While writing my previous post, our Halifax Mooseheads made another big announcement saying they completed a couple of trades on Sunday morning. Halifax acquired a pair of draft picks from the Gatineau Olympiques in exchange for forward Bobby Orr. The move creates some space amongst a crowded forward group at training camp. The 19-year-old scored 21 goals and 44 points in 63 games last season. He had 76 points in 104 games for the club over two seasons after being acquired from Saint John in the summer of 2020.
Photo - Herd website
In a separate deal Halifax finalized a swap with the Charlottetown Islanders for defenceman Alexandre Tessier who had been attending Isles camp on a conditional loan. The Herd will receive a ninth round pick in the 2024 draft.
Good luck to both Bobby and Alexandre with their new teams and thank you for the memories in Moose Country, we'll miss you boys.
This means that the 2022 training camp is down to 24 players which includes thirteen forwards, 8 defencemen and three goaltenders.
Former Halifax Mooseheads have had some big things happen over the last week or so while the current team is coming together for the regular season.
Photo - AMH Photography
MACKINNON PARADE The 2013 NHL number one pick Nathan MacKinnon won the Stanley Cup back in June with the Colorado Avalanche and he finally had his day with the trophy last weekend. MacKinnon brought the Cup back to Halifax where he played junior hockey for a parade and the city showed up big time. His teammates Gabriel Landeskog and Andrew Cogliano were also in the parade. Before it began, Nathan was on Citadel Hill to shoot off the noon gun. The 28-year-old answered a few questions from Paul Hollingsworth afterwards in Grand Parade Square in front of thousands of fans.
It was a good parade and it was nice to see Kid Mack give props to his family, coaches and the city of Halifax for helping him get to where he is today.
Check out some highlights from the day in the video below.
WORLD JUNIORS Well, the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were finally able to be completed last weekend with Team Canada raising the trophy on August 20. With Canada's victory, former Mooseheads captain Elliot Desnoyers is a champion! Congrats to Desy on winning the gold medal. The 20-year-old finished the tournament with an assist in 7 games played. The Canadians went undefeated and won the final match 3-2 in overtime over Team Finland.
Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter
Also in the tournament were Herd alumni Senna Peeters (Austria) and current forward Attilio Biasca (Switzerland). Peeters recorded a goal and 3 points in the preliminary round as Austria lost all 4 games to end in 9th place. Biasca had a great tournament scoring four goals and picking up 2 assists but unfortunately, Switzerland lost in the quarter-finals to Canada.
Photo - Birdgeport Islanders Instagram
DURANDEAU 23-year-old Arnaud Durandeau, who played for Halifax for four years from 2015-2019, got some good news last week when the New York Islanders signed him to a two-year two-way contract along with three other players. Durandeau set new career highs in goals (15), assists (22) and points (37) in 64 games with the Bridgeport Islanders of the AHL last season. He ranked third on the team in goals and was tied for fifth in points during his third professional campaign. Congrats to Arnaud on signing a new contract.
TRAINING CAMP UPDATE Things have been moving quickly at training camp this past week. Cam Russell and company made more decisions, releasing sixteen additional players. On Thursday, a total of nine young men were cut from the camp roster. The following players were cut from the camp roster on Thursday; Justin Breton (F), Mathis Laplante (F), Landon MacIntosh (F), Dominic MacKenzie (D), Cade Moser (F), Joe Power (D), Adam Tkacz (G), Ty Totten (F) and Ben Wallace (F). Goalie George Foti was released from camp on Wednesday. Six players were cut on Saturday morning including forwards Antoine Fontaine, Lou Levesque, Brandon Abbass and Bryson Boudreau along with defencemen Hugo Boucher and Dylan Chisholm.
Russell made a trade on Wednesday afternoon as well when they acquired centre and Beaver Bank, NS-native Jake Todd from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in exchange for a 2023 4th round draft pick. Todd has played the past two seasons with the Cole Harbour Wolfpack where he has scored 79 points in 55 games with 23 goals and 56 assists.
