Saint John forward Oliver key cog for Volts' attack

Article content

For the better part of three years, Saint John’s Sam Oliver knew the kind of potential that existed with his Drummondville Voltigeurs.

Cruising through the opening stages of the current QMJHL playoffs with a perfect 7-0 record in their first seven games, Oliver felt optimistic about the club’s development plans from the moment he arrived in town after a January 2021 deal with the Charlottetown Islanders that benefited both teams.

As part of a seven-piece deal, the Voltigeurs sent goaltender Francesco Lapenna to the Islanders in time to anchor a championship run that season while Oliver, a veteran of the Rothesay Netherwood Riverhawks program, represented the important cog for the future in Drummondville as an emerging second round, No. 27 overall pick from the 2020 draft.

“I enjoyed my time there in Charlottetown and at Christmas of my 17-year-old year, I was traded,” Oliver said. “This was a young, rebuilding team. When I came here, we kind of knew we had a pretty solid future. I’m really happy to be here.”

Since then, the Voltigeurs had progressed to the top of the QMJHL standings, finishing second overall this year and through a series of deals and acquisitions, are primed for a title shot. Oliver is more than playing an important role.

This season, he racked up career bests in terms of goals (35), assists (36) and points (71) and has proven particularly effective for most of the final four months of the season with 57 points, a slate in which the Volts went 36-6-2.

“Since Day 1 of training camp, we were all pretty dialed in,” said Oliver, a five-foot-11 forward. “We had the same message going on all year. We were going to work every day since the very start of the year. It’s just a big process and it’s good to see it paying off.”

He picked up five points in an opening-round sweep of the Saint John Sea Dogs and added a goal and an assist in a 7-1, Game 3 victory to take a 3-0 series lead over Sherbrooke in the second round.

“I think I am really versatile, and I play all parts of the game,” he said. “I just bring pucks to the net offensively and just create some offence.”

Now an older presence in the league at 19 years old (he turns 20 in July), he has 173 points in 238 career regular season games and another 14 points in 27 playoff contests.

He nearly doubled his points total from a year ago and his plus-minus went to plus 36 this season from -12 in 2022-23.

“Time flies by and it feels like you were 16 years old in this league just yesterday,” Oliver said. “It’s great to be an older guy now and show the way for some of the younger guys and have a big role in the team.”

Drummondville has undergone a major push to assemble a veteran lineup, one that includes 19-year-old forward Noah Reinhart, acquired in a deal with the Sea Dogs this past January.

There were a lot of moving parts but the team’s record shows the transition was reasonably seamless.

“All the guys we picked up are awesome guys and they all fit in since the first day they were here,” Oliver said.

It has led to the team’s best post-season success since the squad advanced to the semifinal round of the 2019 playoffs before falling to the Halifax Mooseheads.

If successful in defeating Sherbrooke, they will have home ice advantage against whoever their matchup is in the league’s semifinal round.

As a fan of the Sea Dogs growing up, Oliver cheered the team as it won the 2017 President’s Cup championship with Thomas Chabot and Mathieu Jospeh leading the way. He said the opening round victory provided special memories coming home with such a strong club.

“It is always pretty cool to play in Saint John,” he said. “Since we are in Quebec, we are not there that much so it was pretty awesome to have playoff games in Saint John. I really enjoyed it.”