Photo: Lincoln Stars

Next up in our annual prospect review and forecast series is Joaquim “Jo” Lemay, defenseman for the Lincoln Stars in the United States Hockey League (USHL). (You can access all of our Capitals Prospect Reports and player analysis on our “Prospects” page in the top menu or right here.)

VITALS

Lemay, 19, is a 6’-1” left-handed defenseman from St-Pierre-les-Becquets, Quebec. The Capitals selected Lemay in the fourth round (119th overall) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. He was the only player selected in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft from the BCHL. He remains unsigned by the Capitals.

CAREER SUMMARY

Lemay was a relatively late bloomer who did not follow the conventional path that elite Quebec hockey players typically follow, playing for Estacades de Trois-Rivières in the famous midget AAA league. Instead, Lemay played for St. Joseph’s Seminary in the School Development Hockey League (LHPS) until he was 16 and then moved to the United States to play for Mount St Charles Academy. After that, he moved to the British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) to play with the Salmon Arm Silverbacks.

Lemay’s 2020-21 season with the Silverbacks was a six-week long “Pod” season due to the pandemic. Lemay played in 15 games and recorded 10 points, all assists. The 10 assists ranked second among rookies playing in the league. During the extended training camp last fall, Lemay scored one goal and five assists in 13 games.

Lemay is the first player the Capitals have selected from the BCHL since they drafted defenseman Keith Seabrook in the second round of the 2006 draft, who played with the Burnaby Express. If Lemay ends up playing for the Capitals, he will join fellow notable BCHL alumni Ryan Walter, Joe Murphy and Justin Schultz, among others.

Lemay was named an alternate team captain for the Lincoln Stars to start the 2021-22 season and was named the defensive player of the week on October 13. Lemay began the season on the top pairing but was relegated to the 3LW position by the 6th game of the season, and played a majority of the final games of the season on the right side of the second pairing. Offensively, for the season, he had nine goals and 37 assists in 58 regular season games and added two assists in three postseason games.

2021-2022 MONTH-BY-MONTH RECAP AND TREND ANALYSIS

The following is a compilation of our month-by-month prospect reports for Joaquim Lemay during the 2021-2022 season. You can find all of our monthly prospect reports on our “Prospects” page in the top menu.

OCTOBER
Lemay was named an alternate team captain for the Lincoln Stars to start the season and was named defenseman of the week in the USHL for the week ending 10/10/21. With four points in two games, the Stars defenseman was one of his club’s headliners in two wins over the Sioux Falls Stampede. Lemay, 19, started off with two assists in a 6-1 win, before adding an assist and scoring his first USHL goal in Game 2, the winning goal.

First USHL goal ✅
First USHL game-winning goal ✅ @JoaquimLemay from downtown late in the third! #AllAboard🚂 pic.twitter.com/vedmBFlnN6

— Lincoln Stars (@LincolnStars) October 10, 2021

Lemay began the season on the top pairing but was relegated to the 3LW position by the 6th game of the season. Offensively, Lemay has a goal and seven assists in 11 games played and is a -1.

TRENDING: SAME

NOVEMBER
Lemay scored his second goal of the season on 11/12. He also had an assist in the game. Lemay had two assists on November 26 against Sioux Falls.

.@JoaquimLemay pots his second of the year! #AllAboard🚂 pic.twitter.com/a3JzOss6Qf

— Lincoln Stars (@LincolnStars) November 13, 2021

For the month of November, Lemay had a goal and five assists in five games played. For the season he has two goals and 12 assists in 16 games played and is a +0 on the ice. He’s shot the puck 23 times.

TRENDING: SAME

DECEMBER
During the month of December, Lamay played in four games with the Stars. Lemay missed the Stars game on December 3. He got the game winning goal in a 3-2 victory against the Fargo Force. on December 11. He returned to the lineup after missing three games with an upper body injury.

.@JoaquimLemay wins the game in overtime!#AllAboard🚂#RockTheBox pic.twitter.com/13VXHQZvH5

— Lincoln Stars (@LincolnStars) December 12, 2021

Lemay had assists in each of the other three games in which he played. For the season, he has three goals and 18 assists, ranking second on the team in assists and third on the team in points.

TRENDING: SAME

JANUARY
Lemay continued his point streak into the new year, scoring goals in each of the team’s first two games of the month, with the overtime game winner on January 1 in a 2-1 victory and both a goal and an assist in a 4-3 loss on January 7.

.@JoaquimLemay doing Jo Lemay things.

He’s got a 7⃣-game point streak! #AllAboard🚂 pic.twitter.com/j3KFfzjU2v

— Lincoln Stars (@LincolnStars) January 8, 2022

The goals in those two games extended his point streak to seven games. But the streak ended in his next game – January 8.

For January, he had two goals and four assists in nine games. For the season, he has five goals and 19 assists in 29 games. He has played on both the first and second defensive pairings and serves as an alternate Captain.

TRENDING: UP

FEBRUARY
Joaquim “Jo” Lemay played in 10 games for the Stars during the month of February. During that time, he scored two goals and recorded five assists. He scored the game winning goal in the last second of a 4-3 win against the Omaha Lancers. This marked his fourth game-winning goal of the season. Lemay slipped a shot past Omaha goalie Thomas Heaney with one second remaining to lift the Stars to a win in Ralston in February 20.

WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED!!!@JoaquimLemay with the buzzer-beater in Omaha! #AllAboard🚂 pic.twitter.com/cOLNgxvgJo

— Lincoln Stars (@LincolnStars) February 21, 2022

He scored a goal in a wild 7-6 overtime victory against the Fargo Force on February 24. Overall, for the season, he has seven goals and 24 assists for 39 games. He has played on both the first and second defensive pairing and serves as an alternate Captain.

Offensively, for the season Lemay has seven goals and 25 assists in 39 games played. He will report to Nebraska-Omaha this fall.

TRENDING: SAME

MARCH
Lemay played in 10 games for the Lincoln Stars in the USHL during the month of March. During that time, he scored one goal and had seven assists. He had a goal and two assists in a game on March 18 where the Lincoln Stars beat the Des Moines Buccaneers 5-2.

For the season, he has eight goals and 31 assists for 49 games. He has played on both the first and second defensive pairings for most of the season and served as an alternate Captain.

TRENDING: SAME

APRIL
Lemay played in nine games for the Lincoln Stars in the USHL during the month of April. During that time, he scored one goal and had five assists. He scored his goal in a 7-3 win against the Omaha Lancers on April 9. He had a five-gamepoint streak from April 3 through April 23.

.@JoaquimLemay takes it himself from center ice and snaps a shot home for his ninth goal of the season! #AllAboard🚂 pic.twitter.com/LM0mrdSNqx

— x – Lincoln Stars (@LincolnStars) April 10, 2022

Overall, for the season, Lemay had nine goals and 36 assists in 58games. He has played on both the first and second defensive pairing and serves as an alternate Captain.

Lemay has committed to the University of Nebraska-Omaha in the fall, which is a solid next step in his development.

TRENDING: SAME

PLAYER FORECAST

Lemay has committed to college-hockey powerhouse Nebraska-Omaha for the 2022-23 season. Like several of the Capitals left-handed defensive prospects, Lemay spent significant time on the right side during the 2021-22 season. It will be interesting to see if that continues at Nebraska-Omaha.

By Jon Sorensen

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