The Quebec City Citadelles are one of the two newest teams in the SMJHL, joining the league in s55 alongside the Nevada Battleborn. A team bursting to the brim with rookies and inexperienced players, the Quebec City Citadelles have done admirably this season, building up a lot of respect for themselves around the league. They have displayed a never quit attitude and can often be seen holding their own against stronger and more experience teams, as displayed by wins over teams such as Maine, Kelowna and Anchorage. They also racked up a massive 10-2 victory over their expansion counterparts Nevada. The Citadelles could have the beginnings of a very strong franchise in a few seasons, let’s dive into why.

The Citadelles are led up front by their star man Alexander Roach. With 31 points in 37 games, he is doing a lot of carrying at the moment, being the most experienced player on the team. Roach currently is the only player at the cap of 425 TPE, although his winger Ryan Rieley is coming very close at 423 TPE. Rieley was taken in the expansion draft alongside Roach, and has currently put up 14 points in 37 games, a little disappointing for him but not terrible. The other 3 players taken in the expansion draft for Quebec were Stan Q. Next, Sven Gunnar, and Juan Hunna-Pussent. Stan has put up 15 points, while Gunnar has amassed 19 points himself. Hunna-Pussent has only played 6 games, but did manage to grab 2 points in his time playing.

Zdenko Beranek will go down in history as the Citadelles first ever draft pick, and he was also the first overall draft pick of the s55 SMJHL draft. That adds a lot of pressure, but Beranek has performed admirably underneath all that pressure. He currently has a respectable 5 goals and 9 assists during his rookie season, and is trending in the right direction. The Citadelles 2nd pick  Teylora Petrov, has also done a good amount of growing, already at 258 TPE 37 games into the season. One of the 3 Petrov siblings drafted to Quebec, she has put up 1 goal and 9 assists from the blueline, scoring 10 points while also playing 19 minutes per game. A lot is asked of her in her rookie season, but she is showing that she will be able to be counted on for seasons to come. Her brothers Bobov and Boris have amassed 8 and 9 points respectively. Bobov has only played 30 games however, which means he has spent some time in the press box. This is most likely due to his lagging TPE, which is only at 172 as we near the end of the season. He is one of 6 players on the Citadelles who have yet to hit the 200 TPE mark at this point of the season, the others being Kyosti Karjalainen, Julian Cunningham, Zach Dolphin, Jonas Caspari and Tres Sombreros. Quebec will be hoping that these players can start stepping up their game, otherwise they will not be afraid to leave them behind for their next crop of rookies next season who will be coming in with big dreams and ambition.

In goal, the Citadelles starting goal this season has been David Danielson. He has performed very well, given the difficult circumstances of being a rookie goalie on an expansion team. However he is only at 201 TPE, barely scraping the 200 TPE mark. He, as well as his teammates and managers will be hoping he can pick up his development and be the starting goalie that the Citadelles will need in the future if they want to succeed.



APPROVED +5 TPE @Festinator