With the 2026 Memorial Cup presented by Kubota set to kick off on Friday night in Kelowna, British Columbia, the field that began with 61 CHL clubs in September has been whittled down to four. This year’s QMJHL representatives, the 2026 Gilles-Courteau Trophy Champion Chicoutimi Saguenéens, join the OHL Champion Kitchener Rangers, WHL title holder Everett Silvertips and host Kelowna Rockets in a final battle for junior hockey supremacy.
The Saguenéens entered the season as strong championship contenders this year as Head Coach and GM Yanick Jean and his staff methodically built a well-balanced nucleus over a five-season span. The first addition to this building process, back in 2021, was current Sags captain Emmanuel Vermette. As the club began its climb up the standings, it also drafted or acquired top-end talent in the form of this season’s League MVP Maxim Massé, two-way forward Christophe Berthelot and, through a trade in the middle of the 2022-23 campaign, offensively gifted center Thomas Desruisseaux. The build went into overdrive at the 2023 QMJHL Draft, with the addition of winger Émile Guité, center Nathan Lacompte and defenseman Alex Huang with picks two, four and five, respectively. The following day, in the Draft’s fifth round, goaltender Raphaël Précourt donned the blue and white for the first of many times.
This season, the Saguenéens made it apparent that this was their year. By the time the dust had settled on the trade period, the club had bolstered its lineup at all three positions. Lucas Beckman provided arguably the best goaltending depth in the league while Mavrick Lachance brought his puck skills and leadership to the fold. But it was on the blue line where the Sags went from great to outstanding. Tomas Lavoie, Jordan Tourigny and Alexis Bernier were dropped onto the big ice surface in Chicoutimi and simply shut things down. Just as important as any on-ice accomplishments, all of these skaters acquired mid-season had worn a letter with their previous clubs.
Battling the Moncton Wildcats for first place overall throughout the second half, the Saguenéens would fall one point short of the Jean-Rougeau Trophy with an impressive 49-10-3-2 record and 103 points, Chicoutimi’s best regular season result in twenty years and the second-highest point total in the club’s 53-season history. The Sags led the league in goals scored, fewest goals against, power play and penalty killing efficiency during the year, the first club since the 1997 Memorial Cup Champion Hull Olympiques to pull off that feat.
All of the Saguenéens’ abilities were on display throughout the 2026 postseason as well. In their first round encounter against the Halifax Mooseheads, only a 2-1 squeaker in Game 2 provided any drama. The Sags outscored the Mooseheads 24-4 en route to a four-game sweep, the first playoff encounter between the two teams since the 1997 Conference Finals, a date which would prove prophetic for this year’s Saguenéens.
Round two saw Chicoutimi matched up against one of its chief rivals, the Québec Remparts. An up-and-coming group, the Sags bottled up the Remparts, allowing just two goals in yet another four-game sweep, including back-to-back road shutouts in Games 3 and 4. The first notable test for this versatile group came in the Semi-Finals versus the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Indeed, the opening game of the series saw the Huskies relinquish home ice advantage from Chicoutimi with a 3-1 triumph. However, the Saguenéens would remain unfazed, capturing four of the next five contests and advancing to the league Final for the first time since that previously noted 1997 campaign.
The Gilles-Courteau Trophy Final was a repeat of the clash for the Jean-Rougeau Trophy. The defending champion Wildcats drew first blood with a 5-2 victory in Game 1. The Sags answered back right away, erasing a 1-0 deficit in the second game to earn a 3-2 win. Game 3 in Chicoutimi was a roller coaster of unexpected events; holding a 4-2 lead midway through the third, Moncton found the back of the net twice, including once on a baffling dump-in attempt, to send the game to overtime. Despite two power play opportunities and a number of Grade ‘A’ chances for the Cats, Chicoutimi took a 2-1 series lead on a goal by Desruisseaux which was confirmed upon video review. Moncton would knot the series up again with a hard fought 4-3 victory in Game 4.
If Game 3 was the undercard for weird and wild events, Game 5 was the main event. Trailing 4-0 in the second period and forced to deal with a fire alarm during the first intermission, the Sags reeled off six goals in the third period to sound their own alarm at the Avenir Center with a thrilling 7-6 triumph. It was the first time in 45 years a ‘Q’ team erased a four-goal deficit in the Final to earn the win. That momentum propelled the Saguenéens back home where, on Sunday night, a 5-1 triumph delivered a QMJHL title to the organization for the first time in 32 years.
The Sags rolled to a 16-4 postseason record by, literally, rolling. Deploying four lines and six defensemen with regularity, the club featured 12 players who reached double-digit points, led my Massé’s 24. An incredible 15 players recorded a point on the power play, while 12 different skaters were credited with a game-winning tally. In net, Beckman took the reins during the postseason, recording three shutouts and leading the league in goals against average.
This will be the Saguenéens’ fourth trip to the Memorial Cup. In both 1991 and 1994, the club, as league title holders, reached the tournament Semi-Final. The 1997 tournament saw the club, as the second QMJHL representative, go winless. The four participants at this year’s event have combined for 14 previous tournament appearances; only the Silvertips are making their Memorial Cup debut.
The Saguenéens make their debut at the 2026 Memorial Cup Presented by Kubota on Saturday night when they face Everett. This will be followed by clashes on Sunday and Tuesday against Kelowna and Kitchener, respectively. All games get underway at 9pm ET/10pm AT and will be broadcast via TSN and RDS.
