind about the QMJHL. To have won the trophy in four consecutive years by four different franchises (Acadie-Bathurst, Rouyn-Noranda, Saint John and, most recently, Quebec) is an incredible feat. It really makes one wonder how that is possible.
The OHL is often considered to be the superior league of the three leagues in the CHL. The perception is that the game in the OHL most represents a pro style, with strong coaching and effective tactics. By comparison, the QMJHL is more known for its high-flying and wide-open offensive games, but also a lack of systematic play. The Western Hockey League (WHL) is tucked in between the two leagues and best known for its defensive shutdown style and grueling board play.
The amount of NHL draft picks per league has also been mostly dominated by the OHL across the three CHL leagues. At the 2023 NHL Draft in Nashville, the OHL had 35 players taken. While that is only a two pick edge over the WHL, compared to 33, both of those are significantly higher than the 12 players drafted out of the QMJHL.
All signs point to an inferior league in Quebec, yet the dominance at the Memorial Cup still exists. If it isn’t the style of play or the league talent base, then what is the QMJHL doing differently to have these truly dominant teams in recent years?
A good start is having no limit on how many years of draft capital can be traded. While the OHL in recent years has eliminated being able to trade first round picks and limited how far in the future any pick can be moved, the QMJHL has no such restrictions, allowing teams to load up and mortgage significant high-end future draft capital for a championship run.
While I do not believe this is a great solution for league equality, there’s no doubt that not having limits allows for potential blockbuster moves to stack an “all-in” franchise with talent for a deep run and eventual mismatch in the Memorial Cup vs the other two leagues with limits.
A 1 vs 16 playoff format also provides several key advantages for higher seeded teams. In recent years, there have been significantly more 4-0 series wins (sweeps) in the QMJHL playoffs compared to the OHL. In 2023 alone, there were seven sweeps in the QMJHL compared to only four in the OHL. The OHL uses a more traditional 1 vs 8 conference style playoff format.
One of the strongest OHL teams in recent memory, the 2022-23 Windsor Spitfires, were eliminated in round one by a perennial under-achieving Kitchener Rangers squad. The Spitfires boasted the likes of Seattle Kraken 2022 NHL first found pick Shane Wright and still managed to convincingly get swept by a team that was five standings points away from a fourth seed in the conference.
That is not a challenge to the Quebec Remparts who matched up and swept a Charlottetown Islanders team that was seven wins below .500.
Besides the success at the Memorial Cup, I also really appreciated the historic buildings in the QMJHL. From the Dave Keon rink in Rouyn-Noranda to The Colisee Financière in Rimouski, these are timeless artifacts that are all but forgotten or have been destroyed in the Ontario league. The historic barns that do still exist are sadly often neglected or used as stark reminders of a city’s mismanagement of public facilities, such as Sudbury. It is refreshing to see historic barns all over the QMJHL that have been tastefully restored or preserved with care.
One last appreciation I have for the QMJHL is the wide-open style. As much as I enjoy the pro game and structure the OHL is known for, and as successful as it has been over the years in developing NHL talent, there is no doubt the entertainment can get stale.
The creativity and flash in the QMJHL often remind me of a pickup shiny game on a backyard rink, where sticks are tossed in the middle and teams are chosen at random. Often body checking and a defensive structure is ignored in favor of a fast-paced, all-out offensive showcase. This is clearly exaggerating my point a bit, but isn’t that what hockey should be all about?
Be sure to bookmark THN.com/QMJHL for year-round coverage of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League on The Hockey News-QMJHL. Also follow us on Twitter @HockeyNewsQMJHL.
