Herd Word

NHL DEBUT 
Former Mooseheads forward Xavier Parent made his NHL debut last Thursday for the New Jersey Devils. The 24-year-old did not record any points in the game and was a minus-1 as the Devils lost 8-4 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Parent, a native of Laval, QC has stayed up with the big team playing four games so far. He led New Jersey's AHL affiliate, the Utica Comets with 12 points (6G & 6A) in 20 games prior to being called up. 

An @NHL debut is one of our favorite things. pic.twitter.com/CacCkjd12E

— New Jersey Devils (@NJDevils) December 11, 2025

I didn't see this until today but Xavier was called up partly because Timo Meier, who also played for Halifax, asked for a personal leave of absence the same day and continues to be out of the lineup. Meier is dealing with a family matter, Moose Country sends their thoughts to Timo at this time. 

HANDEL TO WORLD JUNIORS
Defenceman Carlos Handel missed the last three games that Halifax has played as he has been invited to and participating in Team Germany's world juniors training camp. The 18-year-old played in the tournament last year so I suspect we will be cheering for him again this holiday season. Germany will have two exhibition games, against Finland on December 19 and December 21 versus USA. The 2026 World Juniors are being hosted by Minnesota, United States from December 26-January 5 with the Germans in Group A. Handel had 0 points in 5 games during the 2025 version so he'll hope to improve on that and help his country do better than the 9th place finish they had. 

Photo - Herd website

MOOSE ACQUIRE ROUSSEAU
Halifax announced on Monday that they have acquired veteran forward Samuel Rousseau from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in exchange for a 2026 5th round draft pick. The move was allowed to be made since Rousseau is a 20-year-old. A native of St. Eustache, QC, Samuel had been playing for the Victoria Grizzlies of the BCHL this season as the Huskies didn't have any room for him on their roster back in September. He had 30 points in 24 games with the Grizzlies after spending the previous three seasons with Rouyn-Noranda. 

"We are proud to welcome Samuel to the team. His proven leadership and depth of experience will strengthen our work and elevate what we can achieve together," Cam Russell said. 

Welcome to Moose Country Samuel! 

NEW DRESSING ROOM
The team made a pretty big renovation to the Scotiabank Centre, which most fans will likely never see more than the pictures Halifax shared, and released video of it on social media earlier this week. Halifax introduced their new multi-million dollar, state of the art dressing room facility, allowing the Mooseheads to cement their position at the very top of the CHL as said in the press release. On top of updating the area the players get changed in, the team also added or upgraded a kitchen & lounge area, cold tubs & steam room, and coaches room plus giving the hype tunnel new LED signage. 

See the full video below. 

PWHL IN HALIFAX

Halifax, the city, hosted the first game of the 2025-26 Professional Women's Hockey League's Takeover Tour on Wednesday night. It featured the Toronto Sceptres taking on the Montreal Victoire at the Scotiabank Centre. The over 10,000 fans got their money's worth as the match went to a shootout with Montreal taking the 2-1 victory. Unfortunately, the team (Sceptres) with the Nova Scotians did not win but it was still a good game. It was so nice to see a women's professional hockey match in my hometown. I mention it since former Herd head coach Jim Midgley is currently an assistant coach for Toronto. 

The PWHL will be back in Halifax on January 11 as the Ottawa Charge take on the Boston Fleet. 

Photo - Lukko Facebook

LIIGA MILESTONE

I haven't really given any props to alumni achieving milestones in leagues that aren't the NHL, mainly because I haven't seen many posts about it but here is one. Antoine Morand, who suited up in the green and red during the 2018-19 season, played in his 200th Liiga regular season game on Friday. The 26-year-old moved over to Europe in 2022, originally signing with SaiPa before being traded to Lukko on January 22, 2024. Morand has 3 goals and 9 assists in 24 games so far this year. As a member of the Mooseheads, the Chateauguay, QC native had 22 goals and 70 points and served as captain. 

Congratulations to Antoine, keep it up over there. 

