Herd Word

With the regular season beginning this week, there is lots of news popping up so I thought I would do another Herd Word. 

CHL TOP 10
The Canadian Hockey League announced the pre-season edition of the Kia CHL Top-10 Rankings on Tuesday and our Halifax Mooseheads were among the honourable mention teams on the list. 

According to the website; The climb up the ranks begins this season for the Halifax Mooseheads as the club returns a well-rounded offensive core headlined by newly minted Columbus Blue Jackets draftee Jordan Dumais who was one of only seven QMJHL skaters to reach triple-digit production last season. 

Other honourable mention teams include the Owen Sound Attack of the OHL and the WHL's Portland Winterhawks. 

MACKINNON
It's been a good summer for alumni Nathan MacKinnon who after leading the Colorado Avalanche to a Stanley Cup title back on June 26, signed an 8-year contract extension earlier this week. The contract will start in the 2023-24 season and is worth $100.8 million dollars. At an average annual salary of $12.6 million, this will make MacKinnon the highest paid player in the National Hockey League. 

"Nathan is obviously one of the premier players in the NHL so a long-term extension was something we wanted to get done before the season started," said Avalanche General Manager Chris MacFarland. "He has that rare combination of speed and power with a high compete level that makes him a generational player. We are thrilled he will continue to be a member of this team and this community for many years to come." 

"Denver's the only place I want to be, for sure," MacKinnon recently said in Henderson, Nevada, during a pre-season player media tour. 

MacKinnon has recorded 242 goals and 648 points in 638 career regular season games. The 27-year-old is going into his 10th NHL season and his point total ranks sixth on the franchise's all-time scoring list. 

PREDICTIONS/PREVIEWS
Many believe that the Mooseheads will contend for the Maritimes division title this season and could contend in the playoffs in the spring. 

Chronicle Herald's Willy Palov shared his predictions of how the QMJHL will end come March;

3. Halifax Mooseheads: There's some debate about whether this is Halifax's 'go for it' year or if it's 2023-24. With the depth and balance the Mooseheads have in their lineup, it might end up being both. Zachary L'Heureux, Cam Whynot, Jordan Dumais and Mathieu Cataford are just some of the blue-chip pieces in place for a turn at the top of the cycle that should last a minimum of two years. 

The QMJHL shared their division previews for the 2022-23 season and on Wednesday, it was the Maritimes division's turn. Check out the video below.

Below you'll also find a video from the Canadian Hockey League previewing the QMJHL. 

HERD ON TV
Our Halifax Mooseheads will be in two games that will be apart of the CHL on TSN broadcast this season. The Herd's game against the Baie-Comeau Drakkar on November 3 and their match at the Moncton Wildcats on November 27 are among the fifteen-ish games set to be shown on TSN in the first half of the season. For a full list of matches, click here. 

The CHL also announced their TV Game of the Week broadcast schedule and it includes Halifax's match on October 8 versus the Islanders in Charlottetown. Fans can watch the game via the CHL mobile app and online at watch.chl.ca for free. Full schedule here. 

IMPORTANT DATES

• The date and location for the NHL/CHL Top Prospects game was announced by Regina Pats star and 2023 draft-eligible prospect Connor Bedard the other day. It will be played in Bedard's hometown of Vancouver, BC on January 25, 2023. 
• The QMJHL's holiday trading period will be Sunday, December 18 to Friday, January 6.
• Dates for the 2023 Memorial Cup were also announced and the tournament will be played from May 26 to June 5 in Kelowna. 

Photos - Avalanche Twitter & CHL website

Fitzgerald, MacKinnon Win Championships

A couple of former Halifax Mooseheads players became champions late last month. 

In the American Hockey League, the Chicago Wolves won the Calder Cup on June 25. Chicago's roster boasts a Mooseheads alum in defenceman Cavan Fitzgerald. The 25-year-old had a goal and 6 points in 17 games and will now have his name engraved on the trophy as a champion forever. The Wolves went 14-4 during the playoffs after leading the AHL in the regular season. 

Congrats to Cavan Fitzgerald and the Chicago Wolves on winning the 2022 Calder Cup!

Forward Nathan MacKinnon scored in Game 6 of the finals to help his Colorado Avalanche win the Stanley Cup on June 26. MacKinnon's goal tied the game up early in to the second period as the Avalanche won the series clinching match 2-1. Colorado had a really good post-season after another strong regular season, losing only four games in the playoffs. 

The Avs' route to the Finals started with a 4-0 series victory over the Nashville Predators, than they had a date with the St. Louis Blues a series which they won 4-2. Colorado swept their Western Conference final series against the Edmonton Oilers to meet up with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the ultimate trophy. The club finished the regular season with a 56-19-7 record, their best season in franchise history. Nathan finished the playoffs with 13 goals and 24 points in 20 games played. 

A big congrats to Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche on winning the 2022 Stanley Cup! 

