Prospect Rankings: John Quenneville Profile
By Justin Nobre
Coming in as our third-best ranked prospect is the Adam Henrique clone, John Quenneville. The Canadian forward was drafted 30th overall in the 2014 NHL Draft. The Devils originally were not supposed to have a 1st round pick in 2014 due to the cap circumvention penalty on Ilya Kovalchuk’s contract, but uncle Lou worked his magic. Instead of picking 11th overall where we finished, Bettman and Lameriello agreed on 30th.
Coming into the draft Quenneville was ranked 23rd among Central Scouting’s North American skaters. He finished the season as the Brandon Wheat Kings 4th highest scorer with 25 goals and 33 assists in 61 games, thats good for a .95 points per game ratio. Quenneville stepped it up a notch in the playoffs scoring five goals and 13 points in 9 games.
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I recall during the draft many Devils fans wanted to Brendan Lemieux, the son of former Devils super pest, Claude Lemieux. In my opinion the Devils made the right choice by drafting Quenneville. Lemieux plays a lot like his father. He scores, hits and gets underneath the opponents’ skin. Quenneville is all-around skilled player. He can score, pass, stick handle, skate, work the boards, back-check, and forecheck. He is an all-round solid player who does not necessarily excel at one thing but does all of them well.
Their stats have been very similar. In 2013-14 Lemieux had 27 goals and 53 points in 65 games to Quenneville’s 25 goals and 58 points in 61 games. In 2014-15 the edge goes to Lemieux, as he scored 41 goals and 60 points in 57 games, meanwhile Quenneville had 17 goals and 47 points in 57 games. In fairness to Quenneville, he did deal with some injury problems during the year as he mentions here. Although Quenneville had a lackluster 2014/15 season, he tore it up in the playoffs. He scored 10 goals and 19 points in 19 games. Lemieux only managed to score one goal and two assists in five games. Quenneville has scored 15 goals and 17 assists in 28 playoff games. Lemieux has only scored 10 goals and five assists in 37 playoff games, giving the final edge to Quenneville.
Quenneville is also getting some national spotlight. He was one of 24 forwards selected to Hockey Cansda’s national junior team’s summer development camp and scored a beautiful assist (video included) in a game against Russia. He was also one of 40 prospects to be selected for the 2015 NHLPA Rookie Showcase in Toronto. Things seem to be looking up for the 30th pick in the 2014th draft.
“He’s an above-average skater who plays hard, can kill penalties well and has solid skill. He shows flashes of good creativity, but his offense can be inconsistent.” – Corey Pronman
The biggest problem for Quenneville is that he hasn’t been able to consistently produce offense. In his junior career he has been prone to some scoring slumps. He will be going back to Brandon for his final WHL season. I would like to see Quenneville finally start to score more consistently and also to work on his strength for the pro game. Due to his two way play and hockey sense we can see Quenneville play in the NHL as early as the 2016-17 season but only time will tell. If he does make it to the NHL he will most likely play as a 3rd line center with 2nd line potential. We should get a good look at him this year in training camp and preseason.
What do you guys think? Will Quenneville be ready to play in the NHL by 2016-17? Do you think he will finally be able to score more consistently in his final WHL season? Will he be a 3rd line or 2nd line center in the NHL? Thanks for reading and don’t forget to vote on who you guys think is the Devils 4th best prospect.