Thursday, June 20, 2013

Second Golf tournament for QMJHL Ambassadors

Press Release

It is with great delight that the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Ambassadors Club announces their second golf tournament at the Boucherville Golf Club on August 28, 2013. Builders, former players and leaders, partners and media are all expected to reunite. The commissioner’s foursome this year will be comprised of Michel Therrien, Head Coach and Gerard Gallant Assistant Coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Guy Darveau, president of the Ambassadors Club and Gilles Courteau, Commissioner of the QMJHL.

As a QMJHL head coach, Michel Therrien has the third best winning percentage in the league's history (, 707). He participated in 3 QMJHL finals winning a President Cup in 1996 with the Granby Predateurs. He was also behind the Predateurs bench in May of 1996 when his team brought back the Memorial Cup to Quebec for the first time after a 25 year absence. As a player, Therrien was a defenseman. He played a total of 185 games in the QMJHL.

In the QMJHL, Gerard Gallant won the President Cup four times, a league record for a player who later became a coach. Two of them were as a forward, in 1982 with the  Sherbrooke Castors and the following year with the Verdun Junior; the others two were recently won with the Sea Dogs as a coach. He was also named 3rd star for the 1982-83 season All-Star team. In 2009, Saint John Sea Dogs Majority Owner and Chief Executive Officer Scott McCain hired Gallant as the third Head Coach in that franchise’s history. Gallant maintained the best winning percentage ( ,791 | 159 wins in 209 games) in QMJHL history. He led his team to a franchise record 53 wins and 309 goals scored and earning the regular season title. He was named the QMJHL as well as the CHL Coach of the Year while taking the Sea Dogs to the President’s Cup final. Gallant’s second season, in 2010-11, was even more successful as his team tied a QMJHL record with 58 wins and repeated as the QMJHL and CHL Coach of the Year. The Sea Dogs won a second straight regular season championship and a President’s Cup before capturing the Memorial Cup becoming the first Atlantic Canadian team to win the trophy. In 2011-12, Gallant and his Sea Dogs earned yet another QMJHL title with a league-leading 50 wins, 15 losses and 3 shootout wins and a second consecutive trip to the Memorial Cup. Over three seasons at the helm of the Saint John Sea Dogs, Gallant’s record sits at an amazing 159 wins, 34 losses and 9 overtime/shootout losses. Furthermore, the Sea Dogs set a QMHJL record as they became the first team ever to have three consecutive 100-point seasons.

“The Ambassadors Club’s mission is to assemble former QMJHLers and organise various events with the purpose to tighten the link that binds us together: Junior hockey. Moreover, the profits from the event will go to the Gervais Munger Education Fund which helps our players ” said the league’s commissioner, Gilles Courteau.

This club is a long time coming for the QMJHL, according to Guy Darveau, the Club’s president and former defenseman for the Longueuil Chevaliers, Victoriaville Tigres and Vedrun Canadiens Junior. “The League needs this group in order to create a feeling of belonging among its alumni. With the Ambassador’s club, we are able to assemble people who makeup the QMJHL family.”

Shotgun will follow at noon with 144 players in attendance. To mark the end of the evening, a dinner cocktail will be served at 6pm.

(Nathan can be reached at nathanfournier@mainehockeyjournal.com)

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