QMJHL Stock Watch: Maddox Dagenais' improving work rate is bolstering his draft value

Another month in the QMJHL has seen some drastic changes in a handful of players’ outlooks.

Caleb Desnoyers is back from injury, which means the Moncton Wildcats are instantly back to powerhouse contention. Sharks prospect Teddy Mutryn is seeing the scoresheet dividends of that, while playing a dominant wall game. Desnoyers’ return has also put another Wildcat, Tommy Bleyl, in a great spot to make his skills shine ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft. 

Meanwhile, the Chicoutimi Saguenéens continue to dominate the scoresheet, in major part thanks to Maxim Massé’s ever-improving goal-scoring arsenal and play-driving skills.

We’ll start off, however, with a draft-eligible centre who came into the QMJHL with immeasurable hype, and is starting to find his footing and identity at the perfect time after a rough 2024-25 season in Québec.

Stock Rising 📈

Maddox Dagenais, C/LW, Québec Remparts (2026 NHL Draft)

The questions with Maddox Dagenais have been centered around ability, but more on energy and desire. When he really brings it, he looks like a future NHL power forward with his skill, net-driving style, and penchant for reverse hits. But too often, he fell into the background as he waited for play to come to him. 

That’s changing. In the last six weeks, the QMJHL’s first overall pick in 2024 has emerged as a top contributor in the league. Over that stretch, he’s top-10 in both goals and shots on goal per game. He’s bringing a fiery forecheck to the mix, engaging defensively, showcasing plenty of puck protection skills, and even some playmaking ability. 

All that came together at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge, where Dagenais was one of the most impressive players across both games. While his details have to improve, the effort has – and that’s usually the biggest part of the equation. If he keeps this up, he could enter first-round discussions. 

Maxim Massé, RW, Chicoutimi Saguenéens (Anaheim Ducks)

Maxim Massé can’t stop scoring. The Anaheim Ducks’ 66th-overall pick in 2024 has been ticking at a league-leading rate since November 1st, with 29 points in only 15 games, including 16 goals. The ways in which he has been scoring have seen a shift, leading to the increased production: he’s now attacking off the wall with more purpose and power, finding increasingly effective ways to beat defenders to the middle and create shooting lanes.

These shifts in scoring approach towards more NHL-translatable tendencies usually occur when a prospect is given purposeful development instructions paired with ample time at lower levels to practice these skills. Prospects like Massé, who don’t quite have the escape skills to get off the wall but still have the physical tools to make it work, tend to settle for battling along the wall and passing from that position early on in their career. The details usually come later.

Speaking of details, Massé’s transition impact is also improving. The trademark defensive effort and intelligence that gets him possession in his zone is now translating to line carries and nuanced zone entries, as he has grown in his on-puck comfort. He carries pucks using passing threats to back defenders off, before angling his routes on entries, deceiving some more, and creating a shooting lane. With this step forward in his translatability, Massé is all but ensuring that he’ll get to the NHL and succeed. 

Teddy Mutryn, C, Moncton Wildcats (San Jose Sharks)

After a decent but unexciting season with the Chicago Steel in 2024-25, Teddy Mutryn earned a surprising move to the Moncton Wildcats, who saw the vast majority of their lineup age out. It was clear from day one in the QMJHL that Mutryn would be able to dominate through his finishing and crushing abilities, but recently, he has hit a new level.

Since November 1st, only Massé has scored at a higher rate in the QMJHL than Mutryn, who added 12 goals and 25 points in 17 games to his tally in that span. Slotting in as Moncton’s second-line centre in most games, the San Jose Sharks’ 95th-overall pick in 2025 hops on the ice in every situation for his new home in the Maritimes, playing on the top power play and the top penalty kill — and doing so wonderfully.

