The St. Louis Blues are keeping a close eye on St. John’s native Evan Fitzpatrick, who is starring for the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League playoffs.
The Titan and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada were tied 2-2 in the President’s Cup QMJHL final entering Game 5 Friday night.
Fitzpatrick, the Blues’ second-round pick (59th overall) in the 2016 draft, is a big reason why the Titan are making a run for the QMJHL championship and a berth in the Memorial Cup.
Starting all 18 postseason games, Fitzpatrick is 14-4 with a 2.11 goals-against average and .924 save percentage.
Fitzpatrick, who now lives in Lower Sackville, N.S., started the season with the Sherbrooke Phoenix, but was dealt to Bathurst, which was gearing up for a playoff run, in the new year.
“The change of scenery certainly helped him,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper. “I think also just relying on his instincts again and just enjoying the game after the trade really helped. He was a high prospect when we drafted him and pretty well fell on some hard times there for a little bit and started to doubt himself.”
After being drafted, Fitzpatrick went 16-31 with a 3.46 goals-against for Sherbrooke in 2016-17. Prior to the January trade this season, he was 9-13 with a 3.48 goals-against.
“He got to an (Acadie-Bathurst) organization that believed in him, and he’s rewarding them for that trade,” Armstrong told the paper. “He looks like the goaltender that was on Canada’s radar screen at different times for the U18 team and the World Juniors and things like that. The last couple of months have shown that he’s returned certainly to that prospect status.”
At the moment, Fitzpatrick ranks as the fifth goalie in the Blues’ system, behind Jake Allen, Carter Hutton, Ville Husso and Jordan Binnington. But Hutton is an unrestricted free agent, so it’s uncertain if he’ll return for 2018-19.
“It (Fitzpatrick’s play in the post season) really has opened our eyes to the player that we drafted. We’re excited now that he’s found some solid footing,” said Armstrong.
“Now, when he gets to the pro level he has something to refer back to that’s positive. I’m a big believer in, you know, when you want to right the ship you have to look to where you’ve had positive experience. And quite honestly, his junior experiences weren’t as positive as he had hoped and we had hoped until the last couple of months.”