All these moves mean that there are 25 players remaining at camp. Another small round of cuts still needs to happen before the 2022-23 regular season roster is named but I suspect that will happen before the end of August.
ZADINA
Photo - Wings website
The Detroit Red Wings announced on Friday that they have re-signed right winger Filip Zadina to a three-year contract with an average annual value of $1.825 million. Zadina, 22, skated in 74 games with the Red Wings in 2021-22 and recorded a career-high 24 points (10-14-24) and 10 penalty minutes. Originally selected by Detroit in the first round (sixth overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Filip has totalled 61 points in 160 NHL games.
Congrats to Filip on signing a new contract.
CRITCHLOW Former Herd Cameron Critchlow has been named captain of the EIHL's Manchester Storm for the 2022-23 season. The 31-year-old is heading into his fourth season in England. Critchlow played one season for Halifax back in 2011-12. He had 14 goals and 37 points in 54 games last season with the Storm. Manchester start their regular season on September 10 against the Coventry Blaze.
As I expected, our Halifax Mooseheads have made the first round of cuts before they play in their first pre-season game tonight. General Manager Cam Russell made the announcement on Tuesday morning, saying that the club had released seven players.
Players leaving G Russ Decoste D Mathieu Taillefer D Ben Robertson D Noah Razon F James Chase F Kyle Greene F Hudson Clarke
According to the press release, Clarke suffered a clavicle injury during an intrasqaud game on Monday and has decided to return home. The team is also awaiting the arrival of 2022 CHL import draft pick David Moravec who is expected to arrive later tonight.
With these moves, it leaves 40 players on the training camp roster.
Good luck to all the 7 guys who left camp with whatever team you end up with this year.
Halifax Mooseheads hockey is getting close to being back and it begins with training camp starting on Saturday. The team announced schedule details for camp last week, which you can find here.
The Mooseheads have invited 47 players to participate in camp over the next month. The roster breaks down to six goaltenders, 15 defenceman and 26 forwards It consists of 17 returning players along with all fifteen of Halifax's draft picks from 2022 plus more. I suspect the first cuts will be made before the first pre-season game on Tuesday.
Below is the 2022 Training Camp roster. Brandon Abbass F (free agent) Attilio Biasca F (import) Evan Boucher F (free agent) Hugo Boucher D (draft '22) Bryson Boudreau F (free agent) Justin Breton F (draft '22) Mathieu Cataford F (draft '21) James Chase F (draft '22) Dylan Chisholm D (free agent) Hudson Clarke F (draft '22) Logan Crosby F (draft '21) Stephan Davis D (draft '18) Russ DeCoste G (free agent) Jordan Dumais F (draft '20) Antoine Fontaine F (draft '22) George Foti G (draft '22) Brody Fournier F (free agent) Jake Furlong D (draft '20) Kyle Greene F (draft '22) Zachary L'Heureux F (trade) Mathis Laplante F (draft '22) Lou Levesque F (draft '22) Landon MacIntosh F (free agent) Dominic MacKenzie D (draft '22) Dylan MacKinnon D (draft '21) Braeden MacPhee F (draft '20) Jack Martin D (draft '21) David Moravec D (import) Jack Milner G (draft '21) Cade Moser F (draft '22) Robert Orr F (trade) Reece Peitzsche F (draft '22) Owen Phillips D (draft '22) Joseph Power D (draft '21) Noah Razon D (draft '21) Ben Robertson D (draft '22) Mathis Rousseau G (draft '20) Brady Schultz D (draft '20) James Swan F (draft '20) Mathieu Taillefer D (draft '22) Adam Tkacz G (free agent) Tyler Totten F (free agent) Markus Vidicek F (draft '20) Ben Wallace F (draft '21) Liam Welsh F (draft '21) Cameron Whynot D (trade)
Halifax Mooseheads import player Attilio Biasca scored late in the third period to give his Switzerland team their first victory of the world juniors and advance to the quarter final round. The goal at the 15:53 mark of the final frame made the score 3-2 in their match against Team Austria. Former Herd Senna Peeters has been participating in the tourney as well but for the Austrians and recorded an assist on Monday in the loss. Biasca also had an assist in the game, making it four points in the prelims for the 19-year-old. Austria finished the first round with four losses meaning they will be relegated for 2023.
