Tuesday was again a day of blockbusters across the QMJHL, but not all of the news involved trading players.

Perhaps the biggest news of the day came out of Halifax, where management headed by former Montreal Canadiens great Bobby Smith, fired head coach Shawn MacKenzie. MacKenzie is a former Maine Mariner, and he was also the Mooseheads’ first assistant coach, serving that time under current Lewiston Maineiacs coach Clem Jodoin.

“Is it true? I wonder why,” questioned Jodoin after being told Tuesday afternoon. “That really surprises me that they would do that now.”

MacKenzie played goal in the Ontario Hockey League with both the Windsor Spitfires and Oshawa Generals. He later played professionally with the New Jersey Devils, and in the American Hockey League with the Maine Mariners from 1983-85 and against in 1986-87 before moving on to pursue a career in coaching.

His coaching experience includes stops with the Belleville Bulls as an assistant and with the Newmarket Royals as head coach before returning to Halifax. MacKenzie has also held assistant general manager duties in the past with the Mooseheads, and was awarded the QMJHL Coach of the Year Award in 2002. MacKenzie is the second coach to get fired this season, and his general manager, Marcel Patenaude, will assume co-coaching duties with the current assistants until a new coach is hired.

In other league news, Mario Scalzo, Jr., one of the league’s best offensive defenseman, is headed to Rimouski for Maxime Desruisseaux, Alexandre Vachon and a second-round pick in the 2006 QMJHL entry draft. That move might trigger others, including those involving current Maineiacs. But, as Jodoin cautioned, current Maineiacs will be expensive for the rest of the league.

“Yes, people are asking, but it’s nice to see what’s going on around the league, to see what people are asking for, and getting, for good players,” said Jodoin. “If you want a big player, you will have to pay a big price.”

But will the Maineiacs even consider a trade at this juncture?

“There’s always room for improvement, but you have to give up,” said Jodoin. “If I wanted to be selfish, I would pack them up and send players out, but then the next few years we’d be struggling, so I’m still thinking that with the pieces that we have we can achieve something. The biggest concern we had in the first half-season is that we were not a healthy team. Now we are almost there, so we will see what this team can do together.”