TRADE PERIOD 
A break in the schedule means that the QMJHL trade period has opened, as of Friday teams can move any player on their roster and the deadline is January 6. Number of moves were made already mainly by Chicoutimi, Blainville, Victoriaville and Cape Breton on the first day. According to Willy Palov, this year will be about patience and perspective for the Halifax Mooseheads. Considering this is the second year of a rebuild, the Herd seem to be doing better at this point of the season than they were projected to so could we see Cam Russell make some moves that bolster the roster? "No big plans right now but obviously there are a few things we're looking at, like every year," Russell said. "We're happy with the core of players that we have and how they're growing. It's a really good group of kids that we're building around, but we're always looking for ways to make our team better."

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

Happy New Year everyone! I've been taking a break lately so this is my first blog post of 2024. There's been some news regarding current and former Halifax Mooseheads the last couple of weeks so thought I would do a Herd Word to wrap it all up. 

CATAFORD SIGNS

Photo - Golden Knights website

On December 31, the Vegas Golden Knights announced that they had signed forward Mathieu Cataford to a three-year, entry-level contract. The 18-year-old was leading the QMJHL in scoring at the time of the announcement with 53 points in 35 games. He has posted a current total of 181 points in 169 games played over three seasons with Halifax. The Chateauguay, QC native was drafted by Vegas in the third round (77th overall) of the 2023 NHL Entry Draft. 

Photo - Herd Twitter

WORLD JUNIORS
The 2024 World Junior Hockey Championships didn't turn out how Hockey Canada or the Mooseheads representatives probably wanted it to go but that doesn't mean there wasn't highlights of the tournament. Mathis Rousseau took the starting role over for the preliminary round and had a strong tournament meanwhile Jordan Dumais and Jake Furlong both scored a goal but they couldn't help Canada make it past the quarter-finals. Furlong's marker tied up the QF match at 2-2 late in the second against Czechia so it was said that his first point was gigantic. 

Our three guys have lots to be proud of representing their country. 

GREAT SAVE
Like I said above, Rousseau had a good tournament, recording a 2.00 goals against average and was fourth in save percentage at 0.912%. In a game against Finland in the prelims, the 18-year-old made a really nice glove save which ended up being on Sportscentre's 1v1 challenge for a few days. You can watch it below (it's the second clip in the video). 

He also made another stop in the game versus Sweden that impressed former NHL goalie Henrik Lundqvist. The toe save was on a Canadian penalty kill late in the first period to keep the score 0-0. 

FIRST STAR OF MONTH
Halifax Mooseheads alumni Nathan MacKinnon had a stellar month of December and was rewarded for it as the NHL named him the first star of the month. The 28-year-old had eleven goals and 29 points during the month to lead the league as the Colorado Avalanche went 8-5-2-0 in December. According to the NHL, 'his 29 points set a franchise record for a single calendar month, besting Peter Stastny's 28 in February 1981.' Congratulations to Nate. He hasn't slowed down so far in January. 

Photo - NHL PR Twitter

 

HERD MAKE ANOTHER TRADE
The Mooseheads made another move, this one just before the 1pm AST trade deadline on January 6 which saw the team adding forwards Lou-Felix Denis and Jan Sprynar from the Shawinigan Cataractes. 20-year-old Denis was leading the Cats in scoring with 38 points when the deal was made. Sprynar is an 18-year-old import and is on his third team over two seasons. 

Shawinigan received in return overage forward Ethan Larmand, sophomore Reece Peitzsche and rookie import Yannik Ponzetto along with two draft picks. 

Welcome to the team Lou-Felix and Jan! The two new players made their debut for Halifax on Sunday when the team took on the Charlottetown Islanders where Denis scored the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory. 

Photo - Avalanche Twitter

DROUIN RECORDS 300TH POINT
I missed this originally but alumni Jonathan Drouin had a good night last Thursday to help the Colorado Avalanche win 5-4 in overtime against Dallas. The 28-year-old scored twice during the game with his first goal being the 300th point of his NHL career. Drouin has record 86 goals and 216 points in total over 524 regular season games. 

Drouin was drafted 3rd overall back in 2013 by the Tampa Bay Lightning where he played until 2017. The Ste-Agathe, QC native than suited up for the Montreal Canadiens from the 2017-18 season until 2023. He becomes the 9th former Moosehead player to reach 300 points. 

