QMJHL DRAFT: Moose add some local flavor

Here's a full recap of who the Halifax Mooseheads picked in today's QMJHL draft. The draft was held in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

Halifax didn't have a pick in the first round. That pick was given to Shawinigan. The Mooseheads chose three local boys in the 14 rounds. A total of 28 Nova Scotians were picked today. Hockey in NS is getting good, it's nice to see. 

Here is a list of all 11 draft picks that your Moose made in Sherbrooke: 

#21 Brett Crossley (Shattuck St-Mary's of Prep in Minnesota)

#56 John Marino (South Shore of USPHL in Massachusetts)

#57 Barrett Dachyshyn (Halifax of the AAA in Nova Scotia)

#74 Domenico Argento (Laval-Montreal of the AAA in Quebec)

#79 Morgan Nauss (Halifax of the AAA in Nova Scotia)

#92 Dominik Blain-Dupuis (Gatineau of the AAA in Quebec)

#110 Kevin Martin (Antoine-Girouard of Espoir in Quebec)

#128 Gabriel Vanier (St.Eustache of the AAA in Quebec)

#134 Cedric Levesque (St-Francois of the AAA in Quebec)

#164 Kevin Resop (Boston of USPHL in Massachusetts)

#182 Eddie Banville (Miramichi of the AAA in New Brunswick)

#200 Tristan Tardif (Mauricie of Espoir in Quebec)

#236 Gabriel Morin (Gatineau of the AAA in Quebec)

#254 William Gonthier (College Notre-Dame of the AAA in Quebec)

The Saint John Sea Dogs had the first overall pick this year and selected Nova Scotian defenceman Luke Green. The home Sherbrooke Phoenix traded their pick (2nd overall) to Gatineau for the fourth overall pick and selected the second Nova Scotian of the day; goaltender Evan Fitzpatrick. After Halifax had their first pick, Saint John selected Luke's twin brother Matthew at pick number 22. 

Halifax also made two trades in the last 48 hours which solve our 20 year old situation for the upcoming season. It was confirmed on Friday that Luca Ciampini was traded to Baie-Comeau. The Herd than traded Andrew Ryan to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan for the Titan's 57th and 79th picks in this year's draft. Good luck to both players with their new teams. This leaves Austyn Hardie, Jesse Lussier and Philippe Gadoury as our overagers for the 2014-15 season. 

Congrats to all the new Moosehead players and to all the draftees that were picked by the 18 teams today. 

Here's the full list of drafted players.

Weegar Signs With Florida

The Florida Panthers of the National Hockey League announced today that they have signed Halifax Mooseheads defenceman MacKenzie Weegar to an entry level contract. This is the first professional contract that the Napean, Ontario native has inked his name on.

Weegar after being drafted in 2013
Photo: Florida Panthers instagram

Weegar was drafted by the Panthers in the 7th round of the 2013 NHL draft, 206th overall. He attended the Florida Panthers training camp in September and played one preseason game with the team where he recorded an assist.

In two seasons with the Mooseheads, MacKenzie has played 123 points and has been a big part of Halifax's offense from the back end, recording 103 points. In his rookie year, he had 8 goals and 36 assists plus a league leading plus-55. He had 5 assists in 17 games during the Herd's championship run. This past season he upped his game scoring 12 times and helping on 47 others. Weegar once again had a very high plus/minus at plus-56, second only to teammate Nikolaj Ehlers. He had 5 goals and 22 points in 16 games during the playoffs.

Congrats to MacKenzie on signing his contract. Not only is he patient on the ice, he is off the ice too. Mack was passed in the OHL draft twice and than cleared waivers to arrive at Halifax before the 2012-13 season. Good luck next season, we will miss you in Moose Country. It is unclear where exactly Weegar will be playing in the upcoming season but it will not be with the Mooseheads according to Willy Palov's reply to my question on twitter this afternoon:

One Year Ago

Nathan MacKinnon with the Memorial Cup
Photo: thestar.com

It's hard to believe that one year ago Mooseheads fans in Halifax and across the country were celebrating the city's first national championship at the major junior level.

It was an awesome night and an awesome game. Nathan MacKinnon (3), Konrad Abeltshauser (2) and Martin Frk scored while Zach Fucale made 40 saves in the 6-4 win over the Portland Winterhawks. MacKinnon added 2 assists during the championship game for 5 points which would cement his position as the number one overall pick in the 2013 NHL draft. Jonathan Drouin also had 5 points, all assists, and would be drafted 3rd overall by Tampa Bay Lightning.

Good night.

