Moose to be Apart of Banner Raising

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced the 2017-18 regular season schedule this afternoon.

For the fourth straight year, your Halifax Mooseheads will be the visiting team when they begin their season on September 21 at 7pm. They'll hit the road to Saint John to see the Sea Dogs raise the President Cup banner. I can't imagine that we'll see a big change in the lineup in the upcoming season.

Some highlights from the schedule:

• Moose Country will welcome the boys back when the team has their home opener on September 30. It be the second game of a home and home series between Halifax and the Acadie-Bathurst Titan with puck dropping at 7pm.
• The first Quebec province road trip will be October 20-22 when they travel to Blainville, Sherbrooke and Victoriaville.
• Halifax and Cape Breton will battle each other for the second annual Hurley Cup when they play on December 30 at the Mooseheads home while the Screaming Eagles host on December 31. Both game are at 2pm currently.
• The Mooseheads will have it's longest home stand of 5 games November 9-21 while the longest road trip is also five matches around the end of the season; March 3-11.
• That road trip will be followed by 3 games at home with the regular season ending March 17. We may see another St. Patrick's Day themed game when Halifax hosts the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

Halifax have yet to announce their pre-season schedule or the dates of the annual events. The Moose said that they would announce the specialty games later in the summer.

Where are the Mooseheads drafting?

Photo - QMJHL website

In a few days the Halifax Mooseheads brass will converge on Saint John, NB and select the next set of prospects. After finishing 15th in the league standings this season, the Herd had a chance to win the first overall pick for a second straight year but that position went to the Rimouski Oceanic so Halifax ended with the 4th overall selection.

Through trades, the Herd only have one draft pick that isn't originally theirs and will not draft in the 5th, 8th and 9th rounds unless more transactions happen on draft day. This means that Cam Russell currently will be called upon 12 times to say which players are being chosen by the team.

Here is where the Moose will be drafting as of today:
Round 1 - 4th overall
Round 2 - 23rd overall
Round 3 - 41st overall
Round 4 - 59th overall
Round 6 - 95th overall
Round 7 - 113th overall
Round 7 - 127th overall (Saint John)
Round 10 - 167th overall
Round 11 - 185th overall
Round 12 - 203rd overall
Round 13 - 221st overall
Round 14 - 239th overall

Check back on June 3 for a full recap of the Herd's draft. Follow @HFXMooseheads on Twitter during the draft for live coverage.

Hischier Wins at CHL Awards

Photo by Aaron Bell/CHL Images

Nico Hischier, of your Halifax Mooseheads, was named the CCM Rookie of the Year at the annual Canadian Hockey League awards ceremony this afternoon.

Each year during the Memorial Cup, the CHL presents the winners of the league's trophies. I'm sure no one in Moose Country is surprised by the announcement that Hischier was given the trophy for being the best first year player in the nation this season.

From the press release:

2017 NHL Draft prospect Nico Hischier of the Halifax Mooseheads led all rookies in scoring with 86 points in 57 games including 38 goals and 48 assists.  The 18-year-old from Naters, Switzerland, was chosen sixth overall in the 2016 CHL Import Draft and is listed second in NHL Central Scouting’s final draft rankings.  He becomes the second Moosehead to win the award following current Winnipeg Jet Nikolaj Ehlers in 2014, and will challenge for the NHL’s top pick in June where he would follow 2013 first overall pick and Moosehead grad Nathan MacKinnon who currently stars with the Colorado Avalanche.  Finalists for the award were Aleksi Heponiemi of the Swift Current Broncos and Ryan Merkley of the Guelph Storm.

Nico is the second Moosehead to win the award, joining Nikolaj Ehlers who won in 2013-14.

Below is the full list of winners at the CHL Awards:
Sherwin-Williams Top Prospect - Nolan Patrick, Brandon Wheat Kings
Chrysler Top Scorer - Sam Steel, Regina Pats
BRP Sportsman of the Year - Nick Suzuki, Owen Sound Attack
MasterCard Humanitarian of the Year - Tyler Wong, Lethbridge Hurricanes
CIBC Scholastic Player of the Year - Sasha Chmelevski, Ottawa 67's
Sofina Brian Kilrea Coach of the Year - Ryan McGill, Owen Sound Attack
CCM Rookie of the Year - Nico Hischier, Halifax Mooseheads
Vaughn Goaltender of the Year - Michael McNiven, Owen Sound Attack
Superstore Defenceman of the Year - Thomas Chabot, Saint John Sea Dogs
Sportsnet Player of the Year - Alex DeBrincat, Erie Otters

Nico Hischier was also nominated for the CHL Top Prospect of the Year award as well.

