Herd Word

Most of these I wanted to share but didn't really feel like they were enough to make full posts about so hence this Herd Word. You've probably seen a lot of this info however for those who haven't, here you go.  

GURSOY

Photo - Walleye website

Halifax Mooseheads alumni Kevin Gursoy has signed a contract with the Toledo Walleye of the ECHL. This will be Gursoy's first professional season after spending the last five years at the university level with the Ryerson Rams and TMU Bold. He really excelled during the 2023-24 season, scoring 15 goals and 30 points in 28 games played. The 26-year-old had 84 points over his collegiate career after suiting up for 30 games with the Herd in 2020. 

Good luck to Kevin in Toledo. 

MOOSE UNCHARTED
Halifax has been doing something different this summer, sharing some short behind the scenes videos and calling them Moose Tracks Uncharted. The latest one looked into the on and off-ice tests that the boys had to go through recently. 

Check out the rest of clips on the team's YouTube channel. 

FLO HOCKEY
The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League has decided to switch up their streaming services and go with the company Flo Hockey, which streams thousands of games from the OHL, AHL, ECHL and other junior leagues. Fans can subscribe monthly or annually on the company's website, it sounds like with a subscription you get access to not just the Q matches but all the games available in your region. Mooseheads season ticket holders will get a 20% discount as a benefit. 

SINGLE GAME TICKETS
Tickets for the regular season will go on sale tomorrow September 9 at 11 a.m. You can buy tickets to all 32 games on ticketmaster.ca or going to the Scotiabank Centre box office. See prices below;

                        Lower    Upper
Adult                 $26        $22
Senior                $24        $20
Student              $18        $14
Youth                 $14        $12

Senior is 60 and over, youth is 12 and under.
Taxes included. Service charge not included.

Photo - Herd Facebook

FULL PROMOTIONAL SCHEDULE
I have already shared the normal annual events in a different post but since the team has officially announced their promotional schedule. I'll also have it on the 'Schedule' tab above. 

Home Opener            September 20     Charlottetown Islanders
Country Night            September 27    Saint John Sea Dogs
90's Night                   October 11        Moncton Wildcats
DND Appreciation     October 25         Cape Breton Eagles
Kid's Day                   November 9       Charlottetown Islanders
Weiner Dog Races     November 15    Moncton Wildcats
Toque Toss                December 6        Rouyn-Noranda Huskies
Toy Drive                   December 7        Val-d'Or Foreurs
Girl Guides Day        January 25          Drummondville Voltigeurs
Moose Fight Cancer  February 13        Moncton Wildcats
Scouts Canada Day    March 1              Quebec Remparts
Fan Appreciation        March 6             Cape Breton Eagles

STUDENT NIGHTS
Thought I would do a separate entry for the student nights. Students can get tickets during Thursday night matches for just $10 and have a chance to win in-game prizes. Games include October 2 vs. Baie-Comeau, October 9 vs. Rimouski, December 11 vs. Charlottetown, December 18 vs. Saint John, January 15 vs. Chicoutimi, February 12 vs. Shawinigan and March 5 vs. Blainville-Boisbriand. 

NHL ROOKIE CAMPS
A couple of current Herd players and three alumni will be participating in rookie camps over the next few weeks.
Liam Kilfoil - Detroit Red Wings 
Carlos Handel - Montreal Canadiens 
Jake Furlong - San Jose Sharks
Dylan MacKinnon - Boston Bruins 
Mathieu Cataford - Vegas Golden Knights

Good luck to the four players at camp. If I've missed anyone, please let me know.

MOOSE & MILITARY
Our Halifax Mooseheads have had a long history of supporting the Royal Canadian Navy, mainly CFB Halifax here in Nova Scotia. Last month, this year's team visited HMCS Frederick Rolette and met with the personnel on the ship. The players explored many areas on the vessel. 

