There will be three Halifax Mooseheads rookies heading to Ottawa later this month as Hockey Canada has named 66 players to their Under-17 roster for the Capital City Challenge on Friday. The players will be divided into three teams - Team Canada Black, Team Canada Red and Team Canada White - and will take on Canada's National Women's Team.
Defenceman Dylan MacKinnon along with forwards Logan Crosby and Mathieu Cataford will wear the maple leaf from November 26-December 1. The black, red and white rosters will be announced at a later date.
The Capital City Challenge opens on Nov. 26 at TD Place Arena, home of the Ottawa 67's of the Ontario Hockey League. Canada's centralization roster will face Team Canada White in the tournament opener at 12 p.m. ET, followed by Team Canada Black taking on Team Canada Red at 7 p.m. ET according to the press release.
To see the full U-17 roster that includes 19 QMJHLers, click here.
Congrats to our 3 young guys who will be participating in this challenge.
Two Halifax Mooseheads rookies have returned home to Moose Country as silver medalists after Team Canada Red was defeated by Team USA on Saturday night at the World U17 Hockey Challenge.
16 year olds Justin Barron and Xavier Parent were among the 20 players named to Canada Red, which was one of three Canadian teams at the tournament. Canada's journey to the gold medal wasn't smooth but they received a lot of help from Parent who led the team with 7 points, along with two other players. The red team had 1 win and two losses in the preliminary round before beating Canada Black and the Czech Republic in the quarter finals and semis, respectively.
Check out the goal by Parent when they played Sweden on November 6 here.
The Americans showed that they have some good young talent coming up after going 2-1-0-0 in the prelims and just dominating during the medal round. USA got out to a 5-0 lead in the second period before Canada Red were able to close the gap by scoring three goals in six minutes. The final score ended up being 6-4 Team USA.
Congratulations to Parent and Barron on winning the silver medal and representing Canada well earlier this month.
MEIER
According to the San Jose Barracuda, former Halifax Mooseheads captain Timo Meier is set to make his professional debut on Friday night for the Barracuda. Meier's pro debut was pushed back a couple of weeks because the 20 year old was diagnosed with monocleosis at the end of September forcing him out of the lineup for at least 4 weeks. The San Jose Sharks, who drafted Timo 9th overall in the 2015 NHL draft, reassigned the forward to the AHL a couple of weeks ago to get some conditioning after he felt better. Meier had this to say on Tuesday after his first full practice since his diagnosis; “I feel great, and I can’t wait to get out there. I feel like we have a really good team, I think we can really achieve a lot.” According to the article, the Herisau, Switzerland native lost 10 pounds in the month that he was sick but has gained it back. In two and a half seasons with the Herd, Meier had 160 points which included 72 goals in 150 games played. Halifax traded Timo to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies on January 6 where he scored 23 goals and 51 points in 29 games to help the team get 1st overall in the league. During the playoffs, the forward was second in team scoring and helped lead the Huskies to their first President's Cup win. He was also the captain of the 2016 Switzerland World Junior team where he finished with 5 points in 6 games. Good luck to Timo in your debut and this season with the Barracuda.
LOCAL NIGHT
Saturday evening's game versus the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles has been designated as Celebrate Local Night at Scotiabank Centre. The Moose will host Pierre-Luc Dubois and the Eagles in the second game of a home-and-home series. The team has stated that about 800 prizes will be handed out from local businesses. There will also be a few Nova Scotian Olympians and Paralympians who participated in the Rio Olympics in August, according to the release.
Photo - Team Canada twitter
U17 CHALLENGE
On Tuesday, Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Jared McIsaac, two rookies for the Mooseheads who have played quite well so far this season, left Halifax to head to Saint Ste. Marie to participate in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge hosted by Hockey Canada. The Canadian teams announced their leadership group on Thursday and both boys are apart of their respective team's leaders. Groulx was named captain of Canada Red while McIsaac was given an A for Canada White. The tournament runs from October 28-November 5. Congratulations to Jared and Benoit-Olivier and good luck guys.
Photo - Team Canada twitter
SPORTSNET
It was announced on Friday that the January 7th game vs. the Saint John Sea Dogs will be broadcasted nationally across Canada on Sportsnet. Because the channel now shows NHL hockey on Saturday nights, the start of the Mooseheads game has been moved to 4:00pm Atlantic time instead of the normal 7pm to allow for the TV slot.
MACKINNON
Former Halifax Mooseheads star player Nathan MacKinnon had a little fun on Thursday to celebrate the Denver Nuggets basketball season getting underway. Dressed in a Nuggets jersey, Kid Mack tried some trick shots and made a nice basket while facing the opposite direction. Check it out here.
NEW SIGNEE
The Herd announced that they had signed a 17 year old Ontario free agent on Tuesday. Moose Country would like to welcome Caleb Rich to the team. Rich played 15 games in the Northern Ontario Hockey League this season for the French River Rapids before being signed by the Herd. In 68 career games with the Rapids, the Callander, ON native had 27 goals and 64 points. He was in the lineup for Halifax on Wednesday night even though he wasn't expected to be. General Manager Cam Russell feels "that he could be a top-six player since he was a point per game player as a 16-year-old." Russell also had this to say; “There’s lots to like there he’s got great size, good speed and he seems to play well in traffic.”
Hockey Canada announced on Wednesday afternoon the players that will represent the three Canadian teams at the World U17 Hockey Challenge at the end of October. Among the roster are three Halifax Mooseheads players. Rookies Raphael Lavoie, Jared McIsaac and Benoit-Olivier Groulx were listed among the 66 Canadian under 17 players listed. All three young men were in the summer camp back a few months ago and clearly impressed the Hockey Canada personnel.
