First in the Maritimes division, regular season champions and now Gilles Courteau Trophy winners. The Moncton Wildcats were dominate this season and it continued in the playoffs with them finishing as league champs on Monday afternoon for the first time since 2010.
The game started pretty even with the teams going to the locker rooms for the first intermission in a scoreless tie in Rimouski. Forward Gabe Smith scored the opening goal for Moncton at the 6:30 mark of the second period and he picked up another one later in the middle frame to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes. The Oceanic weren't going to go away easy though and they scored twice in the third to make the game close but at the final buzzer, the score was 3-2.
Overage goaltender Mathis Rousseau, a former Halifax Mooseheads player, made 24 saves to pick up the victory. He and the Wildcats' other net-minder Rudy Guimond shared the load throughout the playoffs.
Draft-eligible forward Caleb Desnoyers, who had 30 points during the post-season, was named Most Valuable Player.
Herd alumni Markus Vidicek captained the Wildcats and was the first person to lift the trophy before passing it to Rousseau. Fellow alum Dylan MacKinnon and Logan Crosby also became champions after falling just short 2 years ago with Halifax.
On Rimouski, former Herd Mathieu Cataford finished in the top 10 of playoff scoring with 18 points. Lou Levesque and Jack Martin, who suited up for Halifax before being traded at Christmas time, now play for the Oceanic as well.
Both clubs will join the London Knights of the OHL and the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2025 Memorial Cup tournament, which will be held in Rimouski, QC starting on Friday night.
Congratulations to Vidicek, Crosby, Rousseau, MacKinnon and the Moncton Wildcats on winning the Gilles-Courteau Trophy.
In less than a month, personnel from the 18 QMJHL teams will gather in Quebec City, QC for the annual entry draft. Our Halifax Mooseheads will be drafting 3rd overall after finishing in the last playoff position following the 2024-25 regular season.
Like I said after the lottery results, this is the highest the Mooseheads have drafted since the 2016 draft. Because of trades, Halifax also has two picks in the second round and two selections in the 8th round. In total the Herd have 12 picks across the recently shortened twelve round draft.
For the time being, here is where the Herd are picking on draft day Round 1 - 3rd overall Round 2 - 21st overall Round 2 - 29th overall Round 4 - 59th overall Round 5 - 77th overall Round 6 - 95th overall Round 7 - 113th overal
Round 8 - 131st overall Round 8 - 143rd overall
Round 10 - 167th overall
Round 11 - 185th overall
Round 12 - 203rd overall
The Mooseheads have not officially released what picks they have but above is according to the Q website. Check back in early June to see who the brass selects with a full recap.
A few former Halifax Mooseheads players will be playing in the 2025 IIHF World Championships which begin today in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark.
I already mentioned MacKenzie Weegar, who plays for the Calgary Flames in the NHL, is suiting up for Team Canada. He will be joined by former Herd teammate and current Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon. In Group B, New Jersey Devils teammates Nico Hischier and Timo Meier will be representing Switzerland in the international tournament with Hischier once again captaining the team. Herd alumni Filip Zadina has been asked to play for Czechia after finishing his season with the NL's HC Davos.
Switzerland and Czechia will open the tournament taking on each other Friday afternoon with puck drop being 4:20pm CET/11:20am AT in Herning. Meanwhile, Canada kicks off the tournament on Saturday taking on Slovenia in the early game at 12:20pm CET/7:20am AT. You can watch all the games on TSN.
For those who haven't paid attention to the World Championships before, here's a little breakdown. There are two groups and each one has 8 countries in it with each team playing 7 games in the preliminary round. At the end of the prelims, the top 4 teams in each group will advance to the quarter-final round while the each group's bottom team will automatically be relegated to Division 1 for next year. The Gold Medal game is set to take place on May 25.
Good luck to our alumni and all the teams during the tournament. Hope it is an exciting one.
The Rimouski Oceanic have advanced to the QMJHL championship series.
Former Halifax Mooseheads defenceman Jack Martin scored at the 5:49 mark of the second period to get the Oceanic on the board first in Game 7 of their semi-final against the Shawinigan Cataractes. It looked like it would be an easy win for Rimouski, who got out to a 3-0 lead but Cole Chandler scored for the Cats late in the frame before Shawinigan forced overtime with two more goals in the third period on Tuesday evening. Forward Eriks Mateiko scored his 6th goal of the playoffs in the 2nd OT period to send the Memorial Cup hosts off to the league final with a 4-3 victory.
Every game was won by the home team in this series which doesn't happen very often.