MOOSE CLAIM MCPHEE
'The Mooseheads filled out the roster with a waiver claim addition late Sunday when GM Cam Russell picked up forward Luke McPhee from the Cape Breton Eagles. The 18-year-old native of Cole Harbour, NS will join the Mooseheads for the remainder of the season and will suit up in his first home game on Saturday' according to the press release. He has played in 59 games between the Moncton Wildcats and Eagles, collecting 3 goals and five points. 

Moose On Canada Selection Camp Roster

Hockey Canada announced the roster for their selection camp that will determine the final team who will participate in the 2024 World Juniors. Out of the thirty players named, 4 of them come from your Halifax Mooseheads. 

To (I think) no one's surprise, 19-year-old forward Jordan Dumais was invited to the camp and will be joined by goaltender Mathis Rousseau, defenceman Jake Furlong and forward Markus Vidicek. The selection camp will take place December 10-13 in Oakville, ON and includes practices and a pair of games against a team of U-Sports all-stars. 

"We are excited to name the 30 players who will embark on the journey through camp and eventually on to the World Juniors," said Peter Anholt. "Canada has an incredible talent pool of players, and there are always difficult decisions to narrow it down. We are expecting a highly competitive camp, and we look forward to naming our final roster that will wear the Maple Leaf with pride starting on Boxing Day." 

A total of 8 players from the QMJHL will participate in the camp while the roster consists of four goaltenders, 10 defenceman and 16 forwards. The 2024 World Junior Championship will take place from December 26-January 5, 2024 in Gothenburg, Sweden. 

Congratulations and good luck at camp to our four guys as well as everyone battling it out for a roster spot. 

Herd Word

I can't believe today is Boxing Day and since we have a little break, I thought I would catch up on some news that has happened the past few weeks. The second half of the season should be an exciting time.

TOP PROSPECTS
The NHL/CHL top prospects game will make an appearance this season on January 25, 2023 and there will once again be a Halifax Mooseheads player on the roster. The Canadian Hockey League announced the 40 young men that will play in the game earlier this month. 17-year-old Mathieu Cataford will look to impress the scouts next month in Vancouver. Congrats to Mathieu and good luck, show them what you got. 

Photo - Mooseheads Twitter

DOUCET COMES TO HALIFAX
Our Halifax Mooseheads made yet another big trade last week, acquiring Alexandre Doucet from the Val-d'Or Foreurs. Doucet is from Sherbrooke, QC and has played his whole career with Val-d'Or. The 20-year-old has played really well this season in which he is leading the league in goals with 27 and is second in the Q in points. Halifax gave up three draft picks in the trade; 2023 1st round, 2024 2nd round and 2023 3rd rounder. "He's a game-changer. We think this trade gives us one of the best players in the league this season and makes our lineup even more dangerous than it already was," Cam Russell said. 

Halifax will have to deal with the overage situation now that the team has four players and clubs are only allowed three on their roster. Welcome to the team Alexandre. 

Biasca in pre-comp action
Photo - Swiss hockey Twitter

WORLD JUNIORS
The 2023 World Junior Hockey Championships begin today and while there won't be any Mooseheads players representing the home country Canada, Halifax will have a couple of guys on other country teams. Herd captain Attilio Biasca for the third straight year made Team Switzerland and will actually be wearing the C on his jersey for his country during the tournament. The Swiss are in Group B so they are playing in Moncton. Their first game is today at noon AT against Finland while they'll also play Slovakia, Latvia and the United States in round robin action. Meanwhile, defenseman David Moravec will look to help Team Czechia improve on their 4th place finish at the 2022 summer tournament. Czechia starts the week with a tilt against Canada this evening at 7:30pm AT. They'll also have matches versus Germany, Austria and Sweden. 

UPCOMING GAMES
Your Moose are back in action on Wednesday night when they travel to New Brunswick to battle the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. The match will start a four game road stand for Halifax as the Scotiabank Centre is being used for the aforementioned World Juniors. Halifax will play two games in Cape Breton to end 2022 including a New Year's Eve afternoon tilt. Moose Country will have to wait until January 8 to see their team on home ice again. The club's first promotional match of 2023 takes place on January 14 with a t-shirt giveaway. 

