The Halifax Mooseheads will select 3rd overall during the upcoming entry draft.
Even though the Herd did not finish in the lower part of the standings, the club still had a chance to win the draft lottery as they hold the Rimouski Oceanic's first round pick after a previous trade. Halifax had 6 balls in the lottery, giving them the second best odds (at 28.6%) to win, however they slid to third.
The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, who had the best odds, won the lottery that was held on Tuesday night and will select first overall. Rouyn-Noranda acquired the pick from the Baie-Comeau Drakkar.
This is the second straight year that the Mooseheads will pick 3rd overall. In 2025, Halifax selected defenceman Malik L'Italien.
Halifax will host the 2026 QMJHL Entry Draft on June 5-6. The Moose also own the 7th overall pick, plus four more picks in the second round.
In other news....
There are four current players on the NHL Central Scouting final draft rankings; Oleg Kulebiakin #87, Eddy Doyle #108, Danny Walters #114 and Shawn Carrier #178. Good luck to them at the 2026 NHL Draft in late June.
The QMJHL semi-finals are set after the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada defeated the Newfoundland Regiment 4-2 in their series on Monday. Blainville take on the Moncton Wildcats while the Chicoutimi Sagueneens and Rouyn-Noranda Huskies will battle each other in the other series.
Halifax announced on Tuesday that they have signed free-agent forward Evan Nee. Nee, a native of Arlington, Massachusetts, will join the Mooseheads as he enters his 19-year-old season.
Former Herd bench boss Sylvain Favreau has won the Ron Lapointe Trophy after being named the Coach of the Year after leading the Drummondville Voltigeurs to a 40-18-3-3 record in the 2025-26 regular season.
Mathis Rousseau, an alumni goaltender of the Mooseheads, has committed to Cornell University after entering the NCAA's transfer portal.
Logan Crosby of Pictou County Photo - Jennifer Weeks
There are plenty of former Halifax Mooseheads players suiting up for teams in different leagues on both sides of the ocean. I figured I would share how some of them are doing in terms of statistics for the leagues that are on a holiday break now in North America. It's crazy that we are already this close to Christmas time.
QMJHL (major junior)
MJAHL (junior a)
QJHL (junior a)
NSJHL (junior b)
U-SPORTS (university)
NCAA
NSSHL (nova scotia senior)
AESHL (newfoundland senior)
CWSHL (newfoundland senior)
LHSAAAQ (quebec senior)
LHSB (new brunswick senior)
NPHL (ontario senior)
LHCS
LNAH (semi-professional)
Good luck to all the players in the second half of their season.
This is not a post that I thought I would ever write but with the rule change back in 2024 that players who skated in the Canadian Hockey League could continue their careers in the NCAA, that is where we are.
It is disappointing that these young men are not staying in Canada to play university hockey especially since as a fan, I would like to see them after they leave the Q however I understand. There are a handful of former Halifax Mooseheads players who will suit up for teams in the United States.
Jacob Steinman - Bowling Green State Falcons (CCHL)
Mathis Rousseau - Maine Black Bears (Hockey East)
Brady Schultz - Quinnipiac Bobcats (ECAC Hockey)
Markus Vidicek - Quinnipiac Bobcats (ECAC Hockey)
Stephane Huard - Sacred Heart Pioneers (AHA)
Alex Carr - New Hampshire Wildcats (Hockey East)
This is the first full season that CHL players are able to play NCAA hockey. Markus Vidicek, Brady Schultz and Quinnipiac will visit Boston College to start the season on Friday. Also happening this evening, Alex Carr and New Hampshire are set to host Mathis Rousseau and Maine. Sacred Heart and Bowling Green begin their season on Saturday.
We have turned the calendar in to August which means the off-season is two weeks away from being over for us fans and Halifax Mooseheads will soon start up again. The team kicked off the new month with a roster move as the QMJHL's pre-season trade period opened on Friday.
Halifax announced that they have acquired 18-year-old goaltender Owen Bresson from the Shawinigan Cataractes in exchange for a 2026 3rd round draft pick. Bresson, a Dominion, NS native, made his Q debut in November following the NCAA rule change. He picked up eight wins in 17 games played for the Cataractes while posting a 2.98 goals against average and a 0.905 save percentage.
Photo - Herd website
According to the press release, Owen will join Nick Cirka to form the duo who will mind the Mooseheads net this season. Welcome to the team Owen!
Other news and notes...
Like I mentioned above, the summer trade period began yesterday August 1 and it will go until August 24.
Herd training camp will start Aug. 16 the team announced a few days ago with two White-Green intrasquad games on the following day. I will share the full schedule when camp is closer but you can click here for what the team shared.
