Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Bissonette-O'Brien-Hynes
Zboril-Lalancette-Zdrahal
Banville-Lafontaine-Stevens
Salvail-Cochrane-Lyle
Gallant
Houle-Girard
Fraser-Godin
Davis-Robert
Egan/Dubé
Brennan
Macdonald
Top 5 2011-2012 scorers:
O'Brien 63G-50g-51a-101p
Trudeau 67G-31g-64a-95p
Bissonette 65G-36g-47a-83p
Lalancette 63G-16g-31a-47p
Hoefflin 59G-18g-24a-42p
Euros: Patrik Zdrahal and Adam Zboril
Overagers: Zach O'Brien, Matthew Bissonette and Brandon Hynes
Additions: Brandon Hynes, Adam Zboril, Patrik Zdrahal and Raphael Lafontaine
Losses: Sebastien Trudeau, Chrisophe Losier, Ludovic Kabambi, Mirko Hoefflin, Mario Kurali, Nicholas Krammer, Jordan Murray and Robert Steeves
The Acadie-Bathurst Titan head into this season with their core fairly intact, with the key losses being up front in Captain Christophe Losier and winger Sebastien Trudeau who was 3rd in the Q scoring race last year. The returning impact players include leading QMJHL goal scorer Zach O'Brien and his 2011-12 winger Matthew Bissonette.
The Titan had a good off-season as well, they had a good draft and came out with top goalie Mason Macdonald and solid two-way prospect depth in forwards such as Nicholas Blanchard and Alex Gallant. The Titan also acquired depth forwards Jerome Raymond and Raphael Lafontaine as well as over-ager Brandon Hynes from the Victoriaville Tigres who was 2nd in Tigres scoring team last year. Hynes will likely fill-in for the loss of Trudeau on the top line with Zach O'Brien and Matthew Bissonette, which will be a scary match-up for any team in the Maritime division next year.
Up front, the Titan possess likely the top line in the entire QMJHL and follow that up with excellent depth of scoring forwards. The additions of Adam Zboril and Patrik Zdrahal will give secondary scoring that they lacked last year, while forwards Adam Stevens, Raphael Lafontaine and Alec Jon Banville seem primed for breakout seasons offensively. The Titan seem primed to fill the scoresheet this season.
On defense however, the Titan lack what you could call a top pairing defender. Though all 6 projected defenders are certainly Q caliber, they will all start the season under the age of 19. The Titan will go into the season hoping one of their young defensemen steps up and can log minutes safely, but if that doesn't happen, expect the Titan to be pursuing a true #1 defenseman at the Christmas trade period.
In net, with the trade of last years starting goaltender Robert Steeves, the Titan have made their weakest point even weaker. They enter the season with Jake Brennan as their starter, coming off a season where he went 8-17 with a 4.30 GAA and .863 save percentage. Backing him up will likely be newly drafted 16 year old Mason Macdonald.
Overall, I see the Titan as a middle the pack team this year. They will certainly score with the best teams in the league, but the true question marks lie on the backend and in net where they are extremely young.
Burning question - Will new appointed starting goalie Jake Brennan or his young back-up Mason Macdonald be able to carry this team into being contenders?
Prediction: 3rd in Maritime division, 7th in QMJHL.
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