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

Alumni to Play in Worlds

Photo - IIHF website

A few former Halifax Mooseheads players will be playing in the 2025 IIHF World Championships which begin today in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark. 

I already mentioned MacKenzie Weegar, who plays for the Calgary Flames in the NHL, is suiting up for Team Canada. He will be joined by former Herd teammate and current Colorado Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon. In Group B, New Jersey Devils teammates Nico Hischier and Timo Meier will be representing Switzerland in the international tournament with Hischier once again captaining the team. Herd alumni Filip Zadina has been asked to play for Czechia after finishing his season with the NL's HC Davos. 

Switzerland and Czechia will open the tournament taking on each other Friday afternoon with puck drop being 4:20pm CET/11:20am AT in Herning. Meanwhile, Canada kicks off the tournament on Saturday taking on Slovenia in the early game at 12:20pm CET/7:20am AT. You can watch all the games on TSN.

For those who haven't paid attention to the World Championships before, here's a little breakdown. There are two groups and each one has 8 countries in it with each team playing 7 games in the preliminary round. At the end of the prelims, the top 4 teams in each group will advance to the quarter-final round while the each group's bottom team will automatically be relegated to Division 1 for next year. The Gold Medal game is set to take place on May 25. 

Good luck to our alumni and all the teams during the tournament. Hope it is an exciting one. 

Herd Word

UNIVERSITY CUP
The 2025 University Cup was played back in March and once again there were a few Mooseheads alumni participating. This year the teams included were; #1 New Brunswick Reds (AUS champs - Peter Reynolds), #2 Saskatchewan Huskies (CW champs), #3 Concordia Stingers (OUA champs), #4 Toronto Metropolitan Bold (OUA finalist - Kevin Gursoy), #5 Mount Royal Cougars (CW finalist), #6 Moncton Aigles Bleus (AUS finalist - Denis Toner), #7 Queen's Gaels (OUA bronze - Ethan Larmand) and #8 Ottawa Gee-Gees (OUA semifinalist - David Lafrance). 

In a big upset, the host Gee-Gees defeated the top ranked Reds in their first round game 3-2 in overtime. That victory propelled the University of Ottawa to its first University Cup trophy on March 23. They met the Stingers in the gold medal game and won 3-2. 

Congrats to former Herd David Lafrance on winning gold at the tournament. 

Photo - Gee-Gees website

FROM THE OWNERS
Shortly after our Mooseheads were ousted from the playoffs, the owners of the club Peter and Sam Simon shared a letter to Moose Country about the season. 

A week ago our season came to an end, but as we reflect, we couldn't be prouder of our team, staff, and organization. This season was one of a new culture, character, and identity that will forever continue to be the "Mooseheads way". Our group worked hard each night and competed to the highest degree. The belief was strong as ever that even with our youth, there was no limity what we could achieve. Our foundation is solid, and this is the minimum standard moving forward. Now it is incumbent upon us, our staff, and the returning players to take the next step and be even stronger. We set our own expectations internally, and the standard will only elevate from here.

Peter Simon also met with Scott McIntosh for a year end interview to share his thoughts on the season, what's next for the team and more. You can watch it on the clubs YouTube channel. 

CSS RANKINGS
The ending of the NHL regular season allows fans and teams who didn't make the playoffs a chance to switch their focus to the next one. With that, the NHL and Central Scouting Services announced in mid-April their final rankings for the 2025 NHL draft. A few current Herd players were among the 225 players on the North American list. No surprise here but the top two players ranked come from the Ontario Hockey League with Matthew Schaefer of the Erie Otters first followed by the Saginaw Spirit's Michael Misa at #2. Misa led the who CHL in scoring during the 2024-25 regular season. Moncton Wildcats' Caleb Desnoyers is the highest ranked QMJHL player. 

Halifax players ranked
D Carlos Handel  - #73
C Liam Kilfoil  - #90
LW Shawn Carrier  - #148

Hopefully we will see these guys get drafted in late June. 

BRAVES CHAMPIONS

Photo - QJHL website

A late congrats to the Valleyfield Braves who won the 2025 QJHL playoffs on April 23 against the reigning champs Longueuil. Moose alum James Swan captained the Braves this season and was teammates with another former Herd player in Vincent Gauthier. Swan tied the league lead in regular season scoring with 89 points (58G & 31A) in 48 games played, while Gauthier had 26 points in the playoffs including a goal in Game 6 to help Valleyfield win the series 4-2. 