Alumni Update: Frk/Meier To Battle in AHL Playoffs

Timo Meier vs. Martin Frk. Two former Halifax Mooseheads players find themselves going head-to-head for a chance to be in the Calder Cup. Meier and the San Jose Barracuda will battle Frk and the Grand Rapids Griffins for the AHL Western Conference playoff championship. The winner of the 7 game series will continue onto the Calder Cup finals and go against the winner of the Eastern Conference championship to be named AHL champion. Both men have been big parts of their teams success this season. The series begins tonight in San Jose.

The two are the only pro alumni currently still playing in the playoffs. Marty and Timo had strong campaigns this year and so did a number of other past Mooseheads. Check out below how former Herd in the professional leagues did during 2016-17.

There are currently 5 alumni currently playing full time in the NHL while a number have stayed in the AHL or ECHL all season.

Name	Team		GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Jonathan Drouin	Tampa Bay Lightning	NHL	73	21	32	53	16
Nikolaj Ehlers	Winnipeg Jets	NHL	82	25	39	64	38
Nathan MacKinnon	Colorado Avalanche	NHL	82	16	37	53	16
Brad Marchand	Boston Bruins	NHL	80	39	46	85	81
Jackub Voracek	Philadelphia Flyers	NHL	82	20	41	61	56
Timo Meier	San Jose Sharks	NHL	34	3	3	6	10
	San Jose Barracuda	AHL	33	14	9	23	40
Andrew Bodnarchuk	Texas Stars	AHL	69	5	21	26	69
Stefan Fornier	Tuscon Roadrunners	AHL	29	2	2	4	95
	Syracuse Crunch	AHL	3	0	0	0	2
	Kalamazoo Wings	ECHL	2	1	0	1	0
Martin Frk	Carolina Hurricanes	NHL	2	0	0	0	0
	Grand Rapids Griffins	AHL	65	27	23	50	58
Alexandre Grenier	Vancouver Canucks	NHL	3	0	0	0	0
	Utica Comets	AHL	59	17	28	45	52
Stephen MacAulay	Springfield Thunderbirds	AHL	39	2	4	6	6
	Florida Everblades	ECHL	23	10	9	19	14
Mackenzie Weegar	Florida Panthers	NHL	3	0	0	0	4
	Springfield Thunderbirds	AHL	60	14	22	36	70
Gabriel Desjardins	Fort Wayne Komets	ECHL	64	20	26	46	38
Gerrad Grant	Wichita Thunder	ECHL	67	6	14	20	40
Daniel Moynihan	Alaska Aces	ECHL	71	22	30	52	30
Shawn O'Donnell	Cincinnati Cyclones	ECHL	47	14	28	42	37
	Milwaukee Admirals	AHL	6	0	0	0	12

Name	Team		GP	Record	SO	GAA	SAV%
Zach Fucale	St. John's IceCaps	AHL	3	1-2-0-0	0	2.36	0.919
	Brampton Beast	ECHL	46	25-12-2-2	4	3.17	0.898

Team Leaders
There were some Moose alumni that found themselves on top of their teams stats boards. Jakub Voracek, Nathan MacKinnon and Brad Marchand led their teams during the regular season in points while Nikolaj Ehlers and Jonathan Drouin were in the top 5 on their respective teams.  Martin Frk, in the AHL, led his Grand Rapids Griffins in goals this season. Danny Moynihan was top 5 on the Aces' team in their last season in Alaska. Moynihan and Frk I would say have proved themselves worthy for another look at the level above which they played this past season.

WORLDS: Moose Alum make Quarters

Nathan MacKinnon representing Team Canada
Photo - Avalanche website

The 2017 Men's World Championships are being played right now in Cologne, Germany and Paris, France and after 11 days of round robin competition complete, the quarter-final matchups are set. Four former Halifax Mooseheads find themselves in the medal round. The Herd actually had 6 alumni participating in the tournament, contrary to my previous post which said 4.

It is no surprise to anyone that Team Canada is in the quarters. The Canadians are looking for their third straight gold medal and Nathan MacKinnon has been leading the way for the red and white during this year's preliminary round. He scored a hat trick in a game against Slovenia and finished the first round with 12 points (5 goals & 7 assists), second in tournament scoring. The Memorial Cup champion Kid Mack was also a plus-6 and had 6 penalty minutes to help Canada finish on top of Group B with a 6-0-1-0 record. They will go up against co-host Germany who have big 6'5" defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser on their team. Konrad was unable to find the score sheet but was a minus-3 and had 10 shots credited to his name. The Germans finished fourth in Group A with a 2-2-1-2 record.

