Upon relocation to Bathurst, Nova Scotia from Laval, Quebec in 1998, the QMJHL franchise known as the Acadie-Bathurst Titan had some gigantic skates to fill. In its previous home, the team had developed the likes of Mario Lemieux, Vincent Damphousse, and Mike Bossy, won four President’s Cups, and made it to one Memorial Cup final. They were entering a very small market (going off of the exact figures from the 1996 Canadian census, the population of Bathurst was around 13,815 at the time, as the population level had been in a decline for about two and a half decades) with a gigantic legacy to fill. As it turned out, the team. carved out a pretty good legacy of its own in its new incarnation.

An intriguing component of the story of their inaugural season is that the first game in Acadie-Bathurst history took place at home against the Chicoutimi Saguenéens on September 24th, 1998, with the Titan skating to a 6-4 victory. Denis Boily was the offensive star of the day for AB, with 2 goals and 1 assist to his name. François Beauchemin (who would win a Stanley Cup during his later NHL career with Anaheim in 2007) had a solid day of his own, with two assists. However, the biggest star of the day was Ramzi Abid of Chicoutimi, who tallied a hat trick. Abid would later figure into the story of Acadie-Bathurst’s inaugural season wearing their jersey, as he and teammates Mathieu Benoît and Marc Bouchard would be acquired by the Titan by trade. The team additionally acquired goaltender/future Hockey Hall of Famer Roberto Luongo from the Val-d’or Foreurs and went on a run, finishing third in the Dilio Division (the Q at the time was split into the Dilio and Lebel Divisions, comprised of 8 and 7 teams, respectively) with 87 points.

The Titan subsequently defeated the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles in 5 games to kick off their playoff run, then upset the second-seeded Halifax Mooseheads and first-seeded Quebec Remparts in five games and six games, respectively. Against the Hull Olympiques, a surprise team of their own who finished sixth in the Lebel Division and had to beat all three of the top seeds to get to the finals, the series went the full seven games and included three total overtime periods. At the end of it all, though, the Titan stood tall, with Benoît having done a yeoman’s work along the way as the postseason’s leading scorer (41 points by way of 20 goals and 21 assists). The series winning goal was scored by Bouchard, with assists from Abid and Benoît, demonstrating the value that trading with Chicoutimi had for the team. In their very first season, the Titan were QMJHL champions. It was such an incredible narrative that them losing all three Memorial Cup round robin games felt inconsequential.

In that year’s draft, the Titan made some history by taking goaltender Charline Labonté at 174th overall in the 11th round. She was, per Andrew Podnieks, the first woman to ever be drafted by a QMJHL team. Over the 1999–00 and 2000–01 seasons, she would play a combined 28 games, making her one of a very small number of female players in the history of major junior hockey. The 2000–01 season saw the Titan return to the finals, but they would fall to Val-d’or.

The Titan’s 2001–02 campaign began with a slam dunk draft performance which included them drafting one franchise great in the form of D Bruno Gervais at 16th overall, as well as C Patrice Bergeron (yes, that one) at 80th overall. Bergeron was used sparingly in his first QMJHL season/NHL D-1, only appearing in four games and playing most of the year in AAA with Séminaire St-François Blizzard. Gervais, however, became a fixture immediately and helped the team to a second-straight President’s Cup finals run. The team would fall again, however, this time to the Victoriaville Tigres.

The following season, Bergeron was a main staple and recorded 73 points in 70 regular season games and 15 points in 11 postseason appearances while also impressing with his all-around game. He would be selected 45th overall in round two of the legendary 2003 NHL Entry Draft by the Boston Bruins (with whom he’d spend his entire pro career) and become one of the class’ most enduring players, with him being a member of the 1,000 games and 1,000 points clubs, scoring a Stanley Cup winning goal, becoming a Triple Gold Club member, and winning the Frank J. Selke Trophy a record six times. In the 2003 postseason, Acadie-Bathurst swept Chicoutimi in the opening round before being defeated by Halifax in seven games in the conference semifinals.