The Braves will now compete for the national championship in Calgary, AB for a chance to lift the Centennial Cup starting May 8.

NHL PLAYOFF UPDATE
We started with six Herd alumni in the NHL post-season but are now down to two. Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers have already booked their ticket to the second round after defeating Tampa Bay in 5 games. They will play the Toronto Maple Leafs now. Nikolaj Ehlers has been injured and missed the Winnipeg Jets' first five playoff games but was back in the lineup on Friday. The Jets had a great regular season winning the President Trophy as the best team in the NHL and will hope that they can advance tonight with a Game 7 victory. 

The Colorado Avalanche lost last night in Dallas which means that they are out of the playoffs now. Halifax native Nathan MacKinnon scored in the game but it wasn't enough as the Stars won the match 4-2 picking up a 4-3 series win. MacKinnon had 7 goals and 11 points to lead the Avs while Jonathan Drouin recorded 3 assists. The New Jersey Devils were the only other team in the playoffs with former Mooseheads participating with two Swiss forwards. Both Nico Hischier (4A) and Timo Meier (2G & 2A) had 4 points in five games as the Devils lost their series 4-1 against the Carolina Hurricanes. 

WEEGAR 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

The first 15 players who will wear the maple leaf at the 2025 IIHF World Championship were announced by Hockey Canada on Thursday and Moose alum defenseman MacKenzie Weegar was on the roster. Weegar previously suited up for Canada in 2023 and will look to help them back to a medal after the red and white finished 4th in last year's tournament. 

I have not seen many other countries naming players who will participate in the tournament which is taking place May 9-25 in Stockholm, Sweden and Herning, Denmark. With MacKinnon out of the playoffs now we may see him on Team Canada and hopefully Meier and Hischier will suit of for Switzerland. 

Congrats and good luck to MacKenzie in the championships. 

INTERVIEW WITH COACH
The latest This Is Moose Country podcast hosted by Scott MacIntosh and Brad Cuzner has an interview with head coach Andrew Lord. Skip to 26:48 of the video if you just want to hear what Lord has to say. 

A few other notes

• Shawn Carrier was the latest player to be featured in the Q's Meet the Future series. 
• Goaltender Zach Fucale, forward Ostap Safin and the Traktor Chelyabinsk finished on top of the KHL regular season standings and are currently leading their semi-final series 3 games to 0. 
• Check out the video that the Herd posted as the team came together following their second round playoff loss.
• Scott MacIntosh did an article about how the rest of the 2024 Mooseheads draft class performed during the 2024-25 season. A couple of prospects (Logan Trewin & Gavin Sudds) won the NSU18MHL championship with the Halifax Macs.
• The Rimouski Oceanic will look to advance to the QMJHL finals with a win this evening in Game 6 of their series against the Shawinigan Cataractes. Puck drops at 5 p.m. AT in Shawinigan. Rimouski has 3 alumni on their team. 

Herd Word

Since I haven't posted all summer, below you will find some news that you may have missed if you are not on social media. 

Photo - TSN

CATAFORD MVP, ALL-STAR TEAMS
A couple Halifax Mooseheads players were announced as finalists for QMJHL awards back in May to celebrate the 2023-24 season. Mathieu Rousseau had a chance to win the Patrick Roy Trophy as the league's top goaltender, however it was given to William Rousseau of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies. Meanwhile, Mathieu Cataford was nominated for two awards; the Marcel Robert Trophy (best scholastic player) and the Michel Briere Trophy. The 19-year-old won the latter, being named the QMJHL's regular season Most Valuable Player. He 'had an outstanding season with career highs in goals (40), assists (50) and points (90) to lead the team in scoring while finishing third in the QMJHL scoring race.'

After the individual awards were handed out, the league announced the all-star teams for the 2023-24 season which included forward Mathieu Cataford on the first team while the second team included goaltender Mathis Rousseau and forward Markus Vidicek. Congrats to these three guys on being recognized for their efforts.

