QMJHL boss pleased with moves to curb fighting

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Harsher penalties for fighting, including game misconducts and suspensions, were among the changes ushered into the QMJHL this season during Mario Cecchini’s first year as commissioner.

Now, with a full 612-game regular season under his belt, the league boss says moves to eliminate or drastically reduce fisticuffs in the game are paying off, especially in the area of player safety.

This past year, there were just 31 fights in the league, compared to 86 in the regular a season ago, an already low total in comparison to the game even 10 years ago.

“One of the things that players cherish the most is their ice time,” said Cecchini in a recap of the regular season interview with Brunswick News.

“So taking away the ice time, meaning being thrown out of the game with potential suspensions, definitely did the trick. I mean, out of 612 games, to have that number of fights, I think that basically eliminates the fight from the game. That’s not a strategic aspect anymore. So that’s very comforting to see. We’re very happy with that.”

As part of the moves, players received game misconducts for fights and suspensions for instigating or accumulating a number of fights during the season.

The league said, in an announcement prior to the start of the campaign in September, the moves were made “in order to prevent physical and psychological violence that may result in minor or serious injury.”

Cecchini said the seasonal stats reflect that other measures of potential accountability such as increases in slashing, high sticking and other forms of stick work did not rise when fighting dipped.

And when looking at suspensions this year versus last, when taking away the suspensions that were incurred for fighting, there was virtually no change.

“The suspensions were about the same, so there was no real impact on the behaviour on the ice,” he said.

In Bathurst, Ernst & Young continues to lead the search for new owners or at least a majority shareholder for the Titan after the local ownership group stated its intention to sell the franchise in January.

And since then, fans have shown support to any potential owner that they are serious about the future by purchasing shares in the team.

It was a process that started in January and Cecchini, who was on hand for that announcement regarding the sale, is encouraged by the progress to date.

“I’m told that process is going well,” he said. “They’re happy with the progress so far. They are gathering all the information and gathering to see how many and who is interested.”

The new structure could be one person or even a collection of interested parties, as Cecchini said all the doors and options are open but expects things to move along relatively quickly.

“There is a deadline date, which is early April,” he said. “Typically, the process will take flight there with one or two finalists who are really serious about moving forward and hopefully, we close all of that by the draft. That is the goal right now and I am told things are going well.”

In Saint John, the Sea Dogs attendance dipped to 2,760 fans per game, a dip of 197 from a season ago and down from the last full season before COVID of 3,427.

But Cecchini is expressing optimism for the Dogs, now at the end of their second year of the rebuilding cycle after the 2022 Memorial Cup.

He is encouraged by the creativity the organization has taken with special concert nightstand series, such as the annual All For One Festival.

For their playoff home games next week, the team is promoting the lowest priced post-season tickets in the CHL as an offer to their fan base in the series against the heavily favoured Drummondville Voltigeurs.

From a league perspective, attendance this past season was 2.046 million fans, a jump of 4.48 per cent from last year and 0.92 per cent higher than that pre-Covid bench mark of 2.026 million.

The Moncton Wildcats had 138 more fans per game this year, a jump of 3.06 per cent, and the Titan were down 27 per game, or 1.63 per cent, and the Dogs were down 6.66 per cent.

“We are one per cent above the attendance in the last year before COVID as a league,” Cecchini said. “It is one small one per cent but we are very happy. Overall, we have 13 teams that are growing their audience versus last year. So overall it’s good news.

“Saint John is one of the teams that I know has good plans. They’ve tried a lot of things and are working hard at it. After winning it all in 2022, they are at the part of the cycle that is a little bit difficult, so I do expect it to rebound next year.”

Under the first year of Cecchini’s tenure, in addition to the fighting mandates, the league changed its name to the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, a small part of a vision for 2030, he says.

Part of the look for the future could see expansion of at least two teams to align with the WHL and OHL, who have 22 and 20 teams, respectively. But that growth is more a middle-term goal, for six or seven years time.

He would not be against a fourth team in the province under the right circumstances.

“It’s a market that’s been extremely good to the league, so there’s no reason if another (N.B.) market would rise up, have a proper building with the proper financing and property, we would have to look at it.”

He added: “There’s nothing against having another team in New Brunswick at this point. We would look at everything, including other markets in Quebec and the other Maritime provinceds. … But we are nowhere near the actual plan at this point, because we need to make sure we don’t dilute the product too much.”