Gatineau Olympiques

Gatineau Olympiques
City	Gatineau, Quebec
League	Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Conference	Telus
Division	West
Founded	1969
Home arena	Robert Guertin Centre
Colors	Black, white and silver
General manager	vacant (as of May 10, 2016)
Head coach	vacant (as of May 10, 2016)
Championships	1997 Memorial Cup Champions
Website http://www.olympiquesdegatineau.ca
Franchise history
1969–1970	Hull Hawks
1970–1976	Hull Festivals
1976–2003	Hull Olympiques
2003–present	Gatineau Olympiques

The Gatineau Olympiques are a major junior ice hockey team based in Gatineau, Quebec, that plays in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). The Olympiques play home games at the Robert Guertin Centre. The club, then known as the Hull Festivals, was granted membership in the QMJHL in 1973. The Olympiques have appeared in the Memorial Cup seven times, winning once in 1997. Over eighty former players and coaches have gone on to play or coach in the National Hockey League (NHL), including Martin Biron, Ales Hemsky, Luc Robitaille, Jeremy Roenick, Michael Ryder, Maxime Talbot, José Théodore, Colin White, Claude Giroux, David Krejci, Jack Adams-winning head coaches Alain Vigneault and Pat Burns and 2011 Stanley Cup-winning coach Claude Julien.

History

Before joining the "Q", the team was a member of the Central Junior A Hockey League, known originally as the Hull Castors but later as the Hull Hawks. Originally Hull and the CJHL were eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup, the Major Junior crown, but were relegated to Tier II Junior "A" in 1970. Three seasons before joining the QMJHL in 1973 they became the Hull Festivals, and in 1976, they became the Hull Olympiques; the team name was changed to the Gatineau Olympiques one year after the city of Hull was amalgamated into Gatineau in 2002.

The Olympiques share a junior hockey market with the Ottawa 67's, across the Ottawa River. Pre-season games between the two teams were a regular occurrence from 1975 to 1986. The teams have played interleague regular-season home and home games in the 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2002–03 and 2009–10 seasons since.

The Olympiques have won the President's Cup seven times, most recently in 2007–08. The team has been to four Memorial Cup finals, losing three (1986, 2003 and 2004) and winning the 1997 Memorial Cup, which they also hosted.

On May 31, 2010, it was announced that former Olympiques coach Benoit Groulx, who had left the organization to coach the Rochester Americans would be returning to be the General Manager and Head Coach.

Beginning in the 2011–12 season, the Olympiques returned to their old colours of black, silver and white.

An article in the Ottawa Sun raised questions about the franchises future:

On June 2nd, (2015) the future of the franchise became unclear as the franchise may be forced to relocate after a plan to finance a new $75 million arena was shot down by the Gatineau council 15-3. At the same meeting the council voted to demolish the Robert Guertin Centre in 2018. Private financing will be needed to build a new arena.

Championships

Jean Rougeau Trophy – Regular season champions

• 1985–86 (108 pts), 1987–88 (90 pts), 1996–97 (99 pts), 2003–04 (107 pts)

Division titles – Regular season champions

• 1985–86 (108 pts), 1987–88 (90 pts), 1996–97 (99 pts), 1999–2000 (90 pts), 2001–02 (75 pts), 2003–04 (107 pts)

Season-by-season record

• Hull Hawks (1969–1970)
• Hull Festivals (1970–1976)
• Hull Olympiques (1976–2003)
• Gatineau Olympiques (2003–present)

Regular season

Complete results before 1969 unavailable.

