Herd Word

Photo - CHL website

CHL TOP 10
The Canadian Hockey League announced the pre-season top 10 rankings on Wednesday afternoon and our Halifax Mooseheads were among the teams ranked. 

1. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies - QMJHL
2. London Knights - OHL
3. Portland Winterhawks - WHL
4. Saginaw Spirit - OHL
5. Moose Jaw Warriors - WHL
6. Halifax Mooseheads - QMJHL
7. Victoriaville Tigres - QMJHL
8. Sudbury Wolves - OHL
9. Saskatoon Blades - WHL 
10. Owen Sound Attack - OHL

MAIN CAMPS
There are plenty of young men on NHL teams main camp rosters that have suited up for the Halifax Mooseheads sometime in their career. Many of the players are Herd alumni but there are a few who are currently on the Mooseheads' opening night roster (bolded).

Below is a list of players
Samuel Asselin - New York Islanders
Justin Barron - Montreal Canadiens 
Elliot Desnoyers - Philadelphia Flyers
Alexandre Doucet - Detroit Red Wings
Jonathan Drouin - Colorado Avalanche
Jordan Dumais - Columbus Blue Jackets
Arnaud Durandeau - New York islanders
Nikolaj Ehlers - Winnipeg Jets
Jake Furlong - San Jose Sharks 
Benoit-Olivier Groulx - Anaheim Ducks
Nico Hischier - New Jersey Devils
Zachary L'Heureux - Nashville Predators
Raphael Lavoie - Edmonton Oilers
Dylan MacKinnon - Nashville Predators
Nathan MacKinnon - Colorado Avalanche
Brad Marchand - Boston Bruins
Jared McIsaac - Detroit Red Wings
Timo Meier - New Jersey Devils
Xavier Parent - New Jersey Devils
Mathis Rousseau - Arizona Coyotes
Mackenzie Weegar - Calgary Flames
Filip Zadina - San Jose Sharks

Good luck to all the players in their respective training camps especially the ones looking to crack an NHL roster. 

Photo - Bruins website

ALUMNI AS CAPTAINS
Some news came out of Boston yesterday as the Bruins announced former Mooseheads forward Brad Marchand as the franchise's 27th captain ahead of the 2023-24 season. The Halifax, NS native will be playing in his fifteenth season and could pass 1000 games played sometime this year. Marchand is a Stanley Cup winner in 2011 with Boston after being drafted by the team 71st overall in the 2006 NHL draft. The 35-year-old played 26 games with his hometown team during his junior hockey career. Congrats to Brad on being named captain of this historic club. 

He joins a handful of Herd alumni who will wear the C on their jerseys this season. Switzerland native Nico Hischier will be going into his fourth year as the leader of the New Jersey Devils after being given the captaincy on February 20, 2021. Over in Europe, Cameron Critchlow (Manchester Storm), Petr Vrana (HC Ocelari Trinec), Tomas Knotek (HC Slavia Praha), and Jan Stransky (BK Mlada Boleslav) have been given the responsibility of leading their respective teams once again this season. 

HOME OPENER DETAILS
A few details have come out about Friday's home opener along with some changes to game experience. 

The Mooseheads announced the schedule for the pre-game show which is as follows
Doors open: 5:30pm
Warmup: 6:30pm
Pregame show starts: 6:45pm
Retirement ceremony: 7:05pm

Halifax also made changes following an off-season survey including opening doors at 5:30pm this year. Fans can also buy 50/50 tickets online now so you can get them from your seat or at home. In another hope of reducing congestion on the concourse, improvements at the concessions have been made like a new POS system and added "hawkers" in the stands handing out snacks. Read the full article of what changes were made here. Scott MacIntosh also tweeted out that the team have called up four players for the home opener with five at NHL camps. 

CAPTAIN
Once again, general manager Cam Russell and the coaching staff will need to name a new leadership group for the 2023-24 season. At the beginning of the month, I asked on Twitter who you think will be named captain and here are the results. 

Markus Vidicek - 22%
David Moravec - 12%
Jordan Dumais - 57%
Mathieu Cataford - 9%

With three of these young men away at NHL camps, we most likely will not find out who will lead this year's team until possibly October. I suspect we will see Jordan Dumais wear the C. 

Former Moose Starts Quest for the Cup

The National Hockey League regular season is now over and the playoffs begin tonight with three games on tap. With 16 teams making it to the post-season, there are bound to be a few former Halifax Mooseheads players that will be fighting for the Stanley Cup. Six alumni are on teams participating in this year's playoffs and while none of them will play against each other in the first round, hopefully a few will in subsequent rounds.

The New Jersey Devils and Colorado Avalanche were bit of a surprise to make the playoffs especially the Avs who finished last in the league last season. Nathan MacKinnon played a huge part in Colorado's return to the post-season, producing his best season so far in his short career and leading the team in scoring. MacKinnon ended the regular season 5th in league scoring with 97 points in 74 games. The Avalanche will play the President's Trophy winning Nashville Predators in the opening round and will need Kid Mack to keep producing if they have any chance of defeating the Preds. Nico Hischier on the other hand, had a pretty good rookie season and was second in team scoring on the Devils. New Jersey will play the Eastern Conference regular season champion Tampa Bay Lightning.

Halifax native Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins will be taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs in Round 1. Marchand finished the season on top of the Bruins leaderboard with 85 points. Alum Jakub Voracek has his best season as well in terms of points, recording 85 in 2017-18 for the Philadelphia Flyers who will matchup against their interstate rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins. This series begins tonight at 8pm ET on CBC.

In the West, Nikolaj Ehlers and the Winnipeg Jets take on the Minnesota Wild, a series that starts to tonight at 8pm ET on Sportsnet. Ehlers was able to score more goals this season than his previous two and was third in team scoring. The other matchup will be a battle of California as Timo Meier and the San Jose Sharks taking on the Anaheim Ducks. 2017-18 saw Meier play almost every game during the regular season, missing only one game.

Good luck to all six players and their teams as they battle for the chance to raise the Stanley Cup in two months time. Congrats to all them as well on excellent seasons. Check out their finals stats below.

                                                 G     A   Pts   +/-    PIM
Jakub Voracek              PHI     20   65   85   +10    50
Nikolaj Ehlers                WPG  29   31   60   +14    26
Brad Marchand             BOS   34   51   85   +25    63
Nico Hischier                 NJ      20   32   52   +10    26
Timo Meier                    SJ      21   15   36    +2     51
Nathan MacKinnon       COL   39   58   97    +11   55