Abeltshauser Headed To Olympics

Well despite 4 former Halifax Mooseheads being named to Olympic rosters, only one will actually be playing in the Games next week.

After the NHL decided to pull their players out, countries had to change who will represent them in the men's hockey tournament. Herd alumni Konrad Abeltshauser is one of the lucky benefactors of the change and will represent his country Germany. 

The 29-year-old played 4 years for Halifax between 2009 and 2013, eventually winning the 2013 Memorial Cup with the organization. He holds the franchise record for points by a defenseman with 150. He now plays for the EHC Munchen of DEL, a team Abeltshauser has been with since 2015. Originally from Bad Tolz, Germany Konrad has represented the country many times. 

Germany, who are the reigning Olympic bronze medalists, will begin their quest for a medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing when they face Canada in their opening game on February 10th. Below is the preliminary schedule for Germany (Beijing time):

Feb 10  Canada vs. Germany  9:10pm
Feb 12  Germany vs. China  4:40pm
Feb 13  United States vs. Germany  9:10pm

Congratulations to Konrad on making the Olympic team and good luck to Germany. 

Q Plan To Return Feb. 3

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announced today that they plan to return to play on February 3. 

According to the press release, the league's objective remains to play a full 68 game regular season schedule. The revised schedule will be released on Monday with remaining games being played between Feb. 3 and May 1. Capacity restrictions for every rink will be determined by each province's Public Health guidelines. 

Our Halifax Mooseheads tweeted that they will restart the schedule on a road trip due to the current restrictions in place in Nova Scotia until February 14. Fans will be notified of further information regarding home games as it becomes available. 

The 2022 President Cup playoffs format will be announced at a later date but they will begin on May 5 and conclude no later than June 15. With a later playoffs, a new schedule for the 2022 Memorial Cup will also be released in the upcoming weeks. 

Herd Word

Some news from the past week or so as we are in the middle of January and things keep changing. 

MIRON WAIVED

I missed this in amidst all the other news last week but forward Landon Miron was put on waivers by the Halifax Mooseheads and quickly got claimed by the Val-d'Or Foreurs on January 7. The 19-year-old from Dartmouth, NS had one goal and two assists in 18 games this season in Halifax. Since joining the Mooseheads as an undrafted free agent in 2019, Miron has produced 15 goals and eight assists for 23 points in 75 career QMJHL games. 

Good luck Landon in Val-d'Or, we'll miss you in Moose Country. 

HERD ADD FREE AGENT
This was rumoured shortly after the trade deadline passed last Thursday and it was confirmed by the club on Monday. The Herd have added 19-year-old free agent Evan Boucher who comes from Timmons, ON. He was second in the CCHL's scoring race with 22 goals and 40 points in 27 games with the Brockville Braves prior to signing with Halifax. According to the release, Boucher played 92 career CCHL games between Rockland, Nepean and Brockville, putting up a total of 78 points. "He is a big forward who plays physically and has a good scoring touch. We think he will be a nice compliment to our roster", said General Manager Cam Russell. 

Welcome to the team Evan. He will wear number 71 according to the club's Twitter account.

OLYMPICS CANCELLED
Kind of old news as it was announced before Christmas but I was still hoping some way we'd get to see NHL players in the 2022 Winter Olympics next month. The National Hockey League along with the Players Association decided that its players would not participate in the Olympics in Beijing. Many different reasons were the cause of the league making this decision like the uncertainty about how long players would have to quarantine in China should they test positive, safety concerns as well as the fact that the NHL has had to postpone multiple games this season because of government restrictions and league protocols. 

This means that we won't see Jakub Voracek, Nico Hischier, Timo Meier and Nikolaj Ehlers heading over seas to represent their countries which is really unfortunate especially as Ehlers helped Denmark qualify for the tournament. We could still see a few alumni suit up but we'll have to wait and see as it seems only the USA and Czech Republic have released their new rosters. Minor professional league players can be named and it sounds like NCAA guys can too. 

ALL-STAR SELECTIONS
One event is still going on next month for NHL players at least for now. The league announced the rosters for the 2022 All-Star game. Former Herd Nathan MacKinnon was named captain of the Central Division team via a fan vote. This is the 4th time MacKinnon has been made an all-star in his career. The 26-year-old has 6 goals and 35 points so far this season with the Colorado Avalanche. Another Moose alum Timo Meier will play for the Pacific Division in his first all-star appearance. Meier is 10th in league scoring with 39 points (15 goals+24 assists) for the San Jose Sharks. 

The 2022 Honda NHL All-Star Game will take place on February 5 in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena and will feature a three-game tournament, played in a 3-on-3 format. 

Congratulations to Nathan and Timo on their all-star game nod. Good luck boys, Moose Country will be cheering you on.

DRAFT RANKINGS
3 members of our Halifax Mooseheads were listed in the NHL Central Scouting Mid-Season Rankings released on Wednesday. Defenceman Jake Furlong was ranked #53 on the most recent list which predicts he'll be a second round draft pick. Surprisingly, forward Jordan Dumais is ranked only as high as #72 which would put him in the third round. If he keeps having the season that he has been, I suspect we'll see him being higher up the list by the time the draft rolls around. Forward Markus Vidicek is the last player from the Herd on the rankings at #98. 

In total, 36 QMJHL players were among the names that ranked by the scouting services with Gatineau Olympiques defenceman Tristan Luneau the highest ranked Q player. Other projected first-round selections from the league include Maveric Lamoureux (Drummondville) and Nathan Gaucher (Quebec). Shane Wright of the Kingston Frontenacs continues to be the projected 1st overall pick. For the full list of prospects, click here. 