Photo - Thunder Twitter

FOURNIER SIGNED BY CARDIFF
Former Halifax Mooseheads forward Stefan Fournier is headed overseas after being signed by the Cardiff Devils of the EIHL. Fournier has played the majority of the last five seasons with the ECHL's Wichita Thunder. The 30-year-old has recorded seven goals and 12 points in 17 games so far during the 2022-23 season. Cardiff doesn't expect the Dorval, QC native to play a game in Wales until December 31. "The reports we have on Stefan are very exciting, a player that I believe our fanbase will instantly embrace. He plays with an edge, throws his weight around, is willing to drop the gloves and scores dirty goals in front of the net," says Devils head coach Brodie Dupont. 

Good luck on the other side Stefan, Moose Country will be cheering for you. 

Halifax Make Big Trade

The Halifax Mooseheads made a big trade on Monday, picking up 20-year-old Josh Lawrence from the Blainville Armada. In exchange, the Herd let go of two draft picks; a 2023 second rounder and 1st round selection in 2024. Lawrence, a native of Fredericton, NB, has played strong so far this season scoring 32 points in 25 games with the Armada. The overager had a career best 101 points in 2021-22, helping the Saint John Sea Dogs to a Memorial Cup. 

Photo - Herd website

“We are very pleased to add someone of Josh's caliber to our already talented lineup. He brings elite level offense and valuable experience that will help our club tremendously this season,'' Russell said in the team's press release. 

I would like to welcome Josh to Moose Country! Looking forward to next Thursday when the Moose will be back home to take on Blainville.

DUMAIS SIGNS ELC
Congratulations are in order to forward Jordan Dumais who signed a 3-year entry level contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets over the weekend. Dumais was selected by the Jackets in June 96th overall after putting up 109 points last season. The 18-year-old may surpass that number this year as he already has 54 points in 24 games. He leads the Canadian Hockey League in scoring and some have said that his play so far could get him on a spot on Canada’s world Junior team during the holiday break. 

Photo - Swiss hockey twitter

Other news and notes..

• Zachary L’Heureux made his season debut this past Friday where he picked up a goal and an assist. 
• Talking about the World Juniors, we know at least one Mooseheads player that will be participating as captain Attilio Biasca was named to Team Switzerland today for the tournament. 
• Here’s a crazy stat according to the NHL website, the New Jersey Devils are 17-0-0-0 this season when former Herd Nico Hischier records at least a point. 
• Arenas in Antigonish and Truro will get a pre-tournament game each in a few weeks while the Scotiabank Centre will host 4 matches. 
• Nobody cares probably but on Nov. 19 I got to watch Moose alumni Brad Marchand play live where he picked up 3 assists in a 6-1 Bruins win. Here’s a picture from that night (sorry it’s blurry, I was far away & using my phone camera) 

Herd Word

Former Halifax Mooseheads have had some big things happen over the last week or so while the current team is coming together for the regular season. 

Photo - AMH Photography

MACKINNON PARADE
The 2013 NHL number one pick Nathan MacKinnon won the Stanley Cup back in June with the Colorado Avalanche and he finally had his day with the trophy last weekend. MacKinnon brought the Cup back to Halifax where he played junior hockey for a parade and the city showed up big time. His teammates Gabriel Landeskog and Andrew Cogliano were also in the parade. Before it began, Nathan was on Citadel Hill to shoot off the noon gun. The 28-year-old answered a few questions from Paul Hollingsworth afterwards in Grand Parade Square in front of thousands of fans. 

It was a good parade and it was nice to see Kid Mack give props to his family, coaches and the city of Halifax for helping him get to where he is today. 

Check out some highlights from the day in the video below. 

WORLD JUNIORS
Well, the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships were finally able to be completed last weekend with Team Canada raising the trophy on August 20. With Canada's victory, former Mooseheads captain Elliot Desnoyers is a champion! Congrats to Desy on winning the gold medal. The 20-year-old finished the tournament with an assist in 7 games played. The Canadians went undefeated and won the final match 3-2 in overtime over Team Finland. 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

Also in the tournament were Herd alumni Senna Peeters (Austria) and current forward Attilio Biasca (Switzerland). Peeters recorded a goal and 3 points in the preliminary round as Austria lost all 4 games to end in 9th place. Biasca had a great tournament scoring four goals and picking up 2 assists but unfortunately, Switzerland lost in the quarter-finals to Canada.