Herd Word

ALL-STAR TEAMS

Photo - QMJHL website

Despite having a not so good season, a couple of Halifax Mooseheads players were honoured for their efforts during the regular season. Goaltender Jacob Steinman, probably mostly because of his stats while he was with the Moncton Wildcats before being traded to Halifax at Christmas time, was named to the QMJHL First All-Star Team earlier this month. In 52 games played in 2024-25, Steinman had a 29-16-4-1 record, a 2.44 goals against average with a 0.923 save percentage and 3 shutouts. At the same time, defenceman Carlos Handel was one of six players to be on the All-Rookie Team after picking up 3 goals and 26 points in 52 games, all with the Mooseheads. 

Congrats to both guys being given the recognition!

MOOSE TRACKS
I haven't shared all the Moose Tracks videos but thought I would post this one as it seems like it will be the last one for the season. For episode 7, we get behind the scenes looks at play by play announcer Garreth MacDonald and go into the dressing room. 

PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE
Our Mooseheads announced their pre-season schedule a couple of weeks ago and the team will play four exhibition matches, all against provincial rivals Cape Breton. I noticed the schedule being up a couple days before the team made it official, but it looked odd so wasn't sure it was the full schedule. Nice to see the team will be sharing the love around Nova Scotia this year. This is the least amount of games I have seen Halifax play. 

August 19  at Cape Breton     7:00 p.m.  Centre 200
August 20  vs Cape Breton     7:00 p.m.  St. Margaret's Centre
August 23  vs Cape Breton     4:00 p.m.  Rath Eastlink Community Centre
September 6  at Cape Breton     4:00 p.m.  Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre

GOLDEN PUCK AWARDS
The QMJHL announced the nominees for the first seven Golden Puck Awards a few weeks ago and former Herd Markus Vidicek was among the three names vying for the Guy Carbonneau Trophy as top defensive forward. Unfortunately, the next day the winner was announced as Matyas Melovsky of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. 

On May 21, the league released the names for the final eight awards. First, net-minder Jacob Steinman has been nominated for the Patrick Roy Trophy as goaltender of the year. The 20-year-old had a 0.917 save percentage in 22 games with Halifax according to the article. Mooseheads alumni Mathieu Cataford is one of the final three players who will look to win the Marcel Robert Trophy which is given to the student athlete of the year. The winners will be announced on June 5. 

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
It was a mixed bag of results for former Halifax Mooseheads players at the World Championships. After Winnipeg was eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, forward Nikolaj Ehlers joined host Denmark, making it six alumni participating in the tournament. The 29-year-old Ehlers helped his country to a 4th place finish, their best ever result, by scoring 3 goals in 4 games. They would battle against Nathan MacKinnon, MacKenzie Weegar and Canada in the quarter-finals, winning 2-1. MacKinnon recorded 13 points in 8 games but couldn't help the Canadians finish higher than 5th place. Filip Zadina and Czechia lost 5-2 to Sweden in the quarters. Nico Hischier was once again named captain of Switzerland but unfortunately got injured just a week into the competition, ending his tournament. Timo Meier finished 17th in scoring with 3 goals and 10 points as the Swiss lost a very tight final game, 1-0 in overtime to the United States.

Congratulations to Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Switzerland on becoming silver medalists on May 25. 

Other things..

• Mooseheads alumni Maxime Fortier has signed on with SaiPa of Liiga for the 2025-26 season 
• The 2025 Memorial Cup is over for the two Q teams after the Rimouski Oceanic went 0-3 in the preliminary round while the Moncton Wildcats were defeated by London in the semi-finals 
• Beginning next year, the CHL along with its membership leagues, announced that Under Armour will be the exclusive jersey, footwear and apparel partner while Bauer will serve as the official equipment supplier 
• Another university commitment was made last week with assistant captain Braeden MacPhee joining the recruitment class for the UNB Reds 
• From Scott Wheeler; d-man Carlos Handel has been invited to this year's NHL draft combine which begins on Monday

Herd Word

Photo - Wikipedia

WORLD JUNIORS
There isn't officially a Halifax Mooseheads representative that will be playing at the 2025 World Juniors but alum forward Mathieu Cataford was named last week to Team Canada's roster for the annual holiday tournament. He is one of only two QMJHL players on the team. It is the first time that the 19-year-old will wear the red and white in his career. Meanwhile, Herd rookie defenceman Carlos Handel was invited to Germany's selection camp and will be hoping to prove himself that he deserves to be on the final team. 