The Mooseheads had the best season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League last season with a 58-6-3-1 record in the regular season, 16-1 in the playoffs and 3-1 during the Memorial Cup tournament.

REPORT: Luca Going to Baie-Comeau

Photo credit: The Chronicle Herald

According to Willy Palov on Twitter, four year Halifax Mooseheads forward Luca Ciampini has been traded to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar by the Moose.

The trade won't be confirmed until May 30th when the summer trade period opens but should he be traded it leaves Halifax with most likely only one more cut having to be made in the coming months. Ciampini would be one of 6 twenty year olds on the Mooseheads roster going into next season. Teams in the Canadian Hockey League are only allowed to keep 3. The others are Philippe Gadoury, Mackenzie Weegar, Andrew Ryan, Jesse Lussier and Austyn Hardie. With the play that Weegar has been displaying the past few years hr is all but guaranteed to be signed by the NHL team that drafted him in the 7th round of the 2013 draft, the Florida Panthers, this summer and than assigned to their affiliate for the 2014-15 season.

Luca played four seasons with Halifax and has 166 points in 235 regular season games after being drafted second overall in the 2010 QMJHL by the Herd. He scored 59 goals and assisted on 107 others during is career. He had 26 points in 48 playoff games plus 143 total penalty minutes.

Sunday Notes: Ehlers Going to Draft Combine

Photo: NHL.com

Nikolaj Ehlers is spending the next week in Toronto after spending the weekend in London. Ehlers, who was second in team scoring for your Halifax Mooseheads this past season, was invited to the 2014 NHL Draft Combine that is going to be held in Toronto, Ontario from May 26-31. He will be put through physical and medical tests and interviews by the teams. Interviews will be held Monday through Friday with a medical exam taking place on Friday and a series of physical testing done on Saturday. Nikolaj goes into the week as QMJHL and CHL Rookie of the Year and ranked 13th in the NHL.com list of North American draft prospects.

The Dashing Dane was two hours away in London this past weekend for the Canadian Hockey League awards that were held at the Memorial Cup tournament. He was nominated for two awards and took home the BMO Rookie of the Year award after leading all rookie scorers in the country with 49 goals and 105 points.

In other news

• Halifax Mooseheads prospect Maxime Fortier of the Lac St. Louis Lions was named the Quebec Midget AAA Most Valuable Player for this past season
• The Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League won the Memorial Cup championship this evening after beating the OHL champs, the Guelph Storm 6-3 led by Henrik Samuelsson's 5 points (2 goals & 3 assists)
• Val-d'Or Foreurs and former Charlottetown Islanders' goaltender was named the Memorial Cup Top Goalie and to the All-Star team
• It's the offseason! The QMJHL Draft is on Saturday and I will have a complete list of who the Moose pick during the day. I will have news through out the off season as well as training camp news
• According to the team twitter account, the 2014-15 season schedule will be released in the next 14 days. Check back here when it is released to see when your Mooseheads play next season

Nik Wins Again.

What an awesome rookie campaign the #DanishDane is having! Nikolaj Ehlers from your Halifax Mooseheads has added another award to his collection. It may not be the one that every junior player wants to win but it's not a bad award to win either. Ehlers was nominated for two awards at the Canadian Hockey League awards ceremony that is held annually at the Memorial Cup tournament. The Moosehead player won one of them. He was named the BMO Rookie of the Year, an honor that he won a month and a half ago during the QMJHL awards, of the CHL.

Nikolaj was nominated for the Jack Link's Top Prospect of the Year as well but lost to Sam Bennett of the Kingston Frontenacs in the Ontario Hockey League. Halifax goaltender Zach Fucale was also nominated for a CHL award; the Vaughn Hockey Goaltender of the Year. Fucale was named Top Goalie in the QMJHL in early April but was unable to add to his collection as Kelowna Rockets' Jordon Cooke won the award this afternoon.

Eric Veilleux, Anthony Mantha & Nik Ehlers stand with their awards. Photo: QMJHL twitter

See below for the full list of winners:
Jack Links Top Prospect of the Year: Sam Bennett (Kelowna, OHL)
autoTRADER.ca Sportsman of the Year: Sam Reinhart (Kootenay, WHL)
Dodge Canada Top Scorer: Connor Brown (Erie, OHL)
Copper Tire Humanitarian of the Year: Sam Fioretti (Moose Jaw, WHL)
SUBWAY Scholastic Player of the Year: Connor McDavid (Erie, OHL)
Old Dutch Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year: Eric Veilleux (Baie-Comeau, QMJHL)
BMO Rookie of the Year: Nikolaj Ehlers (Halifax, QMJHL)
Vaughn Goaltender of the Year: Jordon Cooke (Kelowna, WHL)
Arctic Spas Defenceman of the Year: Derrick Pouliot (Portland, WHL)
Sportsnet Player of the Year: Anthony Mantha (Val-d'Or, QMJHL)

CHL Releases 2015 Memorial Cup Logo

The logo for the 2015 Memorial Cup tournament that will be held in Quebec City, QC in May of 2015 by the Quebec Remparts. Not much to say, it looks basically like the other ones. See below at the official press release.