Talking about prospects, the Canadian Hockey League announced on Friday that the 2022 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects game originally scheduled for February 2 has been postponed due to ongoing challenges caused by the pandemic. A new date will be released at a later date. 

Q SEASON POSTPONED 
From the QMJHL
With no clear timeline of COVID-19 restrictions being eased, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League today announced the postponement of its return to play plans. 

Initially scheduled for a return in the week of January 17, the regular season will resume on February 1. The league is still working on rescheduling all postponed games, with the primary objective of having all franchises play their full 68-game schedule.  

Photos - Saltwire, Herd website, Avalanche & Sharks Twitter accounts

Voracek Plays In 1000th Game

Former Halifax Mooseheads forward Jakub Voracek skated in his 1,000th career regular season game on Thursday night as his Columbus Blue Jackets visited the New Jersey Devils. 

The 32 year old became just the second Herd alumni to reach the milestone in their National Hockey League careers after Alex Tanguay who played his 1,000th on March 4, 2015. Voracek, who was born in Kladno, Czech Republic, has split his time between the Columbus Blue Jackets and Philadelphia Flyers. Columbus originally drafted Jakub in 2007 before he was traded to Philadelphia in the summer of 2011. His 1,000th game was played with the Blue Jackets and he has recorded 217 goals and 761 points in his career. 

Hear what a few of his former Flyers teammates had to say here.

Congratulations to Jakub on reaching the milestone. 

It was a good night for other alumni as well

• Brad Marchand, Timo Meier, MacKenzie Weegar all scored for their respective NHL teams while Ostap Safin picked up a goal to help Bakersfield to a win. 
• Martin Frk made his season debut for the Los Angeles Kings last night and scored a power play goal which was his 300th professional point (NHL, AHL, ECHL) 
• Nathan MacKinnon had the biggest night, collecting a goal and 4 assists to help the Colorado Avalanche to a 7-1 win over Winnipeg. 

Photos - NBC Sports, NHL PR Twitter

Halifax Make No Moves at Deadline

There were rumours but in the end the general manager of our Halifax Mooseheads Cam Russell decided to make no moves before the winter trade deadline passed on Thursday afternoon. 

From the beginning, it was rumoured that the Herd would trade captain Elliot Desnoyers after he returned from the World Juniors. The Saint John Sea Dogs were the team he was reportedly going to be moved to but a deal could not be figured out then the Victoriaville Tigres were said to be interested as well. 

Photo - CBC

Russell said he felt more comfortable keeping the team's leadership group together to lead the young group. In an interview with Willy Palov after the deadline passed, Cam had this to say; "There were lots of conversations but the more we thought about it, we just felt keeping him here gives us two great lines and some important leadership to help our young players. If you look at the way Dumais and Vidicek have been playing this year, then you throw L'Heureux and Desnoyers in there, plus all the other players that stepped up, the benefit of keeping the leadership group together for this year and the long run made more sense." 

Halifax is the youngest club in the QMJHL with an average age of 17.76 and had a surprising first half of the season before the holiday break. The club finds themselves in second place in the Maritime division and will look to keep it up once play resumes whenever it does. 

Saint John, the Charlottetown Islanders and Acadie-Bathurst Titan all made big moves to help them in the second half. Charlottetown has already started to run away with the division lead and are continuing the very strong season they had last year. This seems to be the year for the Islanders. The Sea Dogs are scheduled to host the 2022 Memorial Cup from June 4-16 so they will be in the tournament no matter what but after a disappointing start, they are now prepared to make the move up the standings. Saint John added overage player Philippe Daoust, who has played in the AHL this season but is reportedly being sent back to the Q, and other veteran guys like Vincent Sevigny and Connor Trenholm who should all improve their offence. 

I'm glad to see that Elliot is staying with the Mooseheads. Whenever the second half gets underway, it should be a fun and intense next few months. 

QMJHL Names Scholastic POM

Every month, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League announces a Scholastic Player of the Month which recognizes a player on each team with his performance on ice and in the classroom. The player is selected based on their school results, their implication, the school-hockey conciliation, their team spirit and their on-ice performances. 

For you Halifax Mooseheads, Jake Furlong was named the Scholastic Player of the Month for December 2021. Furlong had five assists in 8 games and was a plus-2 during the month. 

Team	Player	Program	Institution
BAT	David Doucet	Independant Studies	Acadia University
BAC	Marc-Antoine Mercier	Springboard to a DCS	Cégep de Baie-Comeau
BLB	Beck Majdell	Secondary 5	Selwyn House School
CAP	Connor Trenholm	Independant Studies	Cape Breton University
CHA	Patrick Guay	Business	UPEI
CHI	Jonathan Desrosiers	Engineering	UNB
DRU	Simon Gaul	Social Sciences with Maths	Cégep de Drummondville
GAT	Rémi Poirier	Social Sciences	Cégep de l’Outaouais
HAL	Jake Furlong	Grade 12	Prince Andrew High School
MON	Jacob Stewart	Sciences	UNB
QUE	Charle Truchon	Natural Sciences	Cégep Limoilou
RIM	Jasmin Simon	Social Sciences	Cégep à distance
ROU	Mathieu Gagnon	Social Sciences	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue
SNB	Nathan Drapeau	Grade 12	Northern Pre University
SHA	Philippe Richard	Social Sciences	Cégep de Shawinigan
SHE	Jean-Raphaël Roy	Social Sciences / Management	Cégep de Sherbrooke
VDO	Félix Paquet	Social Sciences with Maths	Cégep de l’Abitibi-Témiscamingue
VIC	Igor Mburanumwe	Social Sciences	Cégep de Victoriaville