50 Fun Facts About QMJHL

Sidney Crosby starred for which QMJHL team before the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted him first overall in 2005?

The Rimouski Océanic retired his number 87 in 2019, and the league then took it out of use for every one of its teams. He had scored 135 points for the club as a 16-year-old.

In December 2023 the QMJHL kept its initials but replaced which word of its full name with "Maritimes"?

Major gave way to Maritimes in the league's name, a nod to the Atlantic Canadian clubs that had been members for almost 30 years. A new logo arrived at the same time.

Which NHL superstar owned the QMJHL team now known as the Gatineau Olympiques from 1985 until 1992?

Wayne Gretzky gave the Olympiques their black, silver and white colours, modelled on those of the Los Angeles Kings he joined in 1988. He owned the junior club while still an active player.

The QMJHL's Halifax Mooseheads take their name from which kind of Maritime company, which paid the team's expansion fee?

A brewery, Moosehead, put up the $500,000 fee in 1994 and secured the naming rights. The Mooseheads became the first team from Atlantic Canada to join the league.

Which Laval Voisins centre set the QMJHL single-season scoring record with 282 points in 1983–84?

Mario Lemieux piled up 133 goals and 149 assists in only 70 games that winter. No junior in any of Canada's three top leagues has matched the total since.

Which US state was home to a QMJHL team from 2003 to 2011, the only American club to win the league championship?

Maine had the Lewiston Maineiacs, who went 16–1 in the 2007 playoffs to lift the President's Cup. The league bought and dissolved the franchise four years later.

Which Hall of Fame goaltender coached the Quebec Remparts to Memorial Cup championships in both 2006 and 2023?

Patrick Roy won the 2006 title in his first year behind the Remparts bench and the 2023 title in his last. The second came with a 5–0 shutout of the Seattle Thunderbirds.

Which animal did the QMJHL's Saint John Sea Dogs choose for their logo when the expansion team launched in 2005?

A harbour seal fronts the Sea Dogs, who in 2011 became the first team from Atlantic Canada to win the Memorial Cup. They won it again as hosts in 2022.

Which Halifax Mooseheads star scored a hat-trick in the 2013 Memorial Cup final before going first in the NHL draft?

Nathan MacKinnon grew up nearby in a family of Mooseheads season-ticket holders, and the club traded two forwards and three first-round picks to land him. Colorado drafted him weeks after the win.

The QMJHL is one of three member leagues of the Canadian Hockey League, alongside the OHL and which other?

WHL, Ontario and QMJHL champions meet each spring, along with a host club, in the four-team Memorial Cup tournament.

Which QMJHL team is the only one still in the same city, without interruption, since the league's first season in 1969?

The Shawinigan Cataractes started out as the Bruins and spent five seasons as the Dynamos before taking a name that honours the waterfall in their home city.

Which city became home to the QMJHL's Newfoundland Regiment when the Acadie-Bathurst Titan relocated in 2025?

St. John's made the Regiment the easternmost team in the Canadian Hockey League. Their first home game, a 7–5 win in September 2025, drew a sold-out crowd of 6,200.

The QMJHL's Moncton Wildcats and Saint John Sea Dogs both play their home games in which Canadian province?

New Brunswick also had the Titan of Bathurst until 2025. Bathurst was the smallest market in the whole Canadian Hockey League.

The QMJHL's Cape Breton Eagles play their home games at Centre 200 in which Nova Scotia community?

Sydney welcomed the franchise in 1997, a year after losing the Cape Breton Oilers of the American Hockey League. The junior team was called the Screaming Eagles until 2019.

The QMJHL's Charlottetown Islanders began in 1999 as a Montreal team named in honour of which Canadiens great?

Maurice Richard, the Rocket, gave the Montreal Rocket its name and its crest, where the smoke trail formed his number 9. The team moved to Prince Edward Island in 2003.

The QMJHL's Drummondville Voltigeurs are named after a Quebec-based regiment that fought in which conflict?

The War of 1812 was fought in part by the Canadian Voltigeurs, light infantry raised in what is now Quebec to face the United States. Drummondville's team has carried the name since 1982.

What is a drakkar, the object that gives its name to the QMJHL team based in Baie-Comeau, Quebec?

A longship gives the Baie-Comeau Drakkar their name. Marius Fortier, who had co-founded the Quebec Nordiques, helped start the team for the 1997–98 season.