CHL Memorial Cup logo 2015
Photo: qmjhl.ca

Toronto, ON - The Canadian Hockey League in association with the host organizing committee for the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup are proud to unveil the official logo for next year’s championship.

The 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup logo features a Rempart.  The Remparts of Quebec City are the only remaining fortified city walls in North America.  The English began fortifying the existing walls, after they took Quebec City from the French in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in 1759.  The wall surrounds most of Old Quebec, which was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 1985. The fortifications were designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1948 and today, the Remparts have four surviving gates which are Porte St. Jean, Porte St. Louis, Porte Prescott and Porte Kent.

"When you talk about Quebec City, the Remparts are a must to describe the old part of Quebec City”, said Claude Rousseau, president of the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup Host Committee.  “The Memorial Cup is named to honour those who have served in Canadian’s Armed Forces and it is therefore fitting that a Rempart be featured in the official logo for the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup in Québec.  This architectural ensemble consists of 4.6 km of remparts encircling the Old City and the Citadelle, a military installation and official residence of both the Monarch of Canada and the Governor General of Canada.  Since 1920, the Cidatelle is also the ceremonial home of the Royal 22nd Regiment, a francophone regiment, which comprises three Regular Forcebattalions, two Primary Reserve battalions and a band, making it the largest regiment in the Canadian Army”, concluded Mr. Rousseau.

Québec was founded by the French explorer Champlain in the early 17th Century.  It is the only North American City to have preserved its remparts, together with the numerous bastions, gates and defensive works which still surround Old Québec. The Upper Town, built on the cliff, is characterised  by monuments like the Citadel and the Château Frontenac. Together with the Lower Town and its ancient districts, it forms an urban ensemble which is one of the best examples of a fortified colonial city.  The CHL and the Québec Remparts are proud to feature a Rempart as a symbol of the 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup logo.

The 2015 logo also features the traditional likeness of the Memorial Cup trophy atop logos for the CHL and MasterCard currently in their 16th straight year as title sponsor of the event, along with a poppy at the centre of the logo symbolizing the event’s longstanding support of Canadian Armed Forces.

The 2015 MasterCard Memorial Cup will mark the 97th edition of the prestigious national championship and takes place May 21-31 at the Colisee Pepsi featuring the host Quebec Remparts along with the champions of the Ontario Hockey League, the Western Hockey League, and the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

For more information please visit www.mastercardmemorialcup.ca.

MacKinnon, Team Canada Top Group at Worlds

The preliminary round at the 2014 IIHF World Championships is complete and now the real games begin. Former Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon and Team Canada lost only one game during the first part of the championship, a 3-2 overtime loss to France in their first game of the tournament, and have been excellent ever since. With their overtime win on Sunday and another win on Tuesday against Norway, Team Canada has won Group A and a berth in the quarterfinals. They will play Finland Thursday afternoon at 2pm/AT. Nathan has 4 points going into the playoff round. Canada has not won a quarterfinal matchup in 4 years (2010-2013).

Good luck to Nathan and the rest of Team Canada against Finland tomorrow.

Gazzola, Foreurs Going to London.

The Val-d'Or Foreurs President's Cup winning group photo
Photo: qmjhl.ca

The four teams that will be playing in the 96th version of the Memorial Cup have been determined now after the Val-d'Or Foreurs and the Baie-Comeau Drakkar played their Game 7 last night.

The Foreurs, who defeated your Halifax Mooseheads in the semi finals, took a 3-0 lead into the third period and it looked like they were going to cruise to their third President's Cup title. However, just like it has been since the first round no lead is safe and the Drakkar came all the way back to tie the game. It took player of the year Anthony Mantha to seal the victory for his team in the last minute.

Former Halifax Moosehead Randy Gazzola played in his first league championship after his current team defeated his former team in 7 games in the semi finals. Gazzola was traded at the deadline in 2013 before the Herd made their incredible run to winning both trophies. Randy scored at the 13:08 mark to make it a 3-0 game.