Photo - Birdgeport Islanders Instagram

DURANDEAU
23-year-old Arnaud Durandeau, who played for Halifax for four years from 2015-2019, got some good news last week when the New York Islanders signed him to a two-year two-way contract along with three other players. Durandeau set new career highs in goals (15), assists (22) and points (37) in 64 games with the Bridgeport Islanders of the AHL last season. He ranked third on the team in goals and was tied for fifth in points during his third professional campaign. Congrats to Arnaud on signing a new contract.

TRAINING CAMP UPDATE
Things have been moving quickly at training camp this past week. Cam Russell and company made more decisions, releasing sixteen additional players. On Thursday, a total of nine young men were cut from the camp roster. The following players were cut from the camp roster on Thursday; Justin Breton (F), Mathis Laplante (F), Landon MacIntosh (F), Dominic MacKenzie (D), Cade Moser (F), Joe Power (D), Adam Tkacz (G), Ty Totten (F) and Ben Wallace (F). Goalie George Foti was released from camp on Wednesday. Six players were cut on Saturday morning including forwards Antoine Fontaine, Lou Levesque, Brandon Abbass and Bryson Boudreau along with defencemen Hugo Boucher and Dylan Chisholm. 

Russell made a trade on Wednesday afternoon as well when they acquired centre and Beaver Bank, NS-native Jake Todd from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in exchange for a 2023 4th round draft pick. Todd has played the past two seasons with the Cole Harbour Wolfpack where he has scored 79 points in 55 games with 23 goals and 56 assists. 

All these moves mean that there are 25 players remaining at camp. Another small round of cuts still needs to happen before the 2022-23 regular season roster is named but I suspect that will happen before the end of August. 

ZADINA

Photo - Wings website 

The Detroit Red Wings announced on Friday that they have re-signed right winger Filip Zadina to a three-year contract with an average annual value of $1.825 million. Zadina, 22, skated in 74 games with the Red Wings in 2021-22 and recorded a career-high 24 points (10-14-24) and 10 penalty minutes. Originally selected by Detroit in the first round (sixth overall) of the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, Filip has totalled 61 points in 160 NHL games. 

Congrats to Filip on signing a new contract. 

CRITCHLOW
Former Herd Cameron Critchlow has been named captain of the EIHL's Manchester Storm for the 2022-23 season. The 31-year-old is heading into his fourth season in England. Critchlow played one season for Halifax back in 2011-12. He had 14 goals and 37 points in 54 games last season with the Storm. Manchester start their regular season on September 10 against the Coventry Blaze. 

Photo - Storm Twitter

Biasca's Goal Advances Switzerland

Halifax Mooseheads import player Attilio Biasca scored late in the third period to give his Switzerland team their first victory of the world juniors and advance to the quarter final round. The goal at the 15:53 mark of the final frame made the score 3-2 in their match against Team Austria. Former Herd Senna Peeters has been participating in the tourney as well but for the Austrians and recorded an assist on Monday in the loss. Biasca also had an assist in the game, making it four points in the prelims for the 19-year-old. Austria finished the first round with four losses meaning they will be relegated for 2023. 

Like I said, the victory advances Switzerland to the medal round where they will take on 2021-22 Moose captain Elliot Desnoyers and Team Canada. Hopefully Desnoyers will be able to show his offensive power in the next round as he currently has no points. Canada went undefeated in the preliminary round after picking up a 6-3 win over Finland yesterday. 

The quarter-finals are set to go on Wednesday in Edmonton at the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. Finland and Germany will kick off the day, followed by Sweden and Latvia, Canada and Switzerland and finally USA vs. Czechia. You can watch Desnoyers vs. Biasca on TSN tomorrow evening at 8:00pm AT. 

Photo - Switzerland Twitter

Herd Word

HOCKEY CANADA SUMMER CAMPS
Three Halifax Mooseheads players will be in Calgary later this month for summer camps put on by Hockey Canada. After participating in the camp last year, 19-year-old Zachary L'Heureux was invited to the National Junior Team camp while new sophomores Mathieu Cataford and Dylan MacKinnon will be among the 44 players set to participate in the National Men's Summer U-18 Team camp. 