Photo - Herd website

NEW HOCKEY STAFF
There were a number of staffing changes once again for our Halifax Mooseheads during the off-season. The first move was head coach Jim Midgley being released of his duties after Halifax bowed out of the 2024 playoffs with a first-round exit. GM Cam Russell made the announcement on April 16, saying the team also dismissed assistant coach Liam Heelis. 

A little less than two months later, Andrew Lord was hired as the 14th head coach in team history while Brad MacKenzie was promoted to associate coach. According to the press release, 'Lord is the reigning ECHL Coach of the Year after leading the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to a 44-23-4-1 record and the team's first South Division Championship in more than a decade.'

"We are thrilled to have Andrew join our staff and excited to watch him take the reigns of our young, revamped roster," said Russell. 

Two additions to the hockey staff were announced in late July as Morgan MacDonald was named the full-time Video & Player Development Coach while Charles Grant is the new Goaltending Coach. The positions were made available after Joey Perricone and Jon Sim departed. 

Welcome to the team to the new staff members. 

HISCHIER WINS SILVER
Former Halifax Mooseheads forward Nico Hischier has a silver medal after Switzerland lost to Czechia in the 2024 IIHL World Championship game back in late May. The Swiss finished second in Group A with a 5-1-0-1 (w-otw-otl-l) record during the preliminary round to advance to the quarter-finals. They defeated Germany and Canada (in a shootout) to make it to the gold medal match. Hischier had 6 goals and 5 assists in 10 games played during the tournament and finished 7th in scoring. 

Alum Cam Critchlow also participated in the tournament for Team Great Britain, who unfortunately finished 15th overall.  

QMJHL ENTRY DRAFT
Our Halifax Mooseheads added 15 prospects to their roster and made a couple of trades during the 2024 QMJHL Draft weekend that was held June 7-8 in Moncton, NB. 

Before the draft began, Halifax moved forwards Markus Vidicek and Dylan MacKinnon along with two third rounders to the Moncton Wildcats in two separate trades for Shawn Carrier and three 2026 draft picks. The Mooseheads received a first round draft pick in 2024 plus 4 other picks in exchange for Mathieu Cataford from the Rimouski Oceanic. 

Photo - Herd website

With the first rounder, the Moose drafted Halifax native Daniel Walters 11th overall. Walters played the 2023-24 season with the Halifax McDonalds where he scored 27 points (9G & 18A) in 27 games. 

Full list of selections is below:
RD 1 #11 - C Daniel Walters - Halifax Macs U18
RD 2 #34 - LW Caylen Blake - Mount St. Charles Academy
RD 3 #48 - C Amelio Santini - Lac St. Louis Lions U18
RD 4 #71 - RD Logan Trewin - Halifax Macs U18
RD 5 #89 - LD Mickael Fournier - Quinte Red Devils U16AAA
RD 6 #107 - LD Gavin Sudds - Halifax Macs U18
RD 7 #125 - G Nicolas Gillham-Cirka - Taft School USHS
RD 8 #143 - RW Noah Olmedo-Matte - College Esther-Blondin
RD 9 #150 - C Nico Ciardiello - Mount St. Charles Academy
RD 9 #161 - LW Thomas Cote - Quebec Blizzard
RD 10 #179 - F Elie Champagne - South Kent School
RD 11 #197 - LD Cole Bent - Cole Harbour U18
RD 12 #215 - C Cole MacLeod - Cole Harbour U18
RD 13 #233 - G Thomas Laplante - Mille-Isles QM17AAA
RD 14 #251 - RW Will Bent - Mount St. Charles Academy 

CHL IMPORT DRAFT
The Canadian Hockey League Import Draft was held on July 3 and the Mooseheads used their first of two selections to pick defenceman Carlos Handel from Erlangen, Germany. According to the press release, Handel is 6-foot-1 and played both at the J18 and J20 levels this past season with the Malmo Redhawks program in Sweden. "We've been watching him for the last year-and-a-half. We saw him about 18 months ago in Germany and he just dazzled us as an underage player. He's a heck of a hockey player and he plays a complete game," said General Manager Cam Russell. 

Handel will join sophomore Jan Sprynar as the team's two import roster spots for the 2024-25 season. 

TEAM CANADA WINS HLINKA
The annual summer Hlinka Gretzky Cup saw Team Canada be on top of the podium once again. Forward Liam Kilfoil scored in the championship game to help the Canadians win Gold as they beat Czechia 2-1 in Edmonton, AB. Kilfoil added two assists during the tournament, playing five games. A total of 22 players with ties to the CHL won the ultimate trophy. 