Tickets for Halifax's 'home' exhibition games will go on sale on Tuesday. A live stream will be provided for both on the team's YouTube channel.
Former forward Barrett Dachyshyn has signed with the Antigonish Senior Bulldogs of the NSJHL. The 26-year-old did not play last season after finishing four years at the University of Windsor.
92 players were invited to Hockey Canada's national teams orientation camp in preparation for the 2026 Olympics in Italy. Among the forty-two that will look for a spot on the men's team are alumni defenseman MacKenzie Weegar and forward Brad Marchand plus the previously named Nathan MacKinnon.
A new recruiting window opened on Aug. 1 for NCAA college hockey teams so be ready for more commitments from junior players. The Grand Forks Herald has a list of 20 Canadians to watch and the Mooseheads 2026 3rd overall selection Malik L'Italien is #16 on the list.
WORLD U17 Halifax Mooseheads associate coach Brad MacKenzie assisted Canada White to a gold medal at the 2024 World U17 Hockey Challenge earlier this month in Sarnia. In the six team tournament, Canada White defeated Czechia and lost to Sweden in overtime during the preliminary round. It was an all Canada championship match. Congrats to Brad and the rest of Canada White on becoming the U17 champions.
Photo - Hockey Canada website
NCAA RULE CHANGE In a big move, the NCAA voted a couple weeks ago that players who have skated for any of the CHL teams will be allowed to play collegiate hockey in the USA effective August 1, 2025. Previously, CHL players had been considered professionals and barred because of the NCAA's amateurism rules, in part because some CHL have signed NHL entry-level contracts according to the NHL website. While it'll probably increase the pool of talented American players (or Canadians wanting to play college hockey in the States) for the QMJHL, OHL and WHL, it sounds like it could be detrimental to other junior leagues in the country. Universities in Canada will likely feel the affect of this rule change as well. One example of this already is star goaltender for the Moncton Wildcats, Jacob Steinman announced his commitment to play for the Bowling Green Falcons in 2024-25.
Photo - Predators X
L'HEUREUX IN NHL Former Herd forward Zachary L'Heureux made his NHL debut on October 22 and has been able to stay up in top league ever since with the Nashville Predators. The 21-year-old scored his first NHL goal on Monday. L'Heureux, a native of Montreal, QC, has an additional three assists for a total of 4 points in 15 games played. Congrats to Zach.
ATTENDANCE Despite being in a rebuild year, fans in Moose Country are still showing up - at least according to official numbers. The average attendance so far this season of 7,815 is fourth most in team history through the first 10 games. The top three seasons are 2012-13 (8,270) when the team was projected to win the President's Cup, 2018-19 (8,131) and 1999-00 (8,078). Both of the latter seasons were years that the Mooseheads were Memorial Cup hosts. In the summer, the club announced that season ticket holder seats were sold out so that is great considering the Mooseheads didn't have the hype that those other teams did. Whether it's the new arena features and added in-game experiences or the fact that the lineup on the ice has been competitive most games or the fact that half of the matches have been against Quebec teams, nice to see the fans continuing to support the team.
MOOSE TRACKS Episode 3 of Moose Tracks is up on YouTube now but you can watch below. I guess I never shared the first two but you can watch Episode 1 and Episode 2 on the team's channel as well. I believe they only did four episodes last season, so hopefully since this is the third one already they will be doing more this season.
TREY LEWIS Not sure if this was talked about in the above mentioned podcast but Willy Palov posted last week that a new biography about former captain Trey Lewis has hit bookstore shelves. The book is written in french and has been a project for New Brunswick native Bruno Richard since 2020. Richard said he conducted more than 50 interviews of Lewis's friends, former teammates and others who know him best according to the article.
If you know french and enjoy hockey biographies, keep a look out for the book titled Mon idole, Trey Lewis at a store near you.
Photo - Herd website
NEW TEAM THINGS The club has announced a few new adventures this month and it began with the unveiling of a new bus. It features individual leather captain's chairs along with a new window layout and redesigned interior lighting which will provide a better passenger experience on their long road trips. Halifax also opened up a new physical team store that is at Mic Mac Mall in Dartmouth. Fans can get everything that has been sold on the online shop the last few years but I think the store has a few small additional items. I checked it out today and they have some nice displays so check it out if you need to do some Christmas shopping. The store will be open during mall hours Monday-Friday.
Scott MacIntosh and former Herd player Brad Cuzner launched the new Mooseheads podcast on Wednesday as well. I'm not sure how often they will put out a new episode but the first one is up on the team's YouTube channel now. Mooseheads ultimate tough guy Trey Lewis was a guest for this week, discussing his career with Halifax and what he has been up to since he graduated junior hockey. Check it out here.
