THOMAS PERRY/THE DAILY PRESS Luka Bolduc made his debut in a Timmins Rock uniform in an exhibition game against the Cochrane Crunch at the Jus Jordan Arena Saturday night. The Rock have now added one of his former teammates with the Saint-Lazare Révolution, of the QJHL, fellow blue-liner Alexis Quane-Arsenault. Rock coach Corey Beer, who worked with Quane-Arsenault at TWIST Performance and Wellness Whitby, is quite familiar with the new defenceman who will likely play in one or both of the upcoming exhibition games against the Hearst Lumberjacks.
Fresh off a 5-4 exhibition loss to the Cochrane Crunch, the Timmins Rock have acquired 1999-birth-year defenceman Alexis Quane-Arsenault from the Saint-Lazare Révolution, of the QJHL, in exchange for a player development fee.
Quane-Arsenault (16, 2-6-8, 2) is the second blue-liner the Rock have obtained from the Révolution this off season, joining Luka Bolduc in the maroon, gold and white.
The 5-10, 150-pound Vaudreuil-Dorion, Que., native actually started the 2017-18 campaign with the Valleyfield Braves (12, 0-1-1, 4), of the QJHL, before being dealt to the Révolution.
“He is a guy I am quite familiar with,” said Rock coach Corey Beer.
“He has trained at TWIST (Performance and Wellness) Whitby where I worked during the summer.
“I worked with Alexis a couple of years ago and kind of kept tabs on him while he was away at school. Then, I caught up with him again this summer at TWIST and I thought he had made great strides since I had seen him a couple of years back.
“He is 19 years old now and a more mature player.”
Even though the Rock had eight D-men on the roster — including James Robinson (upper-body injury) who is out until November or December — they did not hesitate to add Quane-Arsenault to the mix.
“We feel he can provide us with another injection of offence,” Beer said.
“He is a real slick, puck-moving defenceman and he should really help our back end.”
Quane-Arsenault joins a blue-line corps that currently includes Will Caston (0, 0-0-0, 0), Connor Mullins (1, 0-1-1, 0), Carson Burlington (1, 0-2-2, 0), Bolduc (1, 0-0-0, 0), Ian Elkins (1, 0-1-1, 0), Owen Shier (0, 0-0-0, 0), Eric Moreau (1, 0-0-0, 4) and Redmond.
Beer notes the addition of Quane-Arsenault does not necessarily mean one of the Rock’s current blue-liners will be heading out of town any time soon.
“We have the ability to have a couple of extra bodies here starting off the year,” he said.
“Last year, due to some bad circumstances, we were struck pretty severely by the injury bug, so we are kind of safeguarding ourselves.
“We have had some good competition throughout training camp, insuring guys can’t be complacent or get too comfortable.
“Do we want to start the year with that many defencemen? If they are all good ones, you don’t want to give them up. It is all about finding the right spots for these guys.”
Quane-Arsenault is expected to join his new team at some point on Monday, although it is unclear whether he will arrive in town in time for practice.
“Depending on where he is at, he might play in both games (against the Lumberjacks, Thursday night in Iroquois Falls and Friday night in Hearst), but he will play in one of them for sure,” Beer said.
“With him being a veteran guy, we don’t need to see him in there, but it is more of a game-conditioning thing. He hasn’t been practising with Saint-Lazare. He has just been practising at home.
“I know we have only been in camp for a week, but we want to take sure his ready to roll for the season.”
Beer also intends to see that his veteran players — Caston and forwards Stewart Parnell and Derek Seguin — who sat our Saturday night’s loss to the Crunch in Iroquois Falls and those who were away at OHL camps — goalie Tyler Masternak (Saginaw Spirit), Shier (Windsor Spitfires), Austin Holmes (Kitchener Rangers) and forward Keegan McMullin (Peterborough Petes) — see action before the end of the preseason.
“They will get into one of the two games, for sure, and a couple of them might even request to play in both,” he said.
“We will just kind of takes things as they go as the week moves along here.”
The Rock have reduced their active roster back to 25 players by sending home the players who had been in camp to challenge for jobs — goalie Dylan Dallaire (Timmins Majors), defencemen Gavin Martel (Timmins Majors), Cameron Dutkiewicz (Timmins Majors) and Cooper Roussy (Kapuskasing Flyers), as well as forwards Kyler Campbell (Huntsville Otters) and Jared Dupuis (West Nipissing Lynx).
In addition, forward Cameron Chisholm — who had been signed — has opted to leave the team.
A number of those players, of course, might be retained as affiliate players.
“We are down to our squad now and hopefully we can keep things rolling,” Beer said.
NOJHL NOTES — A number of teams across the league have continued to fine tune their rosters in the past week now that the exhibition season is underway. Following are some of those moves:
• The Lumberjacks acquired 2000-birth-year forward Sam Gaudreau (49, 23-25-48, 72) from the Char-Lan Rebels, of the CCHL.
• The Kirkland Lake Gold Miners acquired 2000-birth-year forward Alexandre Elie (51, 11-23-34, 26) from the Alexandria Glens, of the CCHL2.
• The Powassan Voodoos have traded 1999-birth-year forward Aaron Dickson (54, 20-13-33, 43) to the Brampton Admirals, of the OJHL.
• The RaysideBalfour Canadians have acquired 2000-birth-year goalie Dave Bowen (5.34, .865) from the Stouffville Spirit, of the OJHL.
• The Lumberjacks have traded 1999-birth-year forward Shadow Reuben (47, 11-23-34, 22) to the Lac St-Louis Revolution, of the QJHL.
• The Lumberjacks have acquired 1999-birth-year forward George Young (48, 2-11-13, 12) from the Ottawa West Golden Knights, of the CCHL2.