Rimouski will take on the Moncton Wildcats, who already advanced to the fourth round with a sweep against the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, for the title. With this result, the Wildcats know they will also be in the 2025 version of the national tournament.
Martin isn't the only Herd alumni that will be fighting for the Gilles Courteau Trophy this month as Rimouski also has Lou Levesque and Mathieu Cataford on their team while Mathis Rousseau, Logan Crosby, Markus Vidicek and Dylan MacKinnon suit up for Moncton.
Below you will find the three league final series matchups.
J. Ross Robertson Cup #W1 London Knights vs. #E4 Oshawa Generals; series starts Thursday at 7:00 p.m. ET
Ed Chynoweth Cup #E1 Medicine Hat Tigers vs. #W3 Spokane Chiefs; series starts Friday at 7:00 p.m. MT
Gilles-Courteau Trophy #1 Moncton Wildcats vs. #2 Rimouski Oceanic; series starts Saturday at 5:00 p.m. AT
Fans can watch all the championship games across the CHL on TSN.
I never shared this but there were a couple of Halifax Mooseheads' representatives participating in the Under-18 World Ice Hockey Championships that was played April 23-May 3 in Texas, USA.
Photo - Herd Instagram
Defenceman Carlos Handel suited up for the German national team while forward Liam Kilfoil played for Team Canada. Our two players were in separate groups during the tournament so they didn't get to go against each other.
Handel made some history on April 27 scoring the fastest two goals in a time of 19 seconds to give his team the lead. Germany would go on to win that game 5-4 and finished the preliminary round with a 1-1-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record, good enough for 3rd in Group B. The 18-year-old also recorded two assists in four games played. Carlos was also named captain of the team. In the quarter-finals, the guys from Deutschland would take on Slovakia but lost 3-2.
Canada, meanwhile, went undefeated in Group A which set up a battle against Czechia in the quarter-finals where they won 3-2 in overtime. It was a lack luster showing for Kilfoil who did not record any points in seven games but this was his second time just this season playing for the red & white after participating in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup back in August. The 18-year-old did play 14 minutes 38 seconds in the championship game on the third line as Team Canada went on to defeat Sweden 7-0 in the gold medal game.
Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter
Congratulations to Liam Kilfoil and Team Canada on becoming U18 world champions on Saturday.
UNIVERSITY CUP The 2025 University Cup was played back in March and once again there were a few Mooseheads alumni participating. This year the teams included were; #1 New Brunswick Reds (AUS champs - Peter Reynolds), #2 Saskatchewan Huskies (CW champs), #3 Concordia Stingers (OUA champs), #4 Toronto Metropolitan Bold (OUA finalist - Kevin Gursoy), #5 Mount Royal Cougars (CW finalist), #6 Moncton Aigles Bleus (AUS finalist - Denis Toner), #7 Queen's Gaels (OUA bronze - Ethan Larmand) and #8 Ottawa Gee-Gees (OUA semifinalist - David Lafrance).
In a big upset, the host Gee-Gees defeated the top ranked Reds in their first round game 3-2 in overtime. That victory propelled the University of Ottawa to its first University Cup trophy on March 23. They met the Stingers in the gold medal game and won 3-2.
Congrats to former Herd David Lafrance on winning gold at the tournament.
Photo - Gee-Gees website
FROM THE OWNERS Shortly after our Mooseheads were ousted from the playoffs, the owners of the club Peter and Sam Simon shared a letter to Moose Country about the season.
A week ago our season came to an end, but as we reflect, we couldn't be prouder of our team, staff, and organization. This season was one of a new culture, character, and identity that will forever continue to be the "Mooseheads way". Our group worked hard each night and competed to the highest degree. The belief was strong as ever that even with our youth, there was no limity what we could achieve. Our foundation is solid, and this is the minimum standard moving forward. Now it is incumbent upon us, our staff, and the returning players to take the next step and be even stronger. We set our own expectations internally, and the standard will only elevate from here.
Peter Simon also met with Scott McIntosh for a year end interview to share his thoughts on the season, what's next for the team and more. You can watch it on the clubs YouTube channel.
CSS RANKINGS The ending of the NHL regular season allows fans and teams who didn't make the playoffs a chance to switch their focus to the next one. With that, the NHL and Central Scouting Services announced in mid-April their final rankings for the 2025 NHL draft. A few current Herd players were among the 225 players on the North American list. No surprise here but the top two players ranked come from the Ontario Hockey League with Matthew Schaefer of the Erie Otters first followed by the Saginaw Spirit's Michael Misa at #2. Misa led the who CHL in scoring during the 2024-25 regular season. Moncton Wildcats' Caleb Desnoyers is the highest ranked QMJHL player.
Halifax players ranked D Carlos Handel - #73 C Liam Kilfoil - #90 LW Shawn Carrier - #148
Hopefully we will see these guys get drafted in late June.
BRAVES CHAMPIONS
Photo - QJHL website
A late congrats to the Valleyfield Braves who won the 2025 QJHL playoffs on April 23 against the reigning champs Longueuil. Moose alum James Swan captained the Braves this season and was teammates with another former Herd player in Vincent Gauthier. Swan tied the league lead in regular season scoring with 89 points (58G & 31A) in 48 games played, while Gauthier had 26 points in the playoffs including a goal in Game 6 to help Valleyfield win the series 4-2.
The Braves will now compete for the national championship in Calgary, AB for a chance to lift the Centennial Cup starting May 8.
NHL PLAYOFF UPDATE We started with six Herd alumni in the NHL post-season but are now down to two. Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers have already booked their ticket to the second round after defeating Tampa Bay in 5 games. They will play the Toronto Maple Leafs now. Nikolaj Ehlers has been injured and missed the Winnipeg Jets' first five playoff games but was back in the lineup on Friday. The Jets had a great regular season winning the President Trophy as the best team in the NHL and will hope that they can advance tonight with a Game 7 victory.
The Colorado Avalanche lost last night in Dallas which means that they are out of the playoffs now. Halifax native Nathan MacKinnon scored in the game but it wasn't enough as the Stars won the match 4-2 picking up a 4-3 series win. MacKinnon had 7 goals and 11 points to lead the Avs while Jonathan Drouin recorded 3 assists. The New Jersey Devils were the only other team in the playoffs with former Mooseheads participating with two Swiss forwards. Both Nico Hischier (4A) and Timo Meier (2G & 2A) had 4 points in five games as the Devils lost their series 4-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
WEEGAR
Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter
The first 15 players who will wear the maple leaf at the 2025 IIHF World Championship were announced by Hockey Canada on Thursday and Moose alum defenseman MacKenzie Weegar was on the roster. Weegar previously suited up for Canada in 2023 and will look to help them back to a medal after the red and white finished 4th in last year's tournament.
I have not seen many other countries naming players who will participate in the tournament which is taking place May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark. With MacKinnon out of the playoffs now we may see him on Team Canada and hopefully Meier and Hischier will suit of for Switzerland.
Congrats and good luck to MacKenzie in the championships.
INTERVIEW WITH COACH The latest This Is Moose Country podcast hosted by Scott MacIntosh and Brad Cuzner has an interview with head coach Andrew Lord. Skip to 26:48 of the video if you just want to hear what Lord has to say.
Goaltender Zach Fucale, forward Ostap Safin and the Traktor Chelyabinsk finished on top of the KHL regular season standings and are currently leading their semi-final series 3 games to 0.
Check out the video that the Herd posted as the team came together following their second round playoff loss.
Scott MacIntosh did an article about how the rest of the 2024 Mooseheads draft class performed during the 2024-25 season. A couple of prospects (Logan Trewin & Gavin Sudds) won the NSU18MHL championship with the Halifax Macs.
The Rimouski Oceanic will look to advance to the QMJHL finals with a win this evening in Game 6 of their series against the Shawinigan Cataractes. Puck drops at 5 p.m. AT in Shawinigan. Rimouski has 3 alumni on their team.
The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League draft lottery was held on April 23 and our Halifax Mooseheads had a chance to win it after finishing 16th overall at the end of the regular season.
Since 2017, the Q has been doing the lottery with 5 teams after years of just the bottom two non-playoff teams. For this season, Halifax had a 14% chance of winning the lottery. Check out the full odds below;
In the end, the Saint John Sea Dogs won the lottery meaning they will make the first overall draft selection during the entry draft. This was the 7th time the Sea Dogs have been the lucky team to get their ball drawn.
Our Halifax Mooseheads position in the draft did not change with the results and will pick 3rd overall. Assuming they do not trade it, this is the highest the Herd have picked in the draft since 2016.
The 2025 QMJHL Draft will take place on June 6-7 at Videotron Centre in Quebec City.
Top 5 results 1 - Saint John Sea Dogs 2 - Victoriaville Tigres 3 - Halifax Mooseheads 4 - Quebec Remparts 5 - Newfoundland Regiment (from Gatineau)