Photos - Calder Cup on Twitter & The Hockey Writers

Herd Word

Photo - Shawn Davidson

LAVOIE
On the same day he had been cut from the World Junior team, 18 year old Raphael Lavoie found out he would participate in the 2019 Sherwin-Williams Top Prospects game next month. "The 24th annual showcase of the CHL’s top prospects eligible for the NHL Draft will be played on Wednesday January 23, 2019, at the ENMAX Centrium, home of the Western Hockey League’s Red Deer Rebels.  The 40 competing players were chosen by NHL clubs and include talent from across the WHL, the Ontario Hockey League, and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League." according to the press release. It hasn't been the season most expected Lavoie to have after the Montreal, QC native had 30 goals and 63 points in a full season last year however he still has 34 points in 31 games so far.

Congrats to Raphael, go show those scouts that you deserve to be a top 10 draft pick.

TOP 10
The KIA Canadian Hockey League Top 10 for Week 14 was announced on December 19 and your Halifax Mooseheads found themselves going into the holiday break ranked 7th in the country after a 2-0-0-1 record that week.

Full rankings below
1. Prince Albert Raiders (31-2-0-1)
2. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (28-6-0-1)
3. Ottawa 67's (25-6-3-1)
4. London Knights (23-5-2-1)
5. Everett Silvertips (27-7-1-1)
6. Drummondville Voltigeurs (25-7-1-0)
7. Halifax Mooseheads (24-7-1-1)
8. Vancouver Giants (22-8-2-0)
9. Baie-Comeau Drakkar (23-9-1-1)
10. Niagara IceDogs (20-7-5-0)

Honourable mentions: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (21-8-4-1), Sudbury Wolves (21-9-1-1), Moncton Wildcats (23-10-2-1)

FIRST HALF
Despite injuries and a few games that they really should've won, the Mooseheads finished the first half of the 2018-19 season in a pretty good place. Halifax is on top of the Maritimes division having won 24 of their first 33 games. They are third in QMJHL with an even 50 points. Halifax also has the third best power play so far this season while their penalty killing is the best in the league at 88.7%. Samuel Asselin, who was acquired from the Bathurst Titan after the season began, leads the Herd with 24 goals and 42 points which is good enough for 15th in the Q. Third year goaltender Alex Gravel finds himself in the top 5 of a few categories; save percentage (4th - 0.918), wins (2nd - 18) and shutouts (T-2nd - 2).

Halifax's last match before the break was against the Charlottetown Islanders where the Mooseheads skated to a 6-2 victory on home ice. Jordan Maher scored twice while Gravel made 30 saves.

TEAM OF THE WEEK
For the week ending December 17, 2018 the QMJHL announced the players on it's team of the week and there were two Mooseheads among them.

FUCALE
It was announced earlier this week that former Moose goaltender Zach Fucale had been named to the Canadian Spengler Cup team. The majority of Team Canada for this tournament is made up of players who play overseas now because their options to play pro in North America have dried up. Canada will play 2 preliminary matches against European clubs than head to the medal round. Fucale made 24 saves yesterday to help his team to a 2-1 victory against host HC Davos. Zach was apart of the team that won the gold medal two years ago at this tournament.

Good luck to Zach and Team Canada this week!

Photo - Avs website

MACKINNONWith it being December, attention has turned to the NHL All-Star game that will be held by the San Jose Sharks on Kanuary 27. Over the last couple of weeks, fans have been able to vote who they think should be named the captains of each of the division teams. Well the NHL announced the results of that vote this morning and former Herd star forward Nathan MacKinnon was voted as the C for the Central division. Kid Mack has been playing on what many have called the best line in hockey this season and has recorded 22 goals and 59 points. This will be Nathan's third All-Star appearance in his NHL career. He joins Auston Matthews (Toronto - Atlantic), Connor McDavid (Edmonton - Pacific) and Alexander Ovechkin (Washington - Metropolitan) as the captains.

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

MacKinnon receives extension

Big news came out of Colorado today as the Avalanche announced they have signed former Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon to a 7 year contract extension. The contract will come into effect this season as the 20 year olds entry level contract finished at the end of the 2015-16 NHL season. According to TSN, Nathan is set to make 44.1 million dollars over the 7 years which is an average of $6.3 million a season.

https://twitter.com/Avalanche/status/751530240040579072
https://twitter.com/Avalanche/status/751541255432048642

In 218 regular season games, Kid Mack has 59 goals and 153 points to go with 80 penalty minutes. He's added 2 goals and 10 points in 7 playoff games during his first year as pro. The Halifax, NS native recorded his first NHL career hat trick in his second season on February 22, 2015 becoming the youngest player in Avalanche history to score a hatty.

Congrats to Nathan on signing a contract extension and good luck in Denver for the next 7 years, I'm sure the fans will see plenty of good games by this young man.

Photo - The Chronicle Herald

It was announced last Friday that another former Herd player signed a contract. Congratulations to Andrew Bodnarchuk on becoming a Dallas Star. Andrew split last season between AHL's Lake Erie Monsters and their NHL affiliate; the Columbus Blue Jackets before being claimed off waivers by the Avs. He became a free agent on July 1st.
https://twitter.com/DallasStars/status/749017838854123520

Nathan number one!!

The Colorado Avalanche had the first overall pick and they were not bluffing when Joe Sakic and Patrick Roy said they would be taking a forward with their pick. Nathan MacKinnon of our Halifax Mooseheads is now apart of the Avalanche program. Congrats to Nathan and his family.

Next up is Florida at number 2.. Will there be two Mooseheads taken right after the other?