Carbonneau brings football mentality to ice ahead of 2025 NHL Draft

Justin Carbonneau spent as much time on the football field as he did on the ice growing up.

“I used to play football with my brother, so we’re both ex-football players,” said Carbonneau, who had to step away from the game to focus solely on hockey when he started high school. “I think I was pretty good. … I love to play football and those hits and all that. I was linebacker on defense and running back on offense.”

The 18-year-old power forward plays with a football mentality, blending physical play with a high-end skill set that helped him finish second in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League with 89 points and tie for second with 46 goals in 62 games with Blainville-Boisbriand this season.

“I’m a big power forward who likes to hit, to skate,” Carbonneau (6-foot-1, 205 pounds) said. “I have good vision, but I’m mostly a shooter, power forward.”

His shot is something he continually works on, with an emphasis on variety and deception as well as power. He tries to watch Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs and David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins for things to add to his game.

“It’s all about shooting pucks, but with a purpose,” he said. “Like shooting only post-in, shooting in a different direction, different shooting stride, shooting in motion, all that. It’s different tools you work at on the ice, but off the ice too, that helps you have a better season.

“Matthews I think, has one of the best kind of shooting motions, a toe drag and all that. Pastrnak is really good with his poise; [Artemi] Panarin too. It doesn’t take the best shots to kind of snipe it bar-down. Sometimes it’s about your deception and those guys are really good at it.”

Blainville-Boisbriand assistant coach Maxim Noreau has been helping Carbonneau work on fine-tuning that shot.

“My biggest thing to him from the beginning of the season, it was trying to make him understand that he’s been able to rely solely on the shooting part, and not so much on the scoring IQ or the variables that are involved in that, like manipulating the goalie, different timing, maybe a delay on your shot,” Noreau said. “I call it tempo shooting, where goalies get to find your rhythm, and can you throw them off.

“He’s got just such a good release, such a heavy shot even when he’s off balance. For him, it was like just powering through and putting it in the right spot. So we worked a lot on fake and a push and changing the angle, especially on the power play or off the rush, how to maybe change that D’s stick or stuff like that … and then that powerful shot can come through. And with the more reps he’s getting at that in the game, the percentage he’s going to score is going to go way up.”

It’s been a consistent upward climb for Carbonneau, who had 59 points (31 goals, 28 assists) in 68 games in 2023-24.

Carbonneau said one of the big changes he made following that season was on his recovery after games and on off-days. That’s allowed him to feel better on game days and amplify his skill even more.

“He’s been more involved and in a better position to receive the puck,” Blainville-Boisbriand general manager Olivier Picard said. “As soon as he has a puck on his blade, he’s dangerous. … He was competing the year before also to get loose pucks and everything, but now his strength is becoming even better than the other guys. So he wins more battles and everything and that helps.

“He’s smart. He sees plays that others don’t, so that’s really an asset for him offensively. His vision, and he still has a shoot-first mentality. He wants to score goals, but he can make plays also.”