Caleb Desnoyers’ return to the Wildcats’ lineup has made Mutryn’s offensive role even clearer: crash the net, tie someone up, blind the goalie, crash and bang at the rebound. He plays a highly engaged physical game, wins pucks back, and has some mid-range scoring upside to boot. As of late, he has looked the part of a premium bottom-six NHLer, with only a few play-driving details to add in order to become a more versatile offence generator.

Tommy Bleyl, RD, Moncton Wildcats (2026 NHL Draft)

Since the start of last month, no skater in the QMJHL has been on the ice for more goals for than Tommy Bleyl. The Wildcats’ recent US import has earned 23 points in 17 games, good for 5th in the ‘Q and first among defencemen since November 1st, while averaging almost three on-ice goals for per game with a staggering 48. In short, the dynamic defenceman is on an offensive tear — mainly a result of having the best stride on the ice at any given moment.

“He's a very dynamic skater in how he moves, with lots of frequency, mixing crossovers with heel pushes, and instant acceleration out of turns and cutbacks. He has a lot of rushing fundamentals, attacking opponents at angles, pressing the middle, and changing pace”, wrote EP Head of Scouting Mitch Brown in a recent game report.

To complement the skating and rushing skills, Bleyl’s handling is high-end — he pops pucks in and out of his hip pocket comfortably, baiting poke checks by placing the puck in front of him before pulling it out of reach.

There’s a lot Bleyl still has to learn to become an effective puck-moving defenceman in the NHL; his retrieval game could use more consistency, and his approach to breakouts lends itself easily to skating most pucks out himself — a tendency that doesn’t replicate quite right to the NHL. However, his defensive tools, mobility and skill could be repackaged into a high-upside game, especially with how much more confident he has gotten over the past month and a half.

Honourable Mentions: Romain L’Italien (2026 NHL Draft), Lars Steiner (2026 NHL Draft), Alex Huang (Nashville Predators)

Stock Steady ↔️

Caleb Desnoyers, C, Moncton Wildcats (Utah Mammoth)

After returning to the lineup, it took a few weekends for Caleb Desnoyers to really find his footing. He had just four points in his first seven games. A month later, Desnoyers is rapidly climbing the scoring race with 21 points in his last 10 games and now sitting within striking distance of the league’s point per game race. 

While this recent stretch of production is expected from the 2025 NHL Draft’s fourth overall pick, it really seems like he’s just getting started. The timing and pace still haven’t quite reached the heights of last year’s playoff run, and he’s not racking up scoring chances at the quite the same rate. The fact that he’s leading the charge for Moncton and racking up points while still building back up is a scary proposition for the league. 

With 12 points in his last four games, Desnoyers heads to Team Canada’s training camp for the World Juniors as one its hottest players. 

Stock Falling 📉

Carlos Händel, RD Halifax Mooseheads (Montréal Canadiens)

Carlos Händel put his name on the map at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup in August 2024, quickly becoming Germany’s best player by a decent margin. He has since joined the Halifax Mooseheads for the rest of his draft year, and showed concerning issues with his ability to handle pressure on retrievals and breakout attempts. The Montreal Canadiens still took a shot on him in the sixth round in 2025, hoping that he’d improve on his panic threshold and learn to match his urgency with the harder forechecks at the top of QMJHL lineups.

So far, Händel hasn’t progressed in that regard. The 6-foot-2, 176-pound right-shot defenceman remains a great stick-on-puck rush defender and offensive activator, turning blue-line stops into quick numbers advantages by rushing in as a trailer, but when his back is to the play, he remains easy to trap, pin, and dispossess.

There’s a path forward for Händel: improving his contact skills. He has the defensive range through his skating and reach to circumvent that problem right now, but cutting off carriers’ routes to the puck, engaging through their hands, sealing the wall after his stick interventions, and more would help him layer more and more physicality into his stopgap game. From there, once the contact avoidance is resolved, Händel has shown enough flashes of sense to apply them to his retrieval game. There’s still hope that he improves in this area, and if he does, there’s a clear path to a bottom-pair, possession-driving NHL role for him down the line.