Teams don't have to submit their final roster until late Christmas Eve. Congrats to Cataford on making Team Canada and good luck to Handel at the selection camp with Team Germany. 

SPRYNAR
Forward Jan Sprynar has made the decision to not return to the Mooseheads after the Christmas break and has signed a contract with HC Verva Litvinov in Czechia to continue his career. The 19-year-old will play professionally in his home country after recovering from an upper-body injury that he sustained on December 6th. He had 9 points for Halifax this season and a total of 29 points in 47 games for the club since being acquired by the Herd at last year's trade deadline. 

Thank you Jan for your contributions in Moose Country and good luck with your new team. 

MOOSE TRACKS
Episode 4 of the second season of Moose Tracks has been released on the team's YouTube channel but you can find it below. This one includes scenes from Liam Kilfoil's billet house, captain Brady Schultz on a ride to the game and Shawn Carrier discussing his move to Halifax. 

BARRON
Former Herd defenceman Justin Barron is on the move again. The 23-year-old was traded to the Nashville Predators on Wednesday by the Montreal Canadiens and will be back with former teammate Zach L'Heureux. After being drafted by Colorado 25th overall in the 2020 NHL draft, the Halifax, NS native has played 111 games in the top professional league so far with all but two of those for Montreal. Barron has scored 1 goal only in 17 games played in 2024-25 but has 13 goals and 31 points in his career. 

Good luck to Justin in Nashville. 

Photo - LeNouvelliste.ch

POINT LEADERS
There are a few Moose alumni who sit on top of some different leagues at the time of this writing. James Swan (2020-2022) leads all former Herd players in points so far this season with a total of 56 points but is third in the QJHL in 28 games suiting up for the Valleyfield Braves. Star Nathan MacKinnon (2011-2013) became the first NHL player to hit 50 points in 2024-25 and he actually recorded his 600th career assist on December 10 against Pittsburgh. The 29-year-old has 13 goals and 37 assists in 33 games. Forward Peter Reynolds is tied for the AUS league lead at the Christmas break with 29 points (16G & 13A) for the top-ranked UNB Reds. He and teammate Benjamin Corbeil actually lead all of the U-Sports players and this is only his first year of university hockey. 

Another forward that is tied for a league lead is Samuel Asselin (2018-2019), who decided to move to Europe to play pro hockey in the summer and seems like it was the right choice. The 26-year-old has 44 points (19G & 25A) for HC Sierre in the SL. His current teammate Josh Lawrence (2022-2023) is third in scoring with 36 points in 30 games played. Meanwhile, Randy Gazzola is the defensive leader of the ICEHL while suiting up for Asiago. 

PODCAST
The third episode of the new podcast "This is Moose Country" was released today and includes guest appearances by newcomer Quinn Kennedy and veteran Owen Phillips. 

MURPHY
There might be more stories like this one regarding alum but its the only one I have seen recently. Former Herd d-man Matt Murphy has been acquired by the Lake Tahoe Knight Monsters in the ECHL from the Cincinnati Cyclones. Murphy skated in 20 games for the Cyclones in 2024-25, scoring two goals and adding six assists. The 29-year-old has suited up for multiple teams since spending five years at UNB and was able to win a professional title with the Fort Wayne Komets in 2021. 

UP NEXT
The QMJHL is on Christmas break and the winter trade period opened on Monday. Our Halifax Mooseheads will be back on the ice on December 28 visiting the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at 7pm. The Herd will be looking to end a losing streak against the Titan as they are 0-2-2-0 versus Bathurst this season. Halifax will then head to Sydney to take on the Cape Breton Eagles on December 30 before the two clubs battle each other again in Moose Country the following afternoon to finish 2024. Puck drops at 2:00 p.m., tickets are still available. 

Herd Word

Below is another collection of stories that have happened recently in regards to our Halifax Mooseheads. A few of them are old news but I didn't share much in November as I wanted to because I did not feel good for most of the month. There are probably stories I am missing but I try my hardest to include what I can. Hope you enjoy this post. 

MOOSE TRACKS
The Halifax Mooseheads have brought back a behind the scenes look at the team with a new season of the Moose Tracks feature. The first episode is titled 'Legacy' and shows from training camp until the Mathis Rousseau goal. Check out the video below.

