Fully healthy, Nadeau excited to chase a second Gilles Courteau Trophy

A year ago, Olivier Nadeau experienced something special in Shawinigan.

Now, with the QMJHL Playoffs less than a month away, the Buffalo Sabres prospect is looking to repeat the magic with Gatineau.

“What makes our team so good and so special is that we have good coaching, good ‘D’ and four lines,” Nadeau said. “Our third and fourth line is so good; they could be the first or second line for a lot of other teams. We have a full, complete team. Every line can play against any other line in the league.”

The Olympiques enter tonight’s CHL on TSN contest on the back of 16 consecutive wins. They are the second ranked team in the Kia CHL Top 10, haven’t lost since Jan. 18 and even swept the Alexandra Cup against Ottawa last month, where Nadeau had four goals in Game 1.

So yes, there’s not a hotter team in the CHL right now than the Olympiques.

People will point to the addition of Riley Kidney, who was acquired from Acadie-Bathurst ahead of the QMJHL trade deadline, and rightfully so, but the return of Nadeau from offseason shoulder surgery has had a tremendous impact.

In 26 games, the 20-year-old has 19 goals and 38 points and is a staggering +36. But on a line with Kidney and Alexis Gendron, another trade deadline acquisition by general manager and head coach Louis Robitaille, the trio of newcomers have starred 5-on-5. Of the 57 goals they have scored in an Olympiques jersey, 39 have come even strength.

“On the power play he’s made a huge difference,” Nadeau said of Kidney. “[But] five-on-five, with Gendron and me, we are complementing each other so good. Since Mavrik Bourque last year, [Riley is] the most complete player I’ve seen in this league.”

ICYMI: #LetsGoBuffalo prospect Olivier Nadeau scored four times as the @OlympiquesGAT took Game 1 of the Alexandra Cup Thursday night! 🏆 pic.twitter.com/BcWe6l9FeL

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) February 10, 2023

Nadeau missed the first 34 games of the season, a far from ideal scenario for a player on a new team. After he celebrated Shawinigan’s historic first President Cup trophy, Nadeau was moved to Gatineau July 4.

While he led the Cataractes in points a year ago, he played third-fiddle behind Bourque (DAL) and Xavier Bourgault (EDM). He injured his shoulder before the QMJHL Playoffs and while the pain intensified, he played through it to help Shawinigan win the Q. He’d then subsequently score in all four games he played at the 2022 Memorial Cup presented by Kia before conceding that he needed to have surgery.

“I knew I was going to be traded after the season,” Nadeau said. “I’m happy that I was traded as I have another shot at the President Cup and Memorial Cup. But winning the first President Cup for Shawinigan after 53 years was amazing.

“It was such an honour to be part of that group of players. It was a special group.”

The Lac-Etchemin, QC., native spent his recovery in Gatineau. He got to spend some time with his new teammates at school and at the rink but was unable to take the ice with them as he continued his recovery. However, after he set a goal of returning to the lineup after the Christmas break, he did just that on Dec. 28. On Feb. 23, he was named captain of the Olympiques.

“It was tough,” he said of his recovery. “I was working out alone … I was seeing them at the rink but I was working out the same time they were on the ice. I didn’t see them much.

“But I did everything I could to make sure I would be on the ice with them after Christmas.”

With Nadeau in the lineup, the Olympiques are 23-2-1. Gatineau hasn’t claimed a Q title since the 2007-08 season when Benoit Groulx was behind the bench and Claude Giroux led the team in scoring. The team won the 1997 Memorial Cup as the Hull Olympiques.

“When you get to the semis and final, there’s a lot of media, a lot of stress and pressure,” Nadeau said. “I dealt with it last year at the Memorial Cup and it was more than I could imagine so I want to be there for [my teammates] and be a leader like I always am as that will be the most important thing for the playoffs.”