The final two former players in the quarters are Jakub Voracek and Petr Vrana who play for Team Czech Republic. Voracek scored a goal and had 5 assists which tied for team lead while Vrana had a goal & an assist. The Czechs finished third in Group B with a 3-2-0-2 record and will face Russia. Jakub was also captain.

In the Round Robin former moose made quite the impact on each of their teams, either it be goal scoring or leadership each player showed what they could do to help their countries.

The match ups for tomorrow's quarterfinals are as follows:
Finland vs United States 11:15 am
Czech Repuplic vs Russia 11:15 am
Germany vs Canada 3:15 pm
Sweden vs Switzerland 3:15 pm

Good Luck to the former Mooseheads players in the medal round!

Ehlers receiving player of the game May 14
Photo - Jets website

Nikolaj Ehlers could not help his Denmark team get into the medal round. He recorded 4 assists in 7 games for the Danes, who had a 1-2-0-4 record in Group A. Their lone regulation win was in the team's last game of the prelims against Italy. The Italians had Guilio Scandella on the team. Scandella played for the Moose in 2000-2002. He had two assists for Team Italy who were relegated to Division 1 for 2018 after going winless in the round robin.

UPDATED: Moose Alum Participating at Worlds

There will be a few Halifax Mooseheads alumni in Cologne and Paris for the IIHF Men's World Championships. Former Herd forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Nikolaj Ehlers and Jakub Voracek as well as defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser will represent their respective countries during the tournament.

This will be the first time for Abeltshauser participating in the Worlds but the second year Ehlers and MacKinnon have been asked to show their home colours. Voracek will be in the Worlds for the fourth time. The four will represent Germany, Denmark, Canada and Czech Republic respectively. Nikolaj and Konrad will meet during the preliminary round on May 12 as their countries are in Group A while in Group B Nathan and Jakub are going against each other in each country's first game Friday.

The tournament starts on May 5th (tomorrow) and will go until May 21, 2017. The Germans begin the tournament with a game on Friday against the United States while the Danes have their first match on Saturday against Latvia.

Congrats to all four players, Moose Country is proud of you and will be cheering you on the next two weeks. Good luck men!

I'll try my hardest to keep you updated on how the former Herd players are doing but you can watch most if not all of the games on the different TSN channels.

League Finals Start Friday

It's that time of year again when two teams play for the title of league champion. One group was projected to be in the President's Cup finals while the other is making their first trip to the last round.

The Halifax Mooseheads had a couple of former players in the final four but both were eliminated over the weekend. Jean-Sebastien Taillefer and the Charlottetown Islanders were kicked out of the playoffs by the Blainville-Boisbraind Armada in five games on Saturday evening. In the other series Morgan Nauss and the Chicoutimi Sagueneens got defeated by the Saint John Sea Dogs in six games on Sunday afternoon.

So the Sea Dogs and Armada will fight for the chance to represent the QMJHL in the 2017 Memorial Cup. For Saint John, this is their fourth visit to the championship series since they joined the league in 2005 and they finished the season as the best team in the league. For Blainville-Boisbriand, this is the first trip to the fourth round of the playoffs and will be underdogs during the series.

Check out the schedule below:
Game 1  Friday May 5 at 7pm  Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Saint John
Game 2  Saturday May 6 at 7pm  Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Saint John
Game 3  Tuesday May 9 at 8:30pm  Saint John vs. Blainville-Boisbriand
Game 4  Wednesday May 10 at 8:30pm  Saint John vs. Blainville-Boisbriand
*Game 5  Friday May 12 at 7pm  Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Saint John
*Game 6  Sunday May 14 at 5pm  Saint John vs. Blainville-Boisbriand
*Game 7  Tuesday May 16 at 7pm  Blainville-Boisbriand vs. Saint John

All times Atlantic
* if necessary

Poll #16

Now that the draft lottery is over and we know the order of how teams will be picking at the 2017 NHL draft on June 23, I thought I would do another poll. The Halifax Mooseheads have 5 players on the final CSS rankings but only one projected to go in the first round. Switzerland native Nico Hischier, who had 86 points in his rookie season for the Herd, was ranked second in the draft rankings that were released last month.

Where do you think Nico will end up though?

1. Colorado
2. Dallas
3. New Jersey
4. Philadelphia
5. Vancouver