I don’t know if you are mis-representing my writing out intentionally or blindly. Not that it matters.

Any “shot” about Louis Leblanc has nothing to do with his decision, right or wrong, to go the USHL> The “shot” is lost on you. It’s a statement of fact: The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League has a problem when it’s very best homespun talent is playing in the USHL and the best player in its league is a Russian. It’s not a great time for Quebec hockey. Nothing to do with any criticism of Louis Leblanc, not to blame him at all. If you had been tracking my column last winter, you’d have noted that, after interviewing him, I did criticize his decision to go Harvard—seriously, how can anyone criticize a kid for doing that. Not me. There are NHL people who might—those who believe any cost is worth paying to advance a player’s hockey skill. But I wouldn’t and they shouldn’t hold it against an academically qualified kid going to an Ivy.

From an earlier column:

I had a conversation with Louis Leblanc, a point-a-game centre with Omaha of the USHL and No. 18 on NHL Central Scouting’s list of North American skaters in its mid-winter rankings. Leblanc is one of the more curious cases in the draft. A Montreal native, he opted to go to the USHL because he’s going to Harvard next year. “I had a couple of chances to go to prep schools in the U.S. this season,” Leblanc told me. “That didn’t work out and staying close to home to play junior AAA wouldn’t have been good … that level in Quebec is not as strong as it is in Ontario, Alberta and B.C. I told the teams in the Q that I wasn’t interested in playing major junior because I was going to college and there weren’t any options that compared with Harvard.” Val d’Or thought he was bluffing and burned a first-round pick on him. You’d think that if the team did its homework — Leblanc is the son of a chemist and a music teacher — Val d’Or (of all teams, the most geographically remote) would have figured it out. Not just the son of college-educated parents, but an honour student who was making visits to the campus. “I want to study economics at Harvard, maybe for only a couple of years if the NHL is an opportunity, maybe for more, three or four years, if it works out that way,” Leblanc said. “Some people think the league that Harvard plays in (the ECAC) isn’t as strong as the conferences out west but I think you’re going to become a hockey player no matter where you’re going to play.” I asked one NHL scout about Leblanc and got a shoulder shrug. “He has some skill but it’s so hard to say given the level of play he’s in there with,” the scout told me. “A bit of a mystery and he might still be after a couple of years at an Ivy League school.” Not that the Q is asking for it but Leblanc’s deux centimes: “The Q should really look at the academic options for players. I think that they’re going to lose more players because they want to play NCAA.”

Re Brassard vs Kessel in Future Greats and Heartbreaks: I’m presuming that you read the reaction to my book and not the book itself. You are not the first to misrepresent me or my book—Kessel and his GM were the first. In fact, as noted in my book, the GM of Columbus would have taken Kessel with their prick if he had been still available. Some in his organization wouldn’t have liked it but that’s how it played out on the team’s list: Kessel ahead of Brassard. As I noted in the text, some in the CBJ organization liked Brassard over Kessel before the interviews. Then GM Doug MacLean didn’t put a whole lot into PK’s bad interview and on the second interview they tried to be as generous as possible. (And if you think the jury has already returned on Kessel vs Brassard, I’d give your head a shake. It’s pretty early to declare that a complete victory and way too early to take a victory lap. See where they are at age 25. If Brassard plays like he did before his season-ending injury in early winter, it will be a coin flip.)

You make it sound like I only criticized college-bound kids—why don’t you do some legwork and favor us with tales from the dysfunctional USDT. How is it that the two top kids on the roster (in this year’s draft class, anyway) were either suspended or benched for discipline or attitude problems? Let me know. Let all of us know.