I got to say that it is nice to see these back and the video is very well done. Always good to see the behind the scenes stuff. I'm not sure when the next episode will be shared but I'm looking forward to it as the first one finished on a bit of a cliffhanger. 

Photo - Herd Twitter

FRANCHISE RECORD
We knew it was going to happen this season but we just didn't know when. Forward Jordan Dumais made more history last month when he set a new franchise record for points with 304 which was an assist on a first period goal during a game against the Cape Breton Eagles on November 12. Over 9,000 fans witnessed the milestone be accomplished that afternoon with the previous holder Brandon Benedict and his family in attendance as well. The Columbus Blue Jackets prospect recorded three assists in total in a 4-0 victory and was named first star of the game. 

Benedict played for the Mooseheads from 1998 to 2003 and recorded 303 regular season points during his five seasons over 343 games in the QMJHL. He is now the head coach of the MHL's Valley Wildcats. The 41-year-old had a special moment with Dumais in the Herd dressing room post game. 

Dumais has continued to rack up points since and as of this post, has 320 through 191 games played. His total puts him at 146th overall in the Q. 

LARMAND
Cam Russell and the Mooseheads staff made a move a couple of weeks ago, adding 20-year-old forward Ethan Larmand to the roster from the Sudbury Wolves. The native of Midland, ON was placed on waivers by the Wolves after playing 169 games for the team, collecting 62 points. Larmand fills the vacant overage roster position and will wear #55.

"We're very happy to add Ethan to our lineup. He is a character guy who plays well at both ends of the ice and will give us some extra veteran leadership in the dressing room," said GM Russell. 

A late welcome to the team Ethan. 

Photo - QMJHL website

PLAYERS OF THE MONTH
The players of the month for November were announced last week and our leading scorer, Jordan Dumais was named the Forward of the Month. He scored 8 goals and 26 points in 12 games played. 

Baie-Comeau's Alexis Bernier was named the top defenseman, while the goaltender of the month was Nathan Darveau of Victoriaville. Raoul Bollard of the Drakkar was named the best rookie in November. 

TEAM OF THE WEEK
Herd defenseman Brady Schultz was named to the Q Team of the Week for the period ranging from November 27 to December 3, 2023. 

Photo - QMJHL website

CHL TOP 10
After a three loss week, all on the road against Quebec teams, our Mooseheads fell down to #7 on the CHL's top 10 rankings on Tuesday. 

1. Baie-Comeau Drakkar (25-3-2-0)   last week: 2
2. Prince George Cougars (21-7-0-0)   last week: 1 
3. Kitchener Rangers (20-7-1-0)   last week: 4
4. Saginaw Spirit (16-8-0-1)   last week: 8
5. Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (17-8-2-0)   last week: 9
6. Saskatoon Blades (19-8-1-0)   last week: 10

7. Halifax Mooseheads (19-7-3-0)   last week: 3

8. Wenatchee Wild (19-8-3-0)   last week: n/a
9. Moncton Wildcats (18-7-1-1)   last week: 6
10. Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (16-7-1-3)   last week: n/a

DURANDEAU
Former Herd forward Arnaud Durandeau has new colours after the New Jersey Devils acquired the 24-year-old from the New York Islanders last week. Durandeau will report to the AHL's Utica Comets. He had one goal and three assists in 12 games played with the Bridgeport Islanders before being traded. Since he left Halifax after the 2018-19 season, the Montreal, QC native has played 201 professional games most of them in the American Hockey League. 

Photo - Devils website

He joins a Devils organization that has a few other Mooseheads alumni in it, with Nico Hischier and Timo Meier playing in New Jersey while Xavier Parent is now Durandeau's teammate in Utica. 

NEXT GAMES
Our Moose will hope to turn things around this week after a disappointing road trip that saw the team go 1-3-1-0 over the five games. Halifax will have back to back home games in which the fans can cheer on a few players before they go off to World Junior camp. Thursday will see the Western conference leading Drummondville Voltigeurs come to town meanwhile the inaugural Toque Toss game is on Friday against the Gatineau Olympiques.