The U-18 players 'will compete for an opportunity to wear the Maple Leaf at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Red Deer, Alta. The selection camp, which takes place July 20-23, will include a variety of on- and off-ice sessions. Following the selection of the final roster on July 24, Team Canada will play a pair of games against Red and White teams from Canada's National Junior Team summer camp.' MacKinnon had two points in an injury filled season that saw him play only 52 games in his rookie season. Cataford, meanwhile, led the QMJHL's 16-year-olds with 46 points in 62 games and was nominated for rookie of the year. 

44 players will also be on the ice for the Junior Team camp which is set for July 23-27. "This is an exciting first step as we begin preparations for the upcoming season and the opportunity to compete at the 2023 World Juniors on home ice in Halifax and Moncton this December," Alan Millar added. " We are excited about this group of players, and we look forward to returning to the ice for a highly-competitive camp to kick off a new season." 

DUMAIS

Second year forward Jordan Dumais was once again rewarded for his discipline during the Canadian Hockey League awards that were held on June 28 in Saint John, NB. Dumais was one of the three nominations for the CHL Sportsman of the Year and named the 2021-22 recipient. Other nominees were Logan Stankoven of the Kamloops Blazers and Windsor Spitfires' Wyatt Johnston. The 18-year-old picked up only six penalty minutes during the regular season leading to him winning the QMJHL Sportsman of the Year award. 

Big congrats to Jordan on winning the award. 

FINAL RANKINGS

The final rankings were announced awhile ago but with the 2022 NHL Entry Draft coming up in a few days, I thought I would remind you where a few of our Herd players were ranked at the end of the season. Despite recording 109 points in 68 games, Jordan Dumais did not move up in the rankings and is still anticipated to go in the third round. 

Rankings amongst North American skaters
Jake Furlong  #68

Jordan Dumais  #73
Markus Vidicek  #116

You can catch the first round on Sportsnet at 8:00 p.m. AT on Thursday night, with rounds 2-7 happening on Friday afternoon. 

MEMORIAL CUP

After many delays, the 2022 Memorial Cup tournament was played in late June with the host Saint John Sea Dogs winning the final game and lifting the trophy on home ice. The Sea Dogs had a long break before playing in the Memorial Cup after getting ousted by the Rimouski Oceanic in Round 1 of the QMJHL playoffs. Saint John defeated the OHL champion Hamilton Bulldogs 6-3 on June 29 to win their second national championship in franchise history. 

Final standings 

Saint John Sea Dogs (hosts)
Hamilton Bulldogs (OHL champs)
Shawinigan Cataractes (QMJHL champs)

Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL champs)

CHL IMPORT DRAFT

Our Mooseheads used the 33rd overall pick in Friday's CHL Import Draft to select defenceman David Moravec of Czechia. The 2003-born Moravec is 6-feet-tall, weighs 190 points and is the 44th ranked European skater for the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. He recently represented his country at the 2022 World Junior Hockey Championship and has also played internationally at the U16, U17 and U18 levels. Moravec had four assists in 40 games in the 2021-22 season. 

Welcome to Moose Country David!

Cam Russell didn't use his second pick in the draft as forward Attilio Biasca is expected to be back on the team in 2022-23. The team also did not make any trades over the weekend when the summer trading period opened up on Saturday. 

Photos - Elite Prospects, Herd website, CBC website, The Hockey Writers

Halifax/Moncton Win World Juniors Bid

Earlier this month, the International Ice Hockey Federation announced that the cities of Halifax, Nova Scotia and Moncton, New Brunswick have won the bid to co-host the 2023 World Junior Championships. The tournament was originally scheduled to be hosted by Novosibirsk and Omsk, Russia but they were pulled in February in condemnation of the country's invasion in Ukraine. 

It is the second time that Atlantic Canada has been awarded with hosting the prestigious tournament after Halifax and Sydney were joint hosts back in 2003. This will be the third World Juniors hosted in Canada as Edmonton, Alberta has hosted the last two editions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The event will be played Dec. 26, 2022 to Jan. 5, 2023 with 10 countries participating. 

"Nova Scotia is thrilled to be selected to host the 2023 World Juniors, which will be the best tournament to date," said Tim Houston, premier of Nova Scotia. "We are ready to roll out the welcome mat for the players, their families and visiting fans; I'll be in the arena with thousands of Nova Scotians, cheering at each and every game." 

