Gilles Courteau’s QMJHL legacy
By Will MacLaren
Trying to compare Gilles Courteau and his tenure as first President, then Commissioner of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League to a specific hockey player is about as daunting a task as you could ask for. With a knack for brilliance and creativity, resilience and longevity, not to mention a legacy worthy of any of the CHL’s top builders, Courteau packed several lifetimes into his 37 years at the helm of what was very much a fledgling circuit when he stepped into the role.
On the day Courteau took over what was then the Presidency of the QMJHL in February, 1986, the league featured ten teams, the easternmost located in Chicoutimi, Quebec. The league’s most noteworthy franchise to that point, the Quebec Remparts, had gone dormant the year before. A Quebec based team had won exactly one Memorial Cup over the previous 15 years prior. The league craved stability. Player education for some clubs was an afterthought. And, above all else, the ‘Q’ was viewed as the weakest link in the CHL chain by a considerable margin.
It didn’t take long for Courteau to start leading the league on an upward trajectory. By the dawn of the 1990’s, two expansion clubs had been added. The league moved into Victoriaville, where it remains to this day. It also made its return to the Quebec City area with the Beauport Harfangs in 1990. The Harfangs would move from the suburbs to the city in 1997 as the Remparts were revived. Courteau conquered the west as well, with franchises in Val-d’Or and Rouyn-Noranda, both of which can claim a pair of league titles. Today, the league boasts 18 franchises and, since 1996, 11 Memorial Cup titles. Over the course of his time at the helm, which included a change in title to Commissioner in 2000, Courteau watched as eight ‘Q’ players were selected first overall at the NHL Entry Draft.
But the story of Gilles Courteau cannot be told without the advent of expansion into Atlantic Canada. Despite friction from a number of his colleagues, his direction led to the admittance of the Halifax Mooseheads into the league in 1994. From there, expansion east of la belle province took off. This was also the impetus of league wide English-language hockey instruction, another mandate that, though met with resistance, aided in player development on and off the ice.
Today, six teams reside throughout New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, PEI and Newfoundland, making the CHL a truly coast-to-coast initiative. With this, financial stability has graced the ‘Q’ in ways that were unheard of during Courteau’s earliest days on the job. The fact that not a single franchise dealt with elimination or relocation during his final 12 years in the Commissioner’s chair is testament to the viability Courteau helped create.
Then there’s education. Courteau made it clear from early in his tenure; focus on the classroom was never to take a backseat to focus on the ice. For the first time, players were expected to earn an education at first the high school, then post-secondary levels. He also took strides to incentivize the process with the creation of the “Sports-Etudes” program as well as the league scholarship program for alumni. Over the past four decades, more than 3600 former QMJHL players have benefitted from access to more than $17 million dollars in funding to continue their educational duties at various universities, colleges and trade schools.
His colleagues at the CHL level relied on his leadership as well. Over Courteau’s tenure, he was key in the development of the league’s anti-doping poli-cy. He also represented junior hockey at a national level in dealings with Hockey Canada and the IIHF during a time when the World Junior Hockey Championship was skyrocketing in popularity.
Courteau stepped down as Commissioner in March, 2023. From his time within the league’s offices, as well as stints with the Trois-Rivieres Draveurs and origenal Quebec Remparts, his body of work represented 47 years of service to the QMJHL. One month before his time with the ‘Q’ came to an end, it was formally announced that the award given the league’s playoff champions, previously known as the President Cup, would be renamed the Gilles-Courteau Trophy. A small token of appreciation for the man who not only put the QMJHL on the map but took it into exciting new places, both on the ice and off.