Prospect Carlos Handel participated in the tournament as his German team finished 6th out of eight teams. 

Congrats to Liam and Team Canada on becoming champions. 

Photo - Hockey Canada website

OTHER THINGS

• Goaltender Alexis Gravel agreed to teams on an ECHL standard player contract with the Orlando Solar Bears
• Former Mooseheads head coach Jon Greenwood was announced the new bench boss for the Truro Bearcats junior A team and will be joined by alum Ryan Falkenham who played for Halifax from 2011 to 2015 
• The WHL will host the 2026 Memorial Cup and five teams have announced they intend to bid on hosting: Brandon, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Spokane and Kelowna   
• Current Winnipeg Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers helped Team Denmark book their ticket to the 2026 Olympics at the beginning of this month as the Danes won all three games in the final qualification tournament
• Jim Midgley wasn't out of a coaching job for long as PWHL Toronto announced he would be an assistant coach for the upcoming season 

Weegar, Barron Help Canada Win Gold

Team Canada is once again world champions after they defeated Germany in the gold medal game on Sunday. 

This means that a couple of former Halifax Mooseheads players are gold medalists now. Congratulations to defencemen MacKenzie Weegar and Justin Barron on winning the last game of the 2023 tournament. Canada finished second in Group B after the preliminary round with a 4-1-1-1 record (W-OTW-OTL-L) but played like the hockey country they are in the medal round. Germany got on the board first but it didn't take long for the red and white to tie it up so the score was 1-1 after 20 minutes. Weegar would get an assist on Canada's second goal which once again sent both teams off to the dressing room with an even game as it was 2-2 after 40 minutes. Canada would open it up in the third period and win the game 5-2. It is Canada's record breaking 28th gold medal in the over 100 year tournament while the Germans won their third silver medal. 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

Barron finished the tournament with three assists. Weegar on the other hand had a great tournament as he led his team in points with 11 in 10 games played. The 29-year-old actually led the tournament scoring at one point in the preliminary round. He started off with being named an alternate captain of the team in his first time representing the maple leaf in his career and ended with being named the best defenceman and a media all-star.

Photo - Swiss Hockey Twitter

A couple of other alumni were participating in the tournament over in Europe; Nico Hischier and Nikolaj Ehlers. Both players were not originally on their respective counties rosters as Hischier was actually eliminated in the NHL playoffs but I'm not sure what the delay was for Ehlers. Hischier and Team Switzerland had a strong prelim round once again this year, going 6-0-1-1 and finishing a top of Group B. Unfortunately, they could not get past Germany in the quarter-finals losing 3-1. The 24-year-old had a goal and two assists in four games played. 

Ehlers led Team Denmark in scoring with nine points (5G&4A) in 7 games played but it wasn't enough to propel the Danes to the medal round as they finished 5th in Group A with a 2-1-0-4 record. 

Photo - Winnipeg Jets Facebook

Former Moose Playing at Worlds

Even though their seasons are done in the NHL, there are a few former Halifax Mooseheads players that will still have ice time as they have been named to their respective country's rosters for the 2022 IIHF World Championships. The tournament began on Friday, May 13 and will go until the Gold Medal game on May 29.

Two of the players are on the same team as they are from the same country. Timo Meier and Nico Hischier will represent Switzerland this year. The current captain of the New Jersey Devils, Hischier was given the C for the 2022 tournament on Saturday morning before the team plays their first game. Hischier recorded a career best 60 points in the regular season during 2021-22 with 21 goals and 39 assists. Meier led the San Jose Sharks during the year with 76 points (35G & 41A) which was also a career best for the 25-year-old. 

Former star player for our Herd, Nikolaj Ehlers will suit up for Denmark for the third time in his career after picking up 28 goals and 27 assists for 55 points with the Winnipeg Jets. Denmark has completed their first game of the tournament as of the writing of this post, picking up a 9-1 victory over Kazakhstan. Ehlers finished the game with three assists. 

Being in the same group, Switzerland and Denmark will play each other on Sunday. The puck will drop at 2:20pm/ET. 

Congrats to all three players, Moose Country will be cheering you on for the next two weeks. Good luck boys!