According to Hockey Canada's press release; 'fans eager to purchase tickets for the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship in Halifax and Moncton can enter the 2023 World Juniors Priority Draw for their chance to purchase tickets when they become available. Further ticket information will be announced at a later date.'

This is great news for these two cities, we already know that Halifax can throw a party. Will be interesting to see which Halifax Mooseheads players make the team. I feel like we could see Zach L'Heureux in red and white if he is more disciplined next season. I'm so excited for the World Juniors to be back in Halifax, I was young when it was here in 2003 so I don't really remember it. 

Photo - Hockey Canada website

3 Herd Players at World Juniors

There will be a few current Halifax Mooseheads players in Alberta next week for the 2022 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. The tournament begins on December 26 and the gold medal game will be played on January 5, 2022. It will feature 10 teams which have been separated into two groups. 

Halifax has already been without the services of forwards Senna Peeters, Attilio Biasca and Elliot Desnoyers for part of December and it will continue until next month as all three have made their respective countries rosters for the tournament. Desnoyers will look to help Canada get a 19th gold medal while Biasca and Peeters hope that they can provide offence for Switzerland and Austria to get them out of the relegation round.  

Below is the round robin schedule for the 3 teams (times are MT)

Dec 26  5:00pm  Czech Republic v. Canada
Dec 27  12:00pm  Austria v. Finland
Dec 27  2:30pm  Russia v. Switzerland

Dec 28  2:30pm  Switzerland v. United States

Dec 28  5:00pm  Austria v. Canada

Dec 29  5:00pm  Canada v. Germany

Dec 30  2:30pm  Czech Republic v. Austria 

Dec 30  5:00pm  Slovakia v. Switzerland

Dec 31  12:00pm  Germany v. Austria

Dec 31  2:30pm  Switzerland v. Sweden 

Dec 31  5:00pm  Canada v. Finland

I will try and keep you up to date during the tournament. Follow my Twitter account as I may do some live tweeting. 

Good luck to all three young men the next two weeks and everyone else as well but really Go Canada Go :P 

McIsaac, Lavoie Win Gold With Canada

Jared McIsaac (#14) celebrates a goal with his teammates
Photo - QMJHL Twitter

Raphael Lavoie and Jared McIsaac will come back home as gold medalists. Team Canada had a comeback game in the third period to defeat Team Russia in the final match of the 2020 World Junior Ice Hockey Championships on Sunday evening (afternoon for Maritimers). The two teams were scoreless after 20 minutes but before long, Russia had a 2-1 lead after the second period. Charlottetown Islanders forward Nikita Alexandrov got the Russians on the board first while Dylan Cozens of the Lethbridge Hurricanes scored less than 90 seconds later to tie the game. The white, red and blue took a 3-1 lead at the 8:46 minute mark of the third period before Canada made their comeback. The Canadians scored three goals in the final 11 minutes including a nice goal by Niagara IceDogs' Akil Thomas which ended up being the game winner as the red and white were victorious with a 4-3 result.

Jared McIsaac had a goal in a 7-2 victory against the Czech Republic in the final game of the preliminary round. The Truro, Nova Scotia native finished with a goal and 3 assists and a plus-4 rating. Raphael Lavoie had two assists during the tournament and a plus-2.

Former Mooseheads import draft pick Samuel Fagemo was the leading scorer of the tournament with 13 points and helped lead Sweden to a bronze medal. Andre Tourigny, who coached Halifax during the 2016-17 season, was an assistant coach for Canada.

Congratulations to Jared, Raphael and Team Canada on winning the championship game. We're very proud of you boys.


The tournament will be hosted by Edmonton and Red Deer, Alberta for 2021 and will include Austria who were promoted after they went 4-1-0-0 in the Division 1A tournament before Christmas. Halifax Mooseheads rookie Senna Peeters helped lead them with three goals and 6 points in five games.

Hockey Canada Announce Holiday Tournament Teams

Hockey Canada made some announcements the last few days regarding who will represent their country during the holiday season tournaments; the World Juniors and Spengler Cup. A few players associated with the Halifax Mooseheads will be playing in Europe after Christmas.

The IIHF member made it's final cut for it's World Junior team and unfortunately it was Herd forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx who was let go on Saturday. However, that does mean that defenseman Jared McIsaac and forward Raphael Lavoie will represent Canada during the tournament. Some were surprised that Groulx was cut but the team is strong down the middle this year.