Like I said, the victory advances Switzerland to the medal round where they will take on 2021-22 Moose captain Elliot Desnoyers and Team Canada. Hopefully Desnoyers will be able to show his offensive power in the next round as he currently has no points. Canada went undefeated in the preliminary round after picking up a 6-3 win over Finland yesterday.
The quarter-finals are set to go on Wednesday in Edmonton at the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. Finland and Germany will kick off the day, followed by Sweden and Latvia, Canada and Switzerland and finally USA vs. Czechia. You can watch Desnoyers vs. Biasca on TSN tomorrow evening at 8:00pm AT.
Details for our Halifax Mooseheads 2022 Training Camp were released by the club today and it looks pretty much like a pre-COVID camp. Players will return to Moose Country with registration on August 20 at RBC Centre in Dartmouth. Action on the ice kicks off the following day at 9am with the first-of-four Green vs White scrimmages. All games and practices will be open to the public according to the press release.
Below is the schedule for the first couple of weeks August 21 & 22 9am Green vs White Intrasquad Game 3pm Green vs White Intrasquad Game
August 23 7pm Pre-season game at Cape Breton
August 24 7pm Pre-season game vs Cape Breton
August 25 11am Practice 3pm Practice
August 26 7pm Pre-season game vs Saint John
August 29-September 1 10am Practice
A limited amount of tickets for the home pre-season games will go on sale August 9th at 11am at TicketAtlantic.com
Eastlink TV has announced their broadcast schedule for QMJHL games during the 2022-23 season. Cape Breton, Charlottetown and Halifax all have select matches that will be shown on the Friday Night Hockey broadcasts.
Your Halifax Mooseheads will be on Eastlink fourteen times this season. The first broadcast involving the Herd will be September 23 against the Charlottetown Islanders for the team's home opener. There will also be 3 special Thursday evening matches.
Below is the full schedule (all games 7pm unless noted):
FRI September 23 vs. Charlottetown Islanders FRI September 30 at Cape Breton Eagles FRI October 7 vs. Victoriaville Tigres FRI November 4 at Cape Breton Eagles FRI November 18 vs. Saint John Sea Dogs FRI November 25 at Cape Breton Eagles THU December 8 vs. Blainville-Boisbriand Armada FRI December 16 vs. Charlottetown Islanders THU January 12 vs. Quebec Remparts SAT January 28 vs. Cape Breton Eagles FRI February 3 at Charlottetown Islanders (7:30pm) FRI February 17 vs. Acadie-Bathurst Titan THU March 2 vs. Saint John Sea Dogs FRI March 24 vs. Cape Breton Eagles
This means that a couple of Halifax Mooseheads players are champions. Defenceman Dylan MacKinnon and forward Mathieu Cataford made Canada's Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster last month and have been participating in the tournament all week in Red Deer, Alberta. The Canadians went undefeated in the preliminary round and went up against Finland in the semi-final match. Canada won the game 4-1 to book their ticket in the gold medal game where they took on Team Sweden. The score of the championship match was 4-1 as well, it is the first Hlinka Cup victory for the red and white since 2018.
Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter
Both Cataford and MacKinnon finished the tournament with an assist in five games played. Congrats to these two young men and the rest of the team on winning the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup on Saturday.
Final standings as follows; Canada (gold), Sweden (silver), Finland (bronze), Czechia, United States, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany
