Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Herd Word: Opening week

Photo - The Signal

The regular season starts in two days.

We are in the middle of September which means the games that matter are right around the corner. Sixteen of the QMJHL’s 18 teams will be in action on Friday night including the Gilles Courtueau Trophy winning Chicoutimi Sagueneens hosting the Shawinigan Cataractes and raising their championship banner. 

Our Halifax Mooseheads kick off the season with a visit to the Cape Breton Eagles on opening night before hosting the Moncton Wildcats on Saturday evening at the Scotiabank Centre. They will then go on a four game road trip. 

Photo - Herd Facebook
NHL DRAFT RANKINGS
Seventeen year old defenseman Malik L'Italien looks to be the only Moosehead on pre-season rankings for the 2027 NHL Entry Draft. He is ranked 17th on TSN's Top 20, The Athletic's Scott Wheeler has him among his tier 5 players (#20), while Elite Prospect's ranked the Montreal, QC native 37th. 

Good to see at least one player on scout's minds this early in the year, hopefully we will see L'Italien move up and possibly more current Herd players get listed as the season goes on. Malik had a goal and three points in a strong showing at the 2026 Hlinka Gretzky tournament during the summer. 

POLL
I haven’t done a poll in about a year, and I thought I would do it a little differently this time. According to predictors, the Maritimes division is supposed to be very competitive and could be ‘won’ by possibly any of the six teams. For this poll I am asking you, What position do you think the Mooseheads will end after the final game of the regular season? Divisions are technically not in play anymore so that isn’t an option.

1. League champions (reg. Season)
2. Eastern conference champions
3. 3rd-8th overall
4. 9th-16th overall
5. Out of playoffs

Go over to my Twitter account (MC_MooseCountry) to cast your vote. I’ll leave it pinned and set it for 4 days. 

PRE-SEASON TOP 10
The Canadian Hockey League released its pre-season top-10 rankings on Wednesday.

Seems honourable mentions are no longer as none were mentioned in the article or on the picture. 

HOME OPENER DETAILS
Halifax announced that the first 3,000 fans at Saturday’s home opener will receive a fridge magnet schedule. The team also released a limited edition t-shirt that is available in-game only. Seems that Halifax's hashtag for 2026-27 will be #ForTheCity. The lower bowl should be pretty full as there are less than 50 seats remaining, however the upper bowl has lots of tickets available. Grab your tickets and lets kick off this year with a party. 

Photo - Lightning Twitter

3 MAKE MAIN CAMPS
The Mooseheads had six current players that participated in rookie camps, and now three of them have moved on to main camps for their respective NHL teams. A number of alumni will also take part in hopes of making the regular season rosters. Check out the list below.

Boston Bruins (Sep. 16-29) - Attilio Biasca
Carolina Hurricanes (Sep. 17-28) - Nikolaj Ehlers
Chicago Blackhawks (Sep. 17-28) - Cavan Fitzgerald & Jake Furlong
Colorado Avalanche (Sep. 17-20) - Shawn Carrier, Zach L'Heureux & Nathan MacKinnon
Columbus Blue Jackets (Sep. 16-28) - Jordan Dumais 
Florida Panthers (Sep. 17-24) - Brad Marchand
Nashville Predators (Sep. 16-26) - Justin Barron
New Jersey Devils (Sep. 17-?) - Nico Hischier, Timo Meier & Xavier Parent
Tampa Bay Lightning (Sep. 17-28) - Elliot Desnoyers & Oleg Kulebiakin
Toronto Maple Leafs - Benoit-Olivier Groulx
Utah Mammoth (Sep. 17-25) - MacKenzie Weegar
Vegas Golden Knights (Sep. 17-26) - Mathieu Cataford, Raphael Lavoie & Mateo Nobert

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