SYDNEY, N.S. — Little did he know at the time, but Mitchell Balmas’ hockey career and life forever changed on Dec. 20, 2017.
That was the day Balmas, then a 19-year-old forward with the Gatineau Olympiques, was traded to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan along with a third-round draft pick, for overage winger Dawson Theede, a 2018 first-round entry-draft pick and a 2020 first-round selection.
That transaction was one of 55 trades involving 73 players and 96 draft picks made among the 18 teams of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League during the 2017-18 season with most of the activity occurring during the league’s mid-season holiday trading window.
Star players such as Drake Batherson, Joe Veleno, Vitalii Abramov and Sydney’s Derek Gentile donned new uniforms as teams strengthened their rosters for a playoff run.
And the Balmas trade was just one of many.
The Titan got a proven goal scorer, while the Olympiques were acquiring assets for the future. Standard practice in the cyclical universe of major junior hockey.
The now 22-year-old St. Mary’s University student and varsity hockey player recalls the uncertainty surrounding the Olympiques at that time.
“Going into the break that year, things were up in the air in Gatineau because we were playing really good hockey and had just been on an eight- or nine-game winning streak, so nobody was sure if they were going to buy or sell,” said Balmas, who has been back home in Sydney since the province was put under a COVID-19-related state of emergency last month.
“I was home for Christmas that year when I found out the news I was traded to Bathurst which was already having a great year and had made a couple of other trades, so I knew I was going to a very good team.”
Balmas went on to assist on the 2018 Memorial Cup-winning goal as the Titan defeated the tournament-host Regina Pats 3-0 in the championship game. Still a teenager, he was part of an on-ice accomplishment that will likely be etched in his memory for the rest of his life.
“Winning the Memorial Cup was amazing, but it didn’t look like we were going to do that when I first arrived in Bathurst because we didn’t click right away and for about a month we were really struggling — we had the skill, we had everything but something wasn’t clicking,” he said.
“But then we went on a long road trip and let me tell you, you really get to know the guy you’re sitting beside on those long, 160-hour bus trips — well, after that trip we clicked and went from a bunch of individuals to a team.”
With Canadian junior hockey’s biggest prize already in his portfolio, Balmas was traded for the third time in his QMJHL career. This time, the 2014 seventh-overall draft pick of the Charlottetown Islanders, returned to his hometown of Sydney for the 2018-19 campaign, his fifth and final Q season, with the Cape Breton Eagles. Playing on the same squad as childhood-friend Gentile, he scored a career-best 43 regular-season goals and added another seven in the playoffs.
“It was great to play with him again — we’ve known each other since we were little kids, but we hadn’t played together since bantam so to play with him for Cape Breton in front of our families, friends and fans was really great,” said Gentile, who after completing his own five-year QMJHL career will now attend Dalhousie University in Halifax where he will play for the Tigers.
For his part, Balmas experienced almost instant success at the university level last season as he won both the AUS and U Sports rookie-of-the-year awards after scoring 17 goals and 26 assists in 27 games for Saint Mary’s Huskies.
So, how did Gatineau benefit from dealing Balmas to the Titan less than a year after acquiring him from Charlottetown?
The end result is that the Olympiques have a darn good chance of having the top three picks at the upcoming QMJHL Entry Draft that will be held online on June 5-6. Teams will draft in the reverse order of their 2019-20 finish with the exception of the first five selections which will be determined in a lottery on May 6. Gatineau will have 18 balls in the draw, while the Saint John Sea Dogs get two balls and the Québec Ramparts will have one ball.
Curious fans might wonder how the Olympiques managed to get to this point. And, the answer is found by following the branches of the Balmas trade tree.
Obtaining the former Cape Breton Tradesmen major midget star cost the Titan plenty, including the previously-acquired 2018 first-round draft pick of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and Bathurst’s own 2020 first-round selection.
Gatineau didn’t hold the Huskies 2018 first-round pick for long as they traded it just 10 days later to the Rimouski Océanic for Maxim Trépanier, who in turn was dealt almost exactly one year later to Halifax in return for a player and the Mooseheads 2020 first-round pick.
Now, fast-forward to the abbreviated end of the 2019-20 QMJHL season to see how the stars have so far aligned for the Olympiques:
• Acadie-Bathurst finished last in 18th place, but Gatineau owns the Titan first-round pick.
• Halifax finished 17th, but Gatineau owns the Mooseheads first-round pick.
• Gatineau finished 16th overall and retains its own first-round pick.
The draft lottery has 21 balls allocated as follows: 18th-place (9 balls); 17th-place (6 balls); 16th-place (3 balls); 15th-place (2 balls); and 14th-place (1 ball). That means Gatineau has 18 of the 21 balls and thus a very good chance of having the first three picks in this year’s league entry draft.
If the western Quebec team does secure the top three picks it would be the first time in QMJHL history. The Mooseheads had the first two selections in the 2016 draft when they picked Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Jared McIsaac. The Herd also ended up with the top two picks, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, in the 2011 draft, but had to trade away two players and three first-round picks to obtain the former who, of course, has become a top NHL star. The two offensive dynamos helped Halifax win the Memorial Cup in 2013.
As to what players the Olympiques might pick up in the upcoming draft, well, that’s a story for another day, but there never seems to be any shortage of top talent up for grabs when the draft rolls around.
