Another Quebec Goalie Gem

There will always be someone in the crowd who will try disparage a player's achievements when they're invited to play on a bigger stage if that person doesn't feel they've earned it. Usually, these people who are doing the disparaging are ill-informed, wrong, or both, so it's important to know that all teams at all levels vet players more than your average hockey fan. In saying this, Ève Gascon, pictured above, has earned an invitation to training camp for the Gatineau Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League starting on Monday because she is an incredible goaltender.

Yes, that pronoun is correct - SHE earned an invitation, and SHE will attend the camp looking to make the QMJHL team based on her talents in stopping pucks. For anyone to suggest anything otherwise, your opinion holds no water nor will it be considered informed because the Olympiques wouldn't extend an invitation if they didn't think she could make the team.

While making the team likely won't be at the top of the list for Gascon based on her commitment to join the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs women's team in 2022, the fact that she's going to have a shot to make the Olympiques out of training camp proves that her options are wide open when it comes to her future. She's played on boys' teams her entire life so taking the next step in her career to the major junior level shouldn't faze her. If she chooses to follow her commitment to UMD, she'll be playing against women for the first time in her career, but that too shouldn't change the way she plays the game. If anything, she may be more than ready to stop pucks at the NCAA level.

She was the first girl to play full-time in the boys' AAA midget league in Québec where she suited up Collège Esther-Blondin Phénix over two seasons. People will point at her stats there and say she wasn't very good, but Collège Esther-Blondin wasn't very good overall. Instead, she earned a spot on the roster through her play and her determination.

"She wasn't in our plans," admitted head coach Paulin Bordeleau. "We had a goaltender coming back from the year before, and I would say we had two other prospects that were ahead of her at the time."

Undeterred by the depth chart, Gascon not only played her way onto the Phénix where she was the starting netminder, but she also went and tended nets at the U18 Women's World Championship where she was rather excellent in helping Canada earn a silver medal with only an overtime loss to the Americans in the gold medal game. You don't attract Hockey Canada's attention because you're not a good goalie, so let's add that feather to Ève Gascon's cap because she's definitely on Hockey Canada's radar.

She was selected 13th overall by the Collège Français de Longueuil in the Quebec Junior Hockey League, becoming the second girl to be selected in that draft after Ann-Renee Desbiens was the first to do so. She became just the third female to appear in a QJHL game, following in the footsteps of Charline Labonté and Manon Rheaume as the others.

The fact that she's boys' hockey over girls' hockey doesn't matter for Gascon as she has stated time and again that "the priority is development" in the highest-calibre league available to her. Gascon will now take her talents to the QMJHL for a few weeks before heading to the NCAA where she prepares to take the next steps in her career. Where she goes from here will be up to her, but the UMD program is one of the best in the NCAA and her progress there will likely see her ascend through the depth chart on Hockey Canada's lists as well.

It's far too early to suggest that she'll end up like Shannon Szabados who played professionally in the SPHL, but there's also nothing stopping her from doing so if she has the talent to make any squad for which she wants to play. For now, though, she's stop pucks from some of the best Quebec-born players on the Gatineau roster as she prepares to make the jump to Duluth where she battle for the starting spot as she looks to backstop the Bulldogs as a freshman.

Let's not discount this invitation by the Olympiques, though, as some charity thing for a goalie who has shown a knack for playing with the boys. Again, the Olympiques could have invited any number of male goalies to training camp for a shot at making the team, but they chose to extend the offer to Gascon who could very well make the roster based on talent alone. And for Gascon, she's taking this opportunity to continue to get better with her sights on 2026 and the Italian cities of Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo where the next Winter Olympics will take place.

If you'll notice, every single goaltender named in this article has played with the Canadian Women's National Hockey Team at the Olympics. Rheaume was there in 1998. Labonté played for Canada in 2006, 2010, and 2014. Szabados suited up in 2010, 2014, and 2018. Desbiens wore Canada's colours in 2018 in Pyeongchang. All three of the Quebec-born goalies had major impacts on the Canada National Team, and all four won medals at the Olympics. That's exactly the legacy that Gascon wants to establish for herself, and having her play at the QMJHL level - even just at a training camp - will give her more exposure as to what she needs to do to be even more successful.

"I don’t want to be biased, but I feel she is the next one," Labonté told Hockey Canada's Quinton Amundson. "She is taking it step by step, but everywhere she has been she has been successful."

Labonté, who has been mentoring Gascon, added, "She reminds me of myself at that age. I know exactly what she is going through. She is a quiet yet confident person. She doesn't want the spotlight. She wants to play hockey and wants to go as far as she can, but the fact that she’s that good and is making history brings her all the media attention, and she has done very well with that.

"Sometimes I can’t believe I am talking to a kid. She is much more mature than that."

To have a former Olympian and an Olympic gold medalist describe you like that is quite the honour, so don't even try to discount Ève Gascon's achievements. If her trajectory continues on the same path her current success has found, we're likely going to be talking about her achievements for a long, long time. Whether those come in a Bulldogs uniform, a Canada uniform, or any other uniform remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: Ève Gascon earned this opportunity with the Olympiques.

Ève Gascon is yet another diamond from the goaltending mine in Quebec that has produced a number of great Canadian netminders in both men's and women's hockey. Whether it be names like Roy, Fleury, or Brodeur on the men's side or Rheaume, Labonté, or Desbiens on the women's side, it seems that Ève Gascon is determined to add her story to those legendary goalie careers!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!