This is sad. I found out about it on Sunday night when I called my parents at home (St. Jerome, Que.). My dad is a big QMJHL and Midget AAA follower and he watch the midget draft really carefully. The previous week, Fernandez mentionned to coach Anderson that he told all the Major Junior team he was going to Merrimack. That was partly true. True for all the teams but one: Les Titans de Laval (fomerly Les Voisins--Mario Lemieux's old Junior place). The Titans apparently asked Fernandez if he would go to the camp if he was drafted in the first round. Emmanuel must have said yes. And the Titans did it. It was not the first time that Laval stole a super star player to American Colleges. In 1989, Laval drafted in the first round Martin Lapointe, a 16 years old superstar who had previously commited to Clarkson. The cicumstances look the same. Very close sources allow me to say that The Laval owners, 7 rich guys (4 of them are brothers) bought Lapointe a brand new car for his decision to stay in his province rather than leave to the states. There are probably other unknown financial backups that Lapointe got offered. Is it going to be the same for the former Warrior who could have follow the paths of Jimmy Hrivnak (multi All-american for Merrimack, now for the Capitals) ? Probably. For Lapointe, it turned out to be a pretty good decision. He is going to get drafted in the first round in a few weeks, probably not very far from #88. Let us see if Emmanuel also chose right. ************************************************************************ Guy Ragault Merrimack '93 Warriors #23 ************************************************************************