The name of the QMJHL's Val-d'Or Foreurs honours workers in which industry of northwestern Quebec?

Mining is the trade behind the name: Foreurs means drillers, and exploration drilling is a leading source of work around Val-d'Or, whose own name means Valley of Gold.

Which QMJHL team, based about 100 kilometres to the west, is the natural regional rival of the Val-d'Or Foreurs?

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies arrived in 1996, and games between the two Abitibi-Témiscamingue clubs draw far bigger crowds than usual. The Huskies won the Memorial Cup in 2019.

The QMJHL's Chicoutimi Saguenéens play in an arena named after which Montreal Canadiens goaltender, born in the city?

Georges Vézina was nicknamed the Chicoutimi Cucumber for his calm in goal. The team's name, borrowed from an early club he played for, means people from the Saguenay.

Which future Canadiens great scored 130 goals for the Quebec Remparts in 1970–71, when they won the Memorial Cup?

Guy Lafleur picked up the nickname Le Turbo de Thurso while with the Remparts, coined by a Radio-Canada broadcaster. The first edition of the club last played in 1985, and the name was revived in 1997.

Which goaltender, later a three-time Stanley Cup winner, had his number 29 retired by the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles?

Marc-André Fleury played parts of four seasons in Cape Breton, and Pittsburgh made him the first overall pick of the 2003 NHL draft. The junior club retired his number in 2008.

Which future Vancouver Canucks captain won back-to-back QMJHL titles in goal for Val-d'Or and Acadie-Bathurst?

Roberto Luongo became the first NHL goaltender to serve as a team captain since Bill Durnan in 1947–48, even though league rules bar goalies from the role.

Which New York Islanders legend scored a junior-record 309 goals for the QMJHL's Laval National in the 1970s?

Mike Bossy was still passed over by twelve teams in the 1977 NHL draft, because scouts thought he was not rugged enough. He had averaged 77 goals a season in junior.

Which American-born centre scored 234 points for the Verdun Juniors in 1982–83, his only QMJHL season?

Pat LaFontaine had 104 goals and 130 assists that year, took the league scoring title and went third overall to the New York Islanders in the 1983 NHL draft.

Which goaltender became the first woman to play in the QMJHL, appearing for the Trois-Rivières Draveurs in 1991–92?

Manon Rhéaume signed with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning a year later and played in preseason games, another first for a woman. She also won Olympic silver with Canada.

The QMJHL's championship trophy, long called the President's Cup, was renamed in 2023 for which retiring commissioner?

Gilles Courteau had led the league since 1986, the years in which it spread from Quebec into Atlantic Canada. Earlier he was general manager of the original Remparts.

The QMJHL trophy that carries Sidney Crosby's name is presented each season to which award winner?

Rookie of the year has carried Crosby's name only since 2025. For almost three decades before that the award was the RDS Cup, sponsored by a French-language sports network.

The QMJHL's Jean Béliveau Trophy, named after a Hall of Famer from Quebec, goes each regular season to which player?

The top scorer has received the award since the league's first season in 1969–70. Béliveau, who starred for the Montreal Canadiens, died in 2014 at the age of 83.

The QMJHL's regular-season trophy is named after Jean Rougeau, a league president best known as a star of which sport?

Wrestling made him a Quebec star under the ring name Johnny Rougeau, and his nephews later performed in the WWF as the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers. He led the league from 1981 to 1983.

QMJHL teams hold territorial rights to draft and recruit American players from which region of the United States?

New England falls to the QMJHL under an agreement that lets each Canadian Hockey League member draft Americans from the region closest to its own teams.

Which Ontario city's Royals won three Memorial Cups as a QMJHL team before switching to the OHL in 1981?

Cornwall lies close to the Quebec border, and its Royals became a founding member of the Quebec league in 1969 after Ontario's top junior league turned down their application.

Before becoming the Wildcats in 1996, Moncton's QMJHL team played its first season under which name?

Alpines lasted a single season before Robert Irving bought the club in May 1996 and gave it the Wildcats name, new uniforms and a new logo.

Sherbrooke's QMJHL team, founded in 2012 as the city's third franchise, carries the name of which mythical creature?

Phoenix fits a city whose two earlier QMJHL clubs had both moved away. The new team beat Victoriaville 4–2 in its first game, in September 2012.