Photos - Switzerland National team twitter & NHL website

Huskies Win National Title

Photo - Vincent Ethier

Well, the QMJHL's 50th season has come to an end and it couldn't have finished any better I'm sure as both league representative's in the tournament were in the championship game.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies defeated our Halifax Mooseheads for the sixth time in the month of May to claim it's first Memorial Cup trophy on Sunday night. Halifax got out to a 2-0 lead in the final match of the year before the Huskies came back to score 4 unanswered goals to win a trophy once again on Scotiabank Centre ice. Rouyn-Noranda were crowned the President Cup winners earlier this month while the Mooseheads were the tournament hosts. The two teams finished the round-robin with 2-1 records, Halifax was given a bye to the last game because of the tie-breaker rules while the Huskies had to defeat the Guelph Storm (OHL) in the semi-final. Peter Abbandonato scored what would end up being the game winning goal just 3:02 into the third period to help his team get a 4-2 victory.

Congratulations to the Huskies on being 2019 national champs!


In other news...

• With the best goals against average and save percentage of the tournament, Alexis Gravel was named the Top Goaltender. He was also named to the all-star team along with teammate Benoit-Olivier Groulx 
• The Stanley Cup finals are underway and there is one former Moosehead still playing; Brad Marchand and the Boston Bruins are taking on the St. Louis Blues for the holy grail. Marchand leads the Bruins with 8 goals and 19 points through 18 games in this year's playoffs 
• Herd alumni Ladislav Nagy played his last international game last Tuesday, representing Slovakia at the 2019 IIHF World Championships. Nagy, who turns 40 on Saturday, scored the shootout winner for the Slovaks against Denmark in the country's final round robin game as the team did not advance to the playoff round this year

4 Alum at Worlds

Photo - Nico Hischier Facebook page

The Halifax Mooseheads have a few former players at the IIHF Men's World Championships that begun on Friday in Kosice and Bratislava. Alumni Jakub Voracek, Nico Hischier and Ladislav Nagy will represent their countries during the tournament.

This is the first time that Hischier has participated at the Worlds while Nagy and Voracek have played in their home colours on multiple occasions, eight and six times respectively. Nico joins a Switzerland team that finished second in last year's competition and will be looking to at least repeat that this month. Jakob meanwhile will captain the Czech Republic and Ladislav is an alternate captain for the host Slovakian club. Hischier and Voracek with their respective teams will play each other on the last day of round robin competition on May 21.

Congrats to all three players, Moose Country will be cheering you on for the next two weeks. Good luck guys!

Below are the stats for the guys through 4 days of competition (as of May 13)
Jakub Voracek   3GP  0G  4A  0PIM  -1
Nico Hischier   2GP  2G  2A  0PIM  +4
Ladislav Nagy   3GP  1G  1A  0PIM  +3

WORLDS: Moose Alum make Quarters

Nathan MacKinnon representing Team Canada
Photo - Avalanche website

The 2017 Men's World Championships are being played right now in Cologne, Germany and Paris, France and after 11 days of round robin competition complete, the quarter-final matchups are set. Four former Halifax Mooseheads find themselves in the medal round. The Herd actually had 6 alumni participating in the tournament, contrary to my previous post which said 4.

It is no surprise to anyone that Team Canada is in the quarters. The Canadians are looking for their third straight gold medal and Nathan MacKinnon has been leading the way for the red and white during this year's preliminary round. He scored a hat trick in a game against Slovenia and finished the first round with 12 points (5 goals & 7 assists), second in tournament scoring. The Memorial Cup champion Kid Mack was also a plus-6 and had 6 penalty minutes to help Canada finish on top of Group B with a 6-0-1-0 record. They will go up against co-host Germany who have big 6'5" defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser on their team. Konrad was unable to find the score sheet but was a minus-3 and had 10 shots credited to his name. The Germans finished fourth in Group A with a 2-2-1-2 record.

The final two former players in the quarters are Jakub Voracek and Petr Vrana who play for Team Czech Republic. Voracek scored a goal and had 5 assists which tied for team lead while Vrana had a goal & an assist. The Czechs finished third in Group B with a 3-2-0-2 record and will face Russia. Jakub was also captain.