OL = Overtime loss, SL = Shootout loss, Pct = Winning percentage

Season	Games	Won	Lost	Tied	OL	SL	Points	Pct	Goals for	Goals against	Standing
1969–70	40	8	24	8	-	-	24	0.300	149	199	5th, CJAHL
1970–71	48	21	20	7	-	-	49	0.510	255	238	3rd, CJAHL
1971–72	48	16	31	1	-	-	33	0.344	178	269	5th, CJAHL
1972–73	55	7	45	3	-	-	17	0.155	192	338	6th, CJAHL
1973–74	70	14	55	1	-	-	29	0.207	226	405	6th, West
1974–75	72	34	32	6	-	-	74	0.514	386	369	4th, West
1975–76	72	30	35	7	-	-	67	0.465	312	318	4th, West
1976–77	72	26	37	9	-	-	61	0.424	283	333	5th, Lebel
1977–78	72	34	34	4	-	-	72	0.500	357	397	5th, Lebel
1978–79	72	10	55	7	-	-	27	0.188	262	491	5th, Lebel
1979–80	72	25	35	12	-	-	62	0.431	336	378	3rd, Lebel
1980–81	72	23	46	3	-	-	49	0.340	262	353	4th, Lebel
1981–82	64	41	21	2	-	-	84	0.656	343	260	2nd, QMJHL
1982–83	70	30	40	0	-	-	60	0.429	393	406	5th, Lebel
1983–84	70	25	45	0	-	-	50	0.357	301	411	6th, Lebel
1984–85	68	33	34	1	-	-	71	0.493	347	352	2nd, Lebel
1985–86	72	54	18	0	-	-	108	0.750	423	262	1st, Lebel
1986–87	70	26	39	5	-	-	57	0.407	286	323	4th, Lebel
1987–88	70	43	23	4	-	-	90	0.643	380	394	1st, Lebel
1988–89	70	40	25	5	-	-	85	0.607	329	264	3rd, QMJHL
1989–90	70	36	29	5	-	-	77	0.550	306	282	6th, QMJHL
1990–91	70	36	27	7	-	-	79	0.564	263	235	2nd, Lebel
1991–92	70	41	24	5	-	-	87	0.621	331	259	2nd, Lebel
1992–93	70	40	28	2	-	-	82	0.586	296	268	2nd, Lebel
1993–94	72	38	31	3	-	-	79	0.549	310	304	3rd, Lebel
1994–95	72	42	28	2	-	-	86	0.597	340	274	2nd, Lebel
1995–96	70	52	16	2	-	-	106	0.757	347	246	2nd, Lebel
1996–97	70	48	19	3	-	-	99	0.707	346	205	1st, Lebel
1997–98	70	32	37	1	-	-	65	0.464	270	268	6th, Lebel
1998–99	70	23	38	9	-	-	55	0.393	276	298	6th, Lebel
1999–2000	72	42	24	6	0	-	90	0.625	339	256	1st, West
2000–01	72	34	28	7	3	-	78	0.542	288	284	3rd, West
2001–02	72	33	30	3	6	-	75	0.521	230	253	1st, West
2002–03	72	39	27	4	2	-	84	0.583	266	222	2nd, West
2003–04	70	50	13	7	0	-	107	0.764	306	179	1st, Western
2004–05	70	33	28	5	4	-	75	0.536	216	237	3rd, Western
2005–06	70	40	23	-	4	3	87	0.621	261	215	4th, Western
2006–07	70	39	27	-	2	2	82	0.586	303	274	3rd, Telus
2007–08	70	43	19	-	6	2	93	0.664	272	209	3rd, Telus
2008–09	68	38	25	-	2	3	81	0.559	232	232	1st, Western
2009–10	68	30	33	-	1	4	65	0.441	213	217	3rd, Telus West
2010–11	68	43	17	-	3	5	94	0.691	243	193	3rd, Telus West
2011–12	68	26	32	-	5	5	62	0.456	223	274	4th, Telus West
2012–13	68	29	34	-	1	4	63	0.463	220	265	5th, Telus West
2013–14	68	41	23	-	1	3	86	0.632	254	218	4th, Telus West
2014-15	68	31	31	-	0	6	68	0.500	234	242	5th, West
2015-16	68	46	19	-	2	1	95	0.699	250	173	3rd, West

Team records

Team records for a single season
Statistic	Total	Season
Most points	108	1985–86
Most wins	54	1985–86
Most goals for	423	1985–86
Least goals for	213	2009–10
Least goals against	173	2015-16
Most goals against	491	1978–79

Individual player records for a single season
Statistic	Player	Total	Season
Most goals	Guy Rouleau	91	1985–86
Most assists	Luc Robitaille	123	1985–86
Most points	Guy Rouleau and Luc Robitaille	191	1985–86
Most points, rookie	Martin Gélinas	131	1987–88
Most points, defenseman	Jiri Fischer	78	1998–99
Best GAA (goalie)	Gabriel Bouthillette	2.20	2003–04
Goalies = minimum 1500 minutes played

NHL alumni

Lists of National Hockey League alumni. No player from the "Hull Castors" or "Hull Hawks" went on the play in the NHL.

Hull Festivals (1970–1976) source

• Ted Bulley
• Nelson Burton
• Richard David
• André Doré
• Pierre Giroux
• Glen Sharpley
• Brent Tremblay

Hull Olympiques (1976–2003) source

• Jeff Allan
• Joel Baillargeon
• Yves Beaudoin
• Francis Bélanger
• Martin Biron
• Michel Bolduc
• Sébastien Bordeleau
• Martin Brochu
• Paul Brousseau
• Benoît Brunet
• Jim Campbell
• John Chabot
• Stephane Charbonneau
• Sylvain Côté
• Jonathan Delisle
• Matthieu Descoteaux
• André Doré
• Christian Dubé
• Gordie Dwyer
• Karl Dykhuis
• Jiri Fischer
• Steven Fletcher
• Michel Galarneau
• Jean-Marc Gaulin
• Jocelyn Gauvreau
• Martin Gélinas
• Martin Gendron
• Rick Hayward
• Ales Hemsky
• Jean-François Labbé
• Marc LaBelle
• Mario Larocque
• Eric Lavigne
• John LeBlanc
• Shane MacEachern
• Don MacLean
• Paul MacLean
• Craig Martin
• Stéphane Matteau
• Andrew McKim
• Jan Nemecek
• Lee Norwood
• Jason Pominville
• Stéphane Quintal
• André Racicot
• Peter Ratchuk
• Alain Raymond
• Stéphane Richer
• Serge Roberge
• Luc Robitaille
• Jeremy Roenick
• Roberto Romano
• Pavel Rosa
• Jean-Marc Routhier
• Cam Russell
• Michael Ryder
• Philippe Sauvé
• Daniel Shank
• Martin Simard
• Maxime Talbot
• José Théodore
• Pascal Trepanier
• Jean-Guy Trudel
• Sylvain Turgeon
• Alain Vigneault
• Radim Vrbata
• Colin White
• Peter Worrell

Gatineau Olympiques (since 2003) sourcesource

• Claude Giroux
• Jean-Gabriel Pageau
• David Krejci
• Philippe Dupuis
• Doug O'Brien
• Francis Wathier
• Maxime Talbot
• Joel Rechlicz
• Paul Byron
• Mike Hoffman
• Tye McGinn

Retired numbers

Five Olympiques players have had their numbers retired by the team. Former coach Pat Burns has also been honoured.

• # 10 Jean Poulin
• # 15 Luc Robitaille
• # 16 Sam Lang
• # 24 Colin White
• # 25 Maxime Talbot
• # 33 José Théodore
• # 77 Guy Rouleau

References

External links

• Official web site (English version)