Which Ontario Hockey League team shares a junior hockey market with the Gatineau Olympiques, just across the river?

Ottawa 67's and Olympiques teams met in preseason games regularly from 1975 to 1986, and the two clubs have since played home-and-home interleague games in five regular seasons.

Which Russian star never reported after Cape Breton's QMJHL team drafted him, yet had a jersey retired as a prank?

Ilya Kovalchuk was taken tenth in the 2000 import draft and declined to come over. The Screaming Eagles retired his number 71 in 2014 as an April Fools' Day stunt.

Which Swiss centre spent one season with the Halifax Mooseheads before going first overall in the 2017 NHL draft?

Nico Hischier was the first Swiss player ever chosen first overall. He picked Halifax after talking with the club's general manager and a countryman who had played there.

Which future Philadelphia Flyers captain was playoff MVP when the Gatineau Olympiques won the 2008 QMJHL championship?

Claude Giroux had joined Gatineau as a free agent invited to training camp for a walk-on tryout. He scored 51 points in 19 playoff games that spring, and the club retired his number 28 in 2019.

Which Saint John Sea Dogs forward was MVP of the 2011 Memorial Cup, then went third overall to the Florida Panthers?

Jonathan Huberdeau had been only the 18th pick of the 2009 QMJHL draft. In the 2011 final he had a goal and an assist in a 3–1 win over the Mississauga St. Michael's Majors.

The Quebec Remparts play in which 18,000-seat arena, opened in 2015 and long touted as a home for an NHL team?

Centre Vidéotron seats 18,259 and replaced the old Colisée. Québecor, which manages the building and has backed an NHL franchise for Quebec City, bought the Remparts in 2014.

The QMJHL's Newfoundland Regiment logo shows which animal, taken from the badge of the army unit the team honours?

A caribou appears on the team's crest just as it does on the badge of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment, the Canadian Army unit whose name the club adopted in January 2025.

Which future Boston Bruins captain played for three QMJHL teams: Moncton, Val-d'Or and the Halifax Mooseheads?

Brad Marchand won the 2006 league title with Moncton, then led the 2007 playoffs in scoring for Val-d'Or with 40 points in 20 games. Halifax gave up a forward and five draft picks to get him.

The current Quebec Remparts franchise began in 1990 as the Beauport Harfangs, a name that refers to which bird?

An owl is the bird: the name was rendered in English as the Snow Owls. Coach Alain Vigneault took the Harfangs to the 1996 league final, a year before they moved into Quebec City.

Which future Olympic champion goaltender became the first woman drafted by a QMJHL team, the Acadie-Bathurst Titan?

Charline Labonté, a teenage goaltender from Quebec, played 28 games for the Titan over parts of two seasons before winning Olympic gold with Canada.

Which Russian winger led the QMJHL with 152 points in 2005–06 and won the Memorial Cup with the Quebec Remparts?

Alexander Radulov scored seven goals and eleven points in a single game that March, a 16–3 win, and put together a 50-game point streak for the Remparts.

The QMJHL's Gatineau Olympiques carried which city's name until 2003, the year after it was merged into Gatineau?

Hull had been the club's home since its days in a lower junior league. The team joined the QMJHL in 1973 as the Festivals and took the Olympiques name three years later.

The Victoriaville Tigres began in 1982 as the Chevaliers of which Quebec city, coached at first by Jacques Lemaire?

Longueuil had the best season by an expansion team in Canadian Hockey League history and reached the league final in each of its first two years. Low attendance sent the club to Victoriaville in 1987.

Which New York town had the QMJHL's first American team, the Pioneers, who folded after just 17 games in 1984?

Plattsburgh iced a roster made up entirely of American players. Its only point came from a 7–6 overtime loss in the opening game, and the team was shut down after 17 games.

Which Quebec town's Prédateurs won the 1996 Memorial Cup a year before moving to Cape Breton as the Screaming Eagles?

Granby had hosted the franchise since 1981, mostly under the name Bisons. The 1996 title was the first for a Quebec-based club since the Remparts won a quarter of a century earlier.

Which Hall of Fame defenceman, later Boston's longest-serving captain, played his QMJHL hockey for Sorel and Verdun?

Ray Bourque started out with Trois-Rivières, whose coach traded him to Sorel halfway through his first season. Boston drafted him eighth overall in 1979.