Frederic St. Denis Set to Join Rare Club
by Bruce Peter on Nov 16, 2011 10:50 AM EST
in Habs Player Profiles
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Canada's greatest hockey secret is the high quality of the sport being played at the Canadian Interunveristy Sport level. Every year, players who have spent their formative teenage years playing major junior hockey join the league on a full scholarship from the QMJHL, OHL, or WHL, and set themselves up for a career that may or may not include hockey. NHL scouts forget about the players, and without media coverage beyond campus newspapers, a lot of good players get forgotten about. Sure, a few fans of the players when they were playing major junior hockey are aware of where they are, but often they simply go about their business away from the spotlight and prepare for their post-hockey career.
But a few beat the odds and make it as a pro hockey player. And a few of them even make it to the show. Steve Rucchin, Randy Gregg, Paul MacLean, Cory Cross, Stu Grimson, and even Montreal radio personality and CBC commentator P.J. Stock is amongst this group. In the current NHL, three players with CIS backgrounds are currently playing: Flyers goon Jody Shelley, $3m two-way Capitals winger Joel Ward, and the Canadiens own McGill alum Mathieu Darche. Sometime Maple Leafs centre Darryl Boyce is also part of the current club, although he hasn't played a NHL game this season.
Now Frederic St. Denis, who was named the Hamilton Bulldogs' top defenseman in 2010-11, seems set to join this group. It took a lot of injuries/maladies for St. Denis to get the call, and there is the possibility that Hal Gill could still be well enough to play tonight and deny St. Denis his debut, but from the looks of things the Canadiens will be forced to play their #11 d-man on the depth chart tonight (assuming injured farmhand Brendon Nash is #10). And if this list from the Copper And Blue's Derek Zona is complete, St. Denis will also be the first former player from the
Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières to make it to the NHL. Go UQTR Patriotes!
After the jump are St. Denis' career numbers:
And, just as a summary, here is what it took for St. Denis to get the call:
| # | Player | Status |
| 2 | P.K. Subban | Active |
| 3 | Josh Gorges | Active |
| 7 | Yannick Weber | Active |
| 8 | Raphael Diaz | Active |
| 9 | Alexei Emelin | Active |
| 11 | Frederic St- Denis | Active |
I'm not sure on the status of Stafford, who may have been ahead of St. Denis as a callup, but he was injured in Sunday's AHL game against Binghamton. Hamilton's defence last night included only four players signed to contract by the Canadiens: Joe Callahan, Mark Mitera, Alex Henry, and Joe Stejskal. The severely depleted Bulldogs lost at home last night to Peoria, 3-2 in a shootout.
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RDS reports Gill and Spacek to miss tonight’s game and tomorrow. Cammalleri is in tonight.
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Nov 16, 2011 12:25 PM EST via mobile reply actions
Olesz put on waivers
Does anybody think the Habs could go for Olesz? Former first-round pick put on waivers by Chicago. With all the injuries, worse moves could be made, right? Plus, Plekanec might be able to give the young Czech player good mentoring and turn him into a bargain pickup….
I’m pretty sure the Habs don’t have the cap room for him and over $3 million for another 2 seasons is a bit steep.
Looking at the stats, he hasn’t done well with Chicago this year either among their forwards (horrible Corsi despite a 58.1% Ozone%).
Gauthier’s hands are tied by the salary cap so I don’t see him trying to get him even if he is tempted.
He’s had a ton of trouble adapting to the NHL and is very expensive for a borderline player.
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by Andrew Berkshire on Nov 16, 2011 5:59 PM EST up reply actions
Martin liked him and signed him to that millstone of a deal. If anyone that is up against the cap is to take him, I think it’d be the Canadiens based on the past relationship. But he’d have to really believe in him to ask Gauthier to take a flyer on him. Especially since our top 9 is still relatively healthy (no one ruled out long term as of yet) and very strong.
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The Bulldogs are made up entirely of ‘C Team’ Defenders. 6 of the top 12 are injured and the rest are on the A team.
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At least Carolina isn’t a particularly hard team to match up against only two lines really worth mentioning right now with Staal on Sutter’s wing. Expect Plekanec and Subban to be split up to get full coverage.
I’m assuming it’ll be…
Emelin – Subban
Gorges – Diaz
St. Denis – Weber
Based on how Martin split up Gorges – Subban last game.
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I’m curious how St. Dennis will do. He’s supposed to be the epitime of a safe, good positioning and first pass defender with zero-flash to his game. Like a lesser Gorges.
What is interesting to me is how much more offense he has provided in the AHL recently. Last 34 games he has 18 points (playoffs + regular season). He had .27 PPG (43 points) in his first 161 AHL games. Nearly double his regular pace.
But yeah, his reputation is ‘better safe than sorry’. I don’t imagine we’ll see much more than that tonight, unless he’s nervous and starts to panic.
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Got it
2010-11 points:
Klubertanz 76GP, 16 PP, 16 ES
Nash 75GP, 13 PP 17 ES
Carle 68gp 10 PP 19 ES
St-Denis76gp 8 PP 12 ES
Weber 15gp 7 PP 5 ES
2011-12:
St-Denis: 14gp, 5 PP 8 ES
Makes sense. The powerplay is the biggest driver of defenseman’s offensive totals. Which is often why point totals are so terrible at measuring even a defender’s overall offensive ability in a comparative sense.
by Stephan Cooper on Nov 16, 2011 4:56 PM EST up reply actions
He’s still getting pretty good production at ES. And he still got 10 points in the playoffs last year in 20 games despite still having Klubertanz, Nash, and Carle as teammates. Calre had 12 points, Klubertanz had 10, and Nash only had 4. I do assume more PP time is a driver, but he seems to have done pretty well without it, too.
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Oh I agree. Its just that sudden explosions in scoring for a defenseman is a mark of a guy that suddenly found himself on the powerplay more than a turn around in play. And playoff scoring can often have the freaky results that small sample sizes give.
by Stephan Cooper on Nov 16, 2011 5:36 PM EST up reply actions
That’s why I add it to the existing regular season, which is also a small sample. Together they give a larger sample, though still a small one compared to what he had previously.
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"And if this list from the Copper And Blue's Derek Zona is complete, St. Denis will also be the first former player from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières to make it to the NHL."
Little to work from on the SIHR database, but this seems to be correct. Martin Nicoleti made to to the Sherbrooke Canadiens (AHL) in the late eighties, but that’s as close anyone may have come..
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by Kevin van Steendelaar on Nov 16, 2011 10:48 PM EST reply actions
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