The Lewiston Maineiacs can’t yet comment per league rules, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League offices have been closed for the holidays for the last couple of days, but when they reopen, it appears one of their first orders of business will be to approve a trade involving Lewiston.

Rumors surfaced early last week that the Maineiacs were in the market for a defenseman to fill a hole left when 18-year-old Zachary Evans-Renaud went down for the year with an injury. Talk across the league, particularly on Internet social networking sites and message boards, got stronger as the week went along, and Thursday night, more specific trade information began to leak out.

Just after 5 p.m. Saturday, the apparent target of the Maineiacs’ eye revealed he has, in fact, been traded to Lewiston.

Jonathan Parisien, a 6-foot-2-inch, 195-pound, 19-year-old defenseman, posted on Facebook on Saturday in broken French that he was “Trader a Lewiston.”

Maineiacs’ GM Roger Shannon said Saturday that, per league rules, teams cannot comment on transactions if they have not yet been approved by the league, and their offices have been closed due to the New Years holiday.

“The league has very specific rules, and as an organization we won’t comment on anything until the league gives us the OK,” Shannon said. “Nothing has been confirmed that we can talk about.”

Shannon has repeatedly said the Maineiacs will not sacrifice anything from the roster for immediate help of any kind, and the rumors associated with the supposed deal bear that out. The specifics are still a mystery, but all reports of the supposed trade include only a draft pick or two on the way to Baie-Comeau in exchange for Parisien.

At 19, Parisien is a veteran of three and a half seasons in the league, all in Baie-Comeau. In his three-plus seasons with the Drakkar, Parisien has seven goals and 25 assists for 32 points, and 236 penalty minutes in 206 games played.

This year, Parisien wore an ‘A’ for the Drakkar, one of just two players to wear a letter (both ‘A’s) in the team’s most recent game, a loss to Quebec.

The Maineiacs this week split a pair of games playing with just five defenseman. They lost Evans-Renaud earlier this season to a season-ending injury, and have been without Dillon Fournier, who is playing for Team Quebec in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Manitoba. Potential call-up Brayden Wood, who like Fournier is 16, is also in that tournament for Team Atlantic.

The league’s trade window officially closes Friday, Jan. 7.