LHSAAAQ 2025 Draft Primer

We’re just under a week away from the 2025 LHSAAAQ Draft. The event can provide lots of information about where the league is going. Looking at previous drafts, recent initiatives and team movement, as well as making comparisons to other provincial leagues, we can draw some indications on the league’s future or, at a minimum, things to watch for.

Visibility: The fact that the draft is taking place at a public venue versus a closed arena shows that the league is continuing to take steps to increase its visibility with fans. The draft is being held at Marthelinois Golf Course, is open to the public and will be streamed live on the league’s Facebook page. 

Quebec’s senior hockey scene is crowded with over 10 leagues but has a very limited on-line presence. Following the streaming of its 2025 finals, the draft is the latest example of how the LHSAAAQ is emerging from the pack. All senior leagues deal with staffing and funding limitations, but the LHSAAAQ is spending wisely within those constraints. If the draft webcast can provide anywhere near the visibility of the 2025 finals, it will be a huge win. 

Location: The draft’s location in Trois-Rivieres is indicator of where the league is going. The league is going back to the city after a one year stint in 2023-24. The new team will have its uniform unveiled at the draft. This will be a big platform for this unveiling, so clearly the league wants this team and market to work. Senior leagues in the province exist, almost exclusively, in small towns and arenas. In recent years the LHSAAAQ has started to blaze a path into larger markets. The addition of Granby in 2019 has been a success, and the more recent additions of Terrebonne (2022) and Valleyfield (2024) seem to be working as well. The league isn’t throwing the baby out with the bathwater, as evidenced by the successful expansion to Saint-Anselme (Bellechasse) and this off-season’s return to Nicolet, but Trois-Rivieres is a continued shift toward larger markets, arenas and fan bases.

Then, there’s the draft itself, and the question of who gets the call. 

Players: The 2023 draft appeared to be less of a draft and more of an attempt to gather players not likely to return to the LNAH. In the first 3 rounds 13 of the 23 players drafted were playing in the LNAH the previous season. With the LNAH clearly being the top league within the province, drafting its players signaled the caliber of player the LHSAAAQ wanted, even if it meant getting the lower end of the big league’s rosters.

The 2024 draft showed a significant shift. Rather than going for LNAH players, they seemed to go for the LNAH’s playbook. While league expansion increased the total number of players drafted, players from the LNAH decreased to just 7 in the first 3 rounds.  Its biggest overall group became players coming directly from juniors with 11 (versus only 4 in 2023). Another 7 were drafted from US and Canadian University programs where only 3 were selected in those rounds a year before. Finally, selections from minor leagues including the SPHL and FPHL showed up in the first 3 rounds as well. The discovering and drafting of new talent is a signal that the league is growing in capability and building its own brand versus simply relying on known entities from the bigger league.

Two years isn’t enough to show a trend, but if the 2025 draft shows more effort toward discovering new talent, it will be another massive step toward solidifying itself on the North American hockey scene. 

The efforts undertaken by the league- a greater online presence, larger markets, and more concentrated drafting and development- are all indicators that the league is moving in the right direction. The LNAH is king in Quebec, but the LHSAAAQ is undeniably becoming the next big league in the province. Much of what it will bring to the 2025-26 season will be on display next week. Eager eyes will be waiting to see what happens on July 4th.