In the Round Robin former moose made quite the impact on each of their teams, either it be goal scoring or leadership each player showed what they could do to help their countries.

The match ups for tomorrow's quarterfinals are as follows:
Finland vs United States 11:15 am
Czech Repuplic vs Russia 11:15 am
Germany vs Canada 3:15 pm
Sweden vs Switzerland 3:15 pm

Good Luck to the former Mooseheads players in the medal round!

Ehlers receiving player of the game May 14
Photo - Jets website

Nikolaj Ehlers could not help his Denmark team get into the medal round. He recorded 4 assists in 7 games for the Danes, who had a 1-2-0-4 record in Group A. Their lone regulation win was in the team's last game of the prelims against Italy. The Italians had Guilio Scandella on the team. Scandella played for the Moose in 2000-2002. He had two assists for Team Italy who were relegated to Division 1 for 2018 after going winless in the round robin.

UPDATED: Moose Alum Participating at Worlds

There will be a few Halifax Mooseheads alumni in Cologne and Paris for the IIHF Men's World Championships. Former Herd forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Nikolaj Ehlers and Jakub Voracek as well as defenseman Konrad Abeltshauser will represent their respective countries during the tournament.

This will be the first time for Abeltshauser participating in the Worlds but the second year Ehlers and MacKinnon have been asked to show their home colours. Voracek will be in the Worlds for the fourth time. The four will represent Germany, Denmark, Canada and Czech Republic respectively. Nikolaj and Konrad will meet during the preliminary round on May 12 as their countries are in Group A while in Group B Nathan and Jakub are going against each other in each country's first game Friday.

The tournament starts on May 5th (tomorrow) and will go until May 21, 2017. The Germans begin the tournament with a game on Friday against the United States while the Danes have their first match on Saturday against Latvia.

Congrats to all four players, Moose Country is proud of you and will be cheering you on the next two weeks. Good luck men!

I'll try my hardest to keep you updated on how the former Herd players are doing but you can watch most if not all of the games on the different TSN channels.

Alumni Help National Teams Reach Worlds Quarters

A couple of former Halifax Mooseheads players have helped their national teams reach the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championships quarter-finals.

Photo - Bruins Twitter

Brad Marchand, who played 26 games with the Herd, and Team Canada almost went undefeated in the preliminary round, only losing their final game today against Finland. The recently turned 28 year old has 2 goals and 4 points going into the medal round in this year's tournament. Canada finished 2nd in Group B meaning they will play Sweden in the quarters.



In the other group, Denmark has continued their strong performances in the world junior tourneys and brought it to the World Championships.

Photo - Jets Twitter

20 year old Nikolaj Ehlers has been impressive for his Danes as they secured a 4th place finish in Group A for a battle against the Finns in the quarters. Ehlers has 4 goals and 5 points so far.

MacKinnon, Team Canada Dominates To Gold

Nathan MacKinnon is a champion again! The former Halifax Mooseheads player scored in the Gold medal game, helping Team Canada to glory in Prague over Team Russia. The Canadians dominated the Russians from puck drop, holding the white, red and blue to 12 shots in a 6-1 victory. MacKinnon scored at 9:50 of the third period which was Canada's sixth goal. It looked like Canada was going to go the whole medal round without allowing a goal but Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin scored for the Russians with 7:13 left in the game to break that streak. Nathan finished the tournament with 10 games played, 4 goals and 9 points.

Nathan MacKinnon and Team Canada celebrating Gold
Photo - Edmonton Oilers twitter

Earlier in the day, Jakub Voracek and the host Czech Republic played the United States in the bronze medal game. The Czechs were defeated on home ice; 3-0 to place fourth in the tournament. Voracek had 3 shots during the game. Jakub finished the tournament with 3 goals and 10 points in 10 games.


Congrats to Team Canada on winning Gold, Team Russia on getting Silver and Team United States on winning Bronze.

Canada Moves On To Semis

One will play for Gold, one will play for Bronze.

Former Halifax Mooseheads players Jakub Voracek and Nathan MacKinnon will try to help lead their country to the gold medal game when they battle against each other in the semi finals tomorrow morning. Voracek and Team Czech Republic are trying to better their finish from last year where they lost in the bronze medal game to Sweden. While Team Canada, with Cole Harbour natives MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby, were finally able to get past the quarterfinals this year, a feat they haven't achieved since the 2009 IIHF Worlds. Canada defeated Belarus 9-0 on Thursday morning to make it into the semis while Czech Republic were able to beat the defending silver-medalists from Finland 5-3 in the afternoon.