Despite Mantha recording three points last night and having 38 overall he was unable to win the Guy Lafluer Trophy for Most Valuable Player, that honor went to Toronto Maple Leafs prospect and Val-d'Or goaltender Antoine Bibeau who made 43 stops in 60 minutes of play last night.

This is the second straight season that Baie-Comeau has not been able to win the championship after losing to the Moose last season in 5 games.

Val-d'Or will now travel to London today where they will join the host Knights, the OHL champions Guelph Storm and the WHL champs Edmonton Oil Kings for the Canadian Hockey League championship. The Knights and Foreurs will begin the tournament against each other on Friday.

CHL Announces Award Nominees.

Press release.

Thursday May 8, 2014
Toronto, ON – The Canadian Hockey League today announced the nominees for the 10 major awards that will be presented at the annual CHL Awards Ceremony which takes place on Saturday May 24 as part of the 2014 MasterCard Memorial Cup festivities in London.

Jack Link’s Top Prospect of the Year:
Nikolaj Ehlers (Halifax Mooseheads)
Sam Bennett (Kingston Frontenacs)
Sam Reinhart (Kootenay Ice)

Chrysler Dodge Top Scorer:
Anthony Mantha (Val-d’Or Foreurs)
Connor Brown (Erie Otters)
Mitch Holmberg (Spokane Chiefs)

SUBWAY Scholastic Player of the Year:
Jeremy Gregoire (Baie-Comeau Drakkar)
Connor McDavid (Erie Otters)
Nelson Nogier (Saskatoon Blades)

Cooper Tires Humanitarian of the Year:
Charles-David Beaudoin (Drummondville Voltigeurs)
Scott Simmonds (Belleville Bulls)
Sam Fioretti (Moose Jaw Warriors)

autoTRADER.ca Most Sportsmanlike Player of the Year:
Frederik Gaudreau (Drummondville Voltigeurs)
Connor McDavid (Erie Otters)
Sam Reinhart (Kootenay Ice)

Old Dutch Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year:
Eric Veilleux (Baie-Comeau Drakkar)
D.J Smith (Oshawa Generals)
Dave Lowry (Victoria Royals)

BMO Rookie of the Year:
Nikolaj Ehlers (Halifax Mooseheads)
Travis Konecny (Ottawa 67’s)
Nick Merkley (Kelowna Rockets)

Vaughn Goaltender of the Year:
Zachary Fucale (Halifax Mooseheads)
Alex Nedeljkovic (Plymouth Whalers)
Jordon Cooke (Kelowna Rockets)

Arctic Spas Defenceman of the Year:
Guillaume Gelinas (Val-d’Or Foreurs)
Aaron Ekblad (Barrie Colts)
Derrick Pouliot (Portland Winterhawks)

Sportsnet Player of the Year:
Anthony Mantha (Val-d’Or Foreurs)
Connor Brown (Erie Otters)
Sam Reinhart (Kootenay Ice)



Congratulations to Nikolaj and Zach on being nominated. Check back here on the 24th to see how our boys did as I will post a full list of the winners after they are announced.

Poll #5: Question

Here's a new poll for you guys to answer. As we all know the season is over and we have said goodbye to three Halifax Mooseheads players Darcy Ashley, Brent Andrews and Brendan Duke. Now the question on everybody mind is: Who will we see be the 3 20 year olds in 2014-15? Check out the options and pick who you think Coach Ducharme will choose over on the side.

Who will be the Mooseheads 3 overagers for the 2014-15 season?
A. Andrew Ryan
B. Jesse Lussier
C. Philippe Gadoury
D. Luca Ciampini
E. MacKenzie Weegar
F. Austyn Hardie
G. Kevin Darveau

You have until before training camp starts to vote. 

MacKinnon going to Belarus

Congratulations to Nathan MacKinnon. The former Halifax Mooseheads player has been named to the Team Canada roster for the 2014 IIHF Men's World Championships that are being held in Belarus. It's a tournament that is held every May between 16 different countries hockey teams.

This roster doesn't always have the best players from each country but it depends on the year. For countries like Canada, it features players of National Hockey League teams that did either not make the playoffs or those that were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The Colorado Avalanche player was in such a predicament but MacKinnon can now say his season is extended for a few more weeks.

Nathan is the only former Moosehead on the roster but he isn't the only former QMJHL player on the team; Jonathan Huberdeau and Alexandre Burrows were also in the Q. Brayden Schenn and Matt Read of the Philadelphia Flyers were also added to the roster today. For the full roster as of today click here. There will be more players added as teams are eliminated and the tournament gets underway.