In 7 games so far this season, Groulx has three goals and 5 points while defenseman McIsaac has 2 assists in 8 games. Forward Raphael Lavoie has an assist in 4 games played but has made contributions in other ways. The three players are 16 years old. The 3 will most likely leave around October 27 to get set up for the pre-tournament games and will be back after the tournament finishes on November 5. Hockey Canada will announce the individual team rosters in the next couple of weeks. In the World U17 Hockey Challenge, Canada has three teams named black, red and white and will go against teams from Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Russia and the United States.
Congratulations to Benoit-Olivier, Jared and Raphael on making the roster and representing your country. Check back in a couple weeks for which Canadian team each player is on for the tournament.
Hockey Canada announced the invitees to their summer showcase camps on Monday in preparation of the 2016-17 hockey season. The announcement comes just 2 weeks after team coaches were named with former Halifax Mooseheads head boss Dominique Ducharme being appointed as the World Junior team's head coach.
Alexis Gravel
Photo - Gravel's Twitter
Defenseman Walter Flower was invited to the under-18 selection camp. "From July 29-Aug. 2, 44 players – four goaltenders, 16 defencemen, and 24 forwards – will participate in practices and three Red-White intrasquad games." Twenty-two men will be selected to play on the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Canadian team after the five days in Calgary.
During the same time, "111 players – 12 goaltenders, 36 defenceman and 63 forwards – will participate in practices and games on one of six teams: Black, Blue, Gold, Green, Red, and White." Four kids that your Herd drafted at the beginning of the month were invited to participate in the U-17 development camp. Goaltender Alexis Gravel, defenseman Jared McIsaac along with forwards Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Raphael Lavoie were amoung the players heading to Calgary for a chance to be on 1 of three national teams at the U-17 World Hockey Challenge held in early November.
Congratulations to all five young men and good luck next month.
Arnaud Durandeau will be gone from the Halifax Mooseheads lineup until next weekend. The 16 year old was a late addition to Team Canada's U17 Challenge roster after a player originally named to the team was injured. Durandeau will be on Canada Black for the U17 World Hockey Challenge which begins today and goes to November 7.
The U17 Challenge pits players from Canada, Czech Republic, Sweden, United States, Russia and Finland who are 17 and younger. Hockey Canada hosts the event every year and puts 3 teams together to go up against the other teams in the 8 day tournament. Each team plays 3 preliminary games against the teams in their group.
Durandeau joins rookie defenseman Walter Flower in British Columbia for the week. Flower will be on Canada Red. Both boys play today, Durandeau and Canada Black against Canada White at 5:30pm Atlantic time while Flower and Canada Red will go against the United States at 10pm. The two Mooseheads rookies won't play each other until possibly the quarter finals or later, depending on where each team places.
Halifax Mooseheads prospect Walter Flower scored a goal in the championship game to help his Team White to an Under-17 Team Canada Summer Showcase camp title earlier today in Calgary. It was the only point the 16 year old had in the 5 day camp, which will help Hockey Canada select who will represent the country in the upcoming World U17 Hockey Challenge. Team White won the game 6-5 in overtime against Team Green. Flower and Team White ended with a record of 2 wins and an overtime win.
Arnaud Durandeau, another Herd prospect, had a better camp but it wasn't enough to get his Team Blue to the title game. Durandeau scored two goals to help Blue get a 5-4 victory in today's 3rd place game at the camp. The 16 year old finished the week with 5 points all together adding an assist on Monday and collecting a goal and an assist on Sunday.
EASTLINK
Your Halifax Mooseheads will play 11 games on Eastlink TV this season. The Atlantic Canada network released their QMJHL Friday Night Hockey schedule today.
Eastlink will show 24 Q games this year which will feature home matches from Halifax, Cape Breton and Charlottetown with the majority on Friday nights but a few will be on Saturday. Playoff matches will be released at a later date. Below is the Mooseheads schedule:
September 11 at Charlottetown September 25 vs. Moncton
October 17 vs. Bathurst
October 23 vs. Cape Breton
November 6 vs. Chicoutimi
December 4 vs. Rouyn Noranda
January 8 vs. Rimouski
February 20 vs. Charlottetown
February 27 vs. Saint John
March 5 at Cape Breton
March 11 vs. Moncton
PRE-SEASON TICKETS
Tickets for the Mooseheads' pre-season game against the Charlottetown Islanders in Truro are on sale now. You can get them through the RECC ticket office, ticketpro.ca and the season ticket office at the Scotiabank Centre. Tickets for the 2 games at the Halifax Forum will go on sale August 4.
HOCKEY CANADA
All of the Mooseheads bench staff will be in Calgary at some point in August. Coach Ducharme will serve as an assistant coach for the U20 team once again this year. The summer development camp will be held at the Markin MacPhail Centre from August 1-6. Jon Greenwood will be attending the U17 camp as a guest coach from July 29-August 4. Jim Midgley will be guest coaching as well but for the U18 men's camp from August 2-4. Chris MacDonald will be the equipment manager for the Junior team while athletic therapist will be working with the women's team from August 6-16.
PROSPECTS
Newly drafted prospects Walter Flower and Arnaud Durandeau will be in Calgary as well as part of the U17 summer showcase. The pair will than travel back home and spend a few days with family most likely before attending the Mooseheads training camp which begins August 12.