The two players last met on May 4 in the preliminary round with Canada doubling the Czechs in scoring in a 6-3 win. Both Nathan and Jakub had an assist in that game. Voracek has 3 goals and 7 assists for 10 points while MacKinnon also has 3 goals but 5 assists for 8 points.

Game time is 10:15AM Atlantic time on Saturday. You can catch it on 4 of the 5 TSN feeds; 1, 3, 4 & 5. Good luck to both teams and both players. Cheer them on Moose Country!

Herd Word

DROUIN
Former Halifax Mooseheads player Jonathan Drouin and the Tampa Bay Lightning moved on to the second round of the National Hockey League playoffs with a 2-0 Game 7 victory over the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. Drouin only played in one game during the first round, collecting no points and going minus-2 in that game. The Lightning are battling the Montreal Canadiens this round, a series that begins tomorrow night in Montreal.

WOLRD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Jakub Voracek
Photo - Philadelphia Flyers website

Moose alumni Nathan MacKinnon will represent his country once again, this time at the Men's World Championships which are set to begin tomorrow in Czech Republic. This will be the second time that MacKinnon has played in this tournament. The Cole Harbour native and Team Canada will play their first game on Friday, against Latvia at 11:15am Atlantic time. Halifax will have another former player in the tournament with Jakub Voracek playing for the Czech Republic. I believe he's even been named an alternate captain but there has been no official word yet.

VORACEK
Talking about Jakub, he had a pretty big year in terms of milestones. On October 25th, he recorded his 300th point in the NHL, while 3 days later recorded his 200th assist in the league. December 13 saw him hit 200 penalty minutes in the NHL. At the end of January, the 26 year old played his 500th career game. Check out more here.

Draft logo
Photo - Wikipedia

DRAFTS
The Halifax Mooseheads will be selecting in the first round of the QMJHL draft for the first time since 2012. GM Cam Russell will be on the podium picking 7th overall in the 2015 version which will be held in Sherbrooke, QC. The Entry draft will be held on June 6th. Halifax will also be drafting a player at the CHL Import Draft this season as Danish forward Nikolaj Ehlers is unlikely to be back on the team come September. The Moose hold the 19th spot on June 30th. The Florida Panthers host the 2015 NHL Entry Draft and the other import player on the Herd, Timo Meier hopes that he will get drafted in the first round on June 26. The Swiss forward is projected to go anywhere's from 10th to 15th with a few even thinking he will go in the top 10. Check out the list of upcoming events on the team website.

MacKinnon, Team Canada Top Group at Worlds

The preliminary round at the 2014 IIHF World Championships is complete and now the real games begin. Former Halifax Mooseheads forward Nathan MacKinnon and Team Canada lost only one game during the first part of the championship, a 3-2 overtime loss to France in their first game of the tournament, and have been excellent ever since. With their overtime win on Sunday and another win on Tuesday against Norway, Team Canada has won Group A and a berth in the quarterfinals. They will play Finland Thursday afternoon at 2pm/AT. Nathan has 4 points going into the playoff round. Canada has not won a quarterfinal matchup in 4 years (2010-2013).

Good luck to Nathan and the rest of Team Canada against Finland tomorrow.

MacKinnon going to Belarus

Congratulations to Nathan MacKinnon. The former Halifax Mooseheads player has been named to the Team Canada roster for the 2014 IIHF Men's World Championships that are being held in Belarus. It's a tournament that is held every May between 16 different countries hockey teams.

This roster doesn't always have the best players from each country but it depends on the year. For countries like Canada, it features players of National Hockey League teams that did either not make the playoffs or those that were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. The Colorado Avalanche player was in such a predicament but MacKinnon can now say his season is extended for a few more weeks.

Nathan is the only former Moosehead on the roster but he isn't the only former QMJHL player on the team; Jonathan Huberdeau and Alexandre Burrows were also in the Q. Brayden Schenn and Matt Read of the Philadelphia Flyers were also added to the roster today. For the full roster as of today click here. There will be more players added as teams are eliminated and the tournament gets underway.