Quentin Miller sometimes pinches himself when he realizes he’s now the starting goaltender for the Quebec Remparts and a candidate for the Montreal Canadiens. Because at one point in his life, nothing suggested that he would have the privileged status that he does in 2023.
The story of the Quebec Remparts goalkeeper is inspiring. Unlike the vast majority of players who one day make it to the NHL, Miller was never among the elite of his sport as a child.
It was removed from the Pee-wee AAA Relief, then Bantam AAA, and then Midget Espoir categories. This latest failure in 2019 got him thinking, which eventually led him to the side of school hockey, to the Preparatory School Hockey League (LHPS) at Collège Notre-Dame de Montréal.
“When I was banned from Bantam AAA, I went to Bantam AA and it wasn’t serious enough for me. I felt like the coaches didn’t care and I needed a place where there was a little more supervision. Here Our Lady came to me. It gave me an option and when I was excluded from Midget Espoir, I decided to give it a try,” he says.
There he found himself in a formation that he laughingly described as “not the best team, but I took a lot of shots.” »
To a movement of further rejection
Despite all the rejections over the years, Miller didn’t lose hope and the following season asked his father if he could try his luck at the Rousseau-Royal de Laval-Montréal precamp of the U18 Hockey League. AAA of Quebec (formerly Midget AAA).
“My father wasn’t sure. It was still expensive, but finally, a few days before camp, he accepted,” recalls Canadian Hope.
He did well there, nothing more, but was invited to the team’s main camp where, against all odds, he managed to secure a spot.
However, under one condition: goalkeeper Olivier Ciarlo must stay at Baie-Comeau Drakkar at the age of 16, otherwise he will return to Rousseau-Royal and thus deprive Miller of his place in the team. Luckily for him, Drakkar decides to keep three goalkeepers, including Ciarlo.
“I realize that I had several fortunate events that meant that if that hadn’t happened, I might not be here today,” he philosophizes.
Goalkeeper Quentin Miller at Laval-Montreal’s Rousseau Royal in the 2020-2021 season. Photo provided by Rousseau Royal de Laval-Montreal
A year without playing
This year, however, Miller was unable to reach its full potential because the COVID-19 pandemic put a brake on all sporting activities.
“We played four-on-four games and practiced in groups of eight on the ice, with masks on,” he remembers.
But internally, Rousseau-Royal sees great things in this goalkeeper who came from nowhere.
“When we started guiding him, we found that he was a young person who was very receptive to teachings and could quickly apply them. His maturity and understanding of the game were evident,” noted Laval Montreal head coach Joey Bucci.
Word spread, and the following summer the Remparts made him a distant 10th-round pick. The team’s then-head scout, Christian Vermette, freely admits that he didn’t think Miller would become an NHL prospect at the time.
“To be honest, we saw him on video and he moved well. He had a slightly fascinating side, but on our side it was more luck than anything else. If you had told me he would be drafted in the NHL when we drafted him, I would never have believed you. All credit goes to him, he worked hard and made good progress,” said the man who now works for the Edmonton Oilers.
Quentin Miller received his 2021 Remparts jersey from recruiter Nicolas Lepore. Photo from Quebec Remparts Twitter account
In addition, the Remparts selected a goaltender, Mathys Fernandez, in the third round of the 2021 draft.
“I remember we were in the tenth round and we were wondering if we would take another goalkeeper since we had already signed Fernandez. I told Pat [Patrick Roy] that he was a year older and could fit into our lineup. We finally decided to sign him and it worked out well because Fernandez took over for Justin Robidas last year and Miller is now the team’s starting goalie.
Patrick Roy with Christian Vermette. DIDIER DEBUS SCISSORS/JOURNAL DE QUEBEC
Not an established starter yet
We can understand Vermette’s doubts at the time, because in the following season, at the age of 17, Miller was not the clear and unambiguous starter for Rousseau-Royal, but shared the starts equally (21 each) with Samuel Carreiras-Pata .
“As the year progressed, we realized we had something good on our hands,” recalls Joey Bucci. You could see he was gaining confidence.”
The head coach therefore decided to name him a starter at the start of the series, and Miller took advantage of this opportunity, playing most of his team’s games en route to participating in the Jimmy Ferrari Cup semi-finals.
The rest is part of the story: the following season, at the age of 18, he received a place with the Remparts as assistant to William Rousseau, with whom he would win the Gilles-Courteau Trophy and the Memorial Cup.
Quentin Miller with the Memorial Cup, June 4, 2023.
Even though he doesn’t play much, he still attracts the attention of NHL teams and the Canadians selected him in the fourth round in June 2023. He then fulfilled a childhood dream by attending NHL camp. Training session with his childhood team and in the face of Cole Caufield’s shots. He then established himself as one of the good goaltenders in the QMJHL this season.
When he thinks back, all Miller can think about is how lucky he was that this sequence of events allowed him to get to where he is now. And a sentence his mother said after he was cut from the Pee-wee AAA team often comes to mind.
“She told me that nothing happens for free. At the time I was sad and disappointed, but now I realize she was right. It forced me to push harder than the others and that’s why I’m here today.”