Over the following two seasons after Bergeron’s departure (he never returned to the Q, as he became a full-time NHLer in his D+1 and spent his D+2 with Providence in the AHL as the 2004–05 season was entirely eliminated by a lockout), the Titan missed the playoffs both times. They would return in 2006 led by two 100 point scorers in Mathieu Roy and Olivier Labelle (with RW Thomas Beauregard adding a respectable 88 points) and make it to Game 7 of the conference finals, but would ultimately lose to Quebec. Beauregard would return as the offensive leader next year with 124 points, aided by Mathieu Perreault with 119. The team would be a second round exit, however, at the hands of Cape Breton. They would be a second round exit again, to the Saint John Sea Dogs, in 2008, and begin a lull period wherein they were a first round exit every season until 2015, when they failed to make the playoffs. All the meanwhile, the team’s future in northern New Brunswick had been the subject of uncertainty for quite some time. Investors including Flyers center/current captain Sean Couturier saved them from bankruptcy in 2013.

The 2017–18 squad were led offensively by C Antoine Morand, D Noah Dobson (who would be taken 12th overall by the New York Islanders in that year’s NHL Entry Draft, accounting for the team’s only ever first round draft pick produced during their time in Bathurst), and winger Jeffrey Viel. They additionally received solid goaltending from Evan Fitzpatrick. Ultimately, they finished the regular season with 96 points to finish first in the Maritimes Division. They faced a familiar opponent in the form of Chicoutimi in round one, defeating them in six games. They subsequently swept the quarterfinals against the Sherbrooke Phoenix, though it was not without drama as Game 4 had to be settled in overtime. LW Liam Murphy rose to the occasion, putting the game and series away 5:12 into the extra stanza. The last stop before the President’s Cup final was also a sweep against the Victoriaville Tigres, with some tension along the way as both Games 3 and 4 were decided by 1 goal. The final situated them against Jean-Rougeau Trophy winners (as regular season champions) the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, who had a terrific offense spearheaded by Alex Barré-Boulet, who led the Q in points that season with 116. Despite the challenge, the Titan ultimately prevailed in six games, with Samuel L’Italien scoring what stood as the championship winning goal in Game 6. Fitzpatrick was terrific, stopping 29 of 30 and earning the game’s first star. Viel was awarded the Guy Lafleur Trophy as playoff MVP, with 23 points on the run.

This time, the Titan were not to be denied in the Memorial Cup. The President’s Cup champions kicked off the round robin by defeating WHL champions the Swift Current Broncos 4-3 in overtime, with Murphy being the OT hero yet again as he put one past goalie Stuart Skinner at 2:58 of the extra frame. They then defeated tournament hosts the Regina Pats in the second round robin match by a score of 8-6. This was a great showcase for Dobson, as he scored the GTG 4:31 into the match after Acadie-Bathurst had conceded just 13 seconds in to Cameron Hebig, then scored the last second empty-netter. A comeback effort against Robert Thomas (who would win the Stanley Cup with St. Louis the following season) and OHL champs the Hamilton Bulldogs fell short, as the Titan lost 3-2, but they nevertheless topped the round robin standings to earn an auto-berth into the championship final. They would face the Pats again after Regina defeated Hamilton 4-2 in the semifinal and would test goaltender Max Paddock often, pummeling him 43 shots and scoring twice, while Fitzpatrick made 28 saves in a shutout (the first shutout in the Memorial Cup final since the “Team of the Century” London Knights defeated Sidney Crosby’s Rimouski Océanic 4-0 in 2005). Ethan Crossman added an empty net goal with 30 seconds to bring the final score to 3-0, giving the franchise its first ever Memorial Cup championship. Head coach Mario Pouliot said after the victory: “Being the smallest market in the entire CHL, it’s a huge accomplishment for us. Four years ago, we started from the bottom and we ended up tonight with the Memorial Cup. I’m so proud of our players, really happy for our owners who believed in the QMJHL product and we are really happy to bring the Memorial Cup home to our fans.” It really was an incredible, unlikely ascendancy. These are the sorts of stories seemingly only told in film, come to life.

The story of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan came to a close last night as, appropriately, Chicoutimi defeated them 5-1 to close out these teams’ (whose fates seemed forever intertwined) first round playoff series. Despite the grand efforts to keep them in Bathurst, the hockey club will, indeed, relocate to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador next season, where they will play as the Newfoundland Regiment. However, if their story in Bathurst after their move from Laval serves as any sort of precedent, one has to wonder if another incredible narrative and legacy is waiting to be carved out.