Aubin, Lowe, Sauvé and Vaillancourt inducted to the QMJHL Hall of Fame
The Commissioner of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League, Mr Gilles Courteau, announced today the 4 new members who will be inducted to the QMJHL Hall of Fame in April 2003.
Since the start of the QMJHL Hall of Fame in 1995, nine builders and coaches have been inducted and sixteen players. In next April, the QMJHL will honoured 3 players and, for the first time in its history, a referee. Indeed, Normand Aubin, Kevin Lowe, Jean-François Sauvé will be inducted as players and Marcel Vaillancourt as a referee.
Normand Aubin had a very nice junior career of 4 seasons, from 1976 to 1980. Born in St-Léonard on the 26th of July, 1960, Normand Aubin is one of the fewest players of the Canadian junior hockey history to have a goals average per game over than 1.00: in regular season he got 1.015 and in playoffs it was 1.034. This left-handed centre player has a record of 258 goals and 257 assists for 515 points in 254 games of the regular season with the Sorel/Verdun Éperviers and with the Sherbrooke Castors. He has a total of more than 100 points at the end of his 3 seasons in the QMJHL and was named on the first All-star team in 1978-79 and on the third one in 1979-80. Normand Aubin did an incredible performance during a game presented in Verdun on September 23, 1979. With a total of 8 goals during that game, he became the first player of the Canadian junior hockey history to do it. Stephan Lebeau afterwards equalled this record. It was a 14-6 victory over the Montréal Junior and Aubin ended the game with 11 points, 8 goals and 3 assists.
After his seasons in the junior major hockey, Normand Aubin played for the New-Brunswick Hawks, the Ste. Catharine Saints and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs in the American Hockey League. He also played for the Cincinnati Tigers in the Hockey Central League in 1981-82. Second choice of the Toronto Maple Leafs, 21st overall, at the NHL Entry Draft in 1979, Normand Aubin played 2 seasons with the Leafs from 1981 to 1983.
At the 1979 NHL Entry Draft, the Edmonton Oilers was at their first step in the NHL and selected Kevin Lowe as their first-ever draft pick, 21st overall. Born in Lachute, this left-handed defenseman had a very nice career in the QMJHL with the Québec Remparts from 1976 to 1979. At his first season, he finished at the 13th rank of the Remparts’ scorers with 3 goals, 19 assists in 69 games. At his second season in 1977-78, he finished at the 4th rank of the Remparts’ scorers, behind Michel Goulet, Denis Hallé and Gaston Therrien, with 13 goals and 52 assists in 64 games. He was also selected on the second QMJHL All-star team. At his third and last season, he was the second best scorer of his team with 26 goals and 60 assists for 86 points in 68 games. Once again, Kevin Lowe was selected on the second All-star team with, from others, Jean-François Sauvé. This fully bilingual player was also named as the Remparts’ captain at his last season.
Kevin Lowe had a very nice professional career of 19 seasons in the NHL: 15 with the Edmonton Oilers and 4 with the New York Rangers. In the NHL, Lowe played 1247 games, scored 84 goals, added 347 assists and won 5 Stanley Cups with the Oilers and 1 with the Rangers in 1993-94. He also received the King Clancy Memorial trophy at the end of the 1989-90 season. Kevin Lowe was named Head coach of the Edmonton Oilers on June 18 in 1999 and became the 7th head coach of the franchise. Actually, Kevin Lowe still with the organisation; he is the executive Vice-President and General Manager. We can for sure say that Kevin Lowe will have done a lot for hockey in Canada.
Born in Ste-Geneviève on January 23 in 1960, this left-handed centre player did very well in the QMJHL. Indeed, Jean-François Sauvé had a nice junior career of 3 seasons with the Trois-Rivières Draveurs and Head coach Michel Bergeron. Jean-François Sauvé won the Jean-Rougeau Trophy (regular season champions) and the President Cup (playoffs champions) twice in 1977-78 and 1978-79 and participated to the Memorial Cup tournament. He also won twice, in 1978-79 and 1979-80, the Jean Béliveau trophy, for the top scorer and the Frank-J. -Selke trophy for the most sportsmanlike player. In 1978-79, Jean-François won the Guy Lafleur trophy for the most valuable player in the playoffs. He was named on the first All-star team in 1979-80 and on the second in 1978-79. He preserved an average of 2.452 points per game with a total of 368 points in 150 games of the regular season. He led the QMJHL with a total of 124 assists in 1979-80. In a 20-6 trouncing victory over the Laval National, Sauvé ended the game with 2 goals and 8 assists. Then, he carried on his hockey player career during 7 seasons (1980-1987) in the NHL where he played with the Buffalo Sabres, which whom he signed as a free agent on November 1st in 1979, and with the Québec Nordiques. He finished his pro career with a record of 65 goals, 138 assists for a total of 203 points in 290 games.
Finally, first referee ever inducted to the QMJHL Hall of Fame, Marcel Vaillancourt had an impressive career of 2000 games. Official in the QMJHL and also across the country, Marcel Vaillancourt went to 5 Memorial Cup tournament (Calgary, Ottawa, Montréal, Kitchener and for the final between Québec and Ste.Catharine). He also did to 4 Allan Cup (Crambrook, Sherbrooke, Woodstock and St.John, Newfoundland) and 3 University finals (Sherbrooke, Montréal and Trois-Rivières). In 1969, Marcel Vaillancourt went to the World Championship in Sweden and to the World Championship in Austria in 1977 and was also invited by the Czech Republic Hockey Federation. He did approximately 25 exhibition games between Russia and Canada. Marcel Vaillancourt supervised Referees’ trainings for 15 seasons. When he was referee in chief for all the minor hockey in Québec, Marcel Vaillancourt also owned his Referees’ school and helped Ron Fournier, Denis Morel, Gérard Gauthier and many others to become one of the best officials in the NHL. During the 70’s Mr. Vaillancourt was in charge of the Referees’ appointment in the QMJHL.
