Le Club de Hockey Canadien and Brasserie Molson announced today that Concordia Stinger centre Karl Gagné was the recipient of a $6,000 Guy Lafleur Award of Excellence scholarship.
The announcement was made at a press conference this afternoon at the Bell Centre. The legendary Guy Lafleur made the presentation to Gagné surrounded by a huge turnout from the Montreal media.
Gagné accepted the award with grace, thanking his family, university, coach Kevin Figsby and his teammates.
The native of St. Nérée, Que. was in independent studies in 2005-'06, focusing on prerequisites to help him apply to Concordia University's prestigious Civil Engineering program. He completed eight courses with a 3.34 grade point average.
As a rookie with the Stingers, Gagné led the team in scoring with 22 goals and 23 assists for 45 points in 30 games. He was a second team conference all-star and was named to the conference all-rookie team. He was also named Concordia's Male Rookie of the Year.
Gagné beat out hockey players from McGill University and Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières. Concordia hockey players have won the prestigious scholarship four of the last five years.
The Guy Lafleur scholarship program was created in 1985 to encourage sports and academic excellence within the major hockey leagues in the province of Quebec. Winners are selected by a jury composed of representatives from the sports media and the hockey and education communities.
