Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandman
I think I wrote a profile on him in his D+1 year, when there was talk he might be picked after going through the draft the year before. I guess he’s grown a fair bit since then, as I remember him being 5’8”or 5’9”, and he’s now listed at 5’11”. There was talk of him being a first-rounder at one time.
In his draft year he was traded from Chicoutimi to Quebec, which was a downgrade, as Quebec was in the lower quadrant of the league, and not the powerhouse they are today. I didn’t see anywhere near the numbers one would want to see, especially for a small player, to justify him being drafted in his draft year, or D+1 year, and there was not much progression. 39 points in 49 (although he started the season with mononucleosis), followed by 30 points in 32 games during Covid. He has excellent numbers the last 2 seasons (he’s 21 right now, and in his 5th season in the Q), but that might be because he’s an older junior player being propped up by a powerful offensive team, although he’s the Captain.
That being said, he’s always been a good playmaker, highly skilled, and he’s added a solid goal-scoring dimension to his game. The knock on him in his draft year was his skating, which was good, not great, and I seem to remember that he played a bit timid back then. He will surely be invited to some camps this summer, and we’ll see what he’s got.
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I can comment a bit seeing as I have seen him play a bunch throughout the years.
First two years here the team was pretty bad, he was being shuffled throughout the lineup and couldn't hold a spot consistently. The other thing to mention here is that he is a pure playmaker and having no one to finish really affected his stats.
His bump in production came when Quebec started to load up. He found himself cemented in the top 6 and had one of the best scorers in the Q to pass to. Bolduc also took a giant step in his game and has become a great two way player who can score in bunches.
Bolduc is obviously the spoon that stirs the drink on that line and I am very interested to see what happens next year with Rochette. I fully expect Bolduc to have a smooth transition to the A as he already plays a pro style game but I think Rochette is going to have a lot more trouble transitioning to the pro game. Going to be quite interesting for sure.