QMJHL is well represented this year with five current players and a former player making the team. Alexis Lafreniere (RIM), Dawson Mercer (DRU) and Olivier Rodrigue (MON) plus Joe Veleno who was released by the Detroit Red Wings join Lavoie and McIsaac a the Q league guys. Full roster here.

The Spengler Cup, which is hosted in Davos, Switzerland every year, also begins on Boxing Day. For the second straight year, former Mooseheads goaltender Zach Fucale will wear the red and white during the 6-team tournament. Fucale will try to lead Team Canada to a 16th championship after losing last year in an eight round shootout gold medal to KalPa.

Congratulations to all three players who will represent their country later this month and good luck.

I will try to keep you updated on how they are doing so check back on my blog next week.

Peeters Scores Twice for Austria

Photo - Herd website

Current Halifax Mooseheads rookie Senna Peeters is playing for his country right now at the 2020 World Junior Championships - Division 1 tournament this week and he's played pretty good.

The 17-year-old scored two goals today, helping Austria to a 4-2 victory over Denmark. Peeters also has an assist for three points and is third in team scoring (tied for 11th overall). Austria has a record of two wins and a loss. Senna and the Austrians will play two more games during the tournament, on Friday and Sunday.

The U20 Division I - Group A tournament is being hosted by Minsk, Belarus and showcases five teams going head to head during the week. Austria is joined by Belarus, Denmark, Lativa and Norway. The team with the best record will be promoted to the Top Division.

Herd Word

WORLD JUNIORS
Hockey Canada announced today the 31 players who will participate in the team's selection camp, which begins in a week. Defenceman Jared McIsaac, who just returned from a long term injury on Saturday, was given an invite and will be joined by forward teammates Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Raphael Lavoie at the camp. Many believe McIsaac will be a lock to make the final team as he participated in the tournament last year.

The 31 hopefuls will join together in Oakville, Ontario from December 9-12 and will play two games against a U Sports all-star team on the final two days of the selection process. Other QMJHL players named to the camp roster were Dawson Mercer (Drummondville), Oliver Rodrigue (Moncton), Alexis Lafreniere (Rimouski) and Jakob Pelletier (Moncton).

The 2020 Under-20 World Junior Hockey Championships is being hosted by Ostrava, Czech Republic from December 26 to January 5. Canada will begin the tournament with a match against their cross border rivals, the United States on Boxing Day at 3 p.m. AT. The final roster will be announced a couple days before the competition starts.

For the full camp roster, click here.

MACKINNON
Former Halifax Mooseheads player Nathan MacKinnon has had another offensive month. Kid Mack was named the NHL first star of the week on Monday, with 3 goals and 9 points in three games. The Colorado Avalanche finished the week with a 3-0-0-0 record. MacKinnon leads the team in scoring and is among the league leaders.

Nathan was also named the second star for the month of November. The Halifax, NS native had 10 goals and 15 assists during the month.

Congrats to Nathan on being awarded for his hard work.

QMJHL STARS

Photo - Q website

Forward Maxim Trepanier was named the QMJHL player of the week for the week ending Dec. 1 after recording 7 points over three games. Trepanier had a big night on Thursday, helping the Mooseheads to a 6-3 win over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan with two goals and 2 assists. A goal on Saturday would give Maxim at least a point in every game in the month of November, who extended his point streak to 13 games on Sunday after picking up two more points in a loss to Charlottetown.

He'll be named to the Q team of the week tomorrow. We may even see another Herd player but I'll share that when it's announced.

Photo - Mooseheads website

BARINKA
Our Halifax Mooseheads will be without forward Marcel Barinka for the remainder of the team's schedule before their Christmas break. Barinka left today to join the Czech Republic team that will participate in the World Junior A Challenge. The Challenge is an under-20 tournament sponsored by Hockey Canada. It will be played December 7-15 in Dawson Creek, BC.

Congratulations and good luck to Marcel.

TOUGH DECEMBER
The Mooseheads will have a tough December as they battle two of the top 6 teams in the league during the month plus Saint John, who have not made it easy on Halifax this season despite being close to the bottom of the standings. Halifax will play the Charlottetown Islanders 3 times, the Cape Breton Eagles 4 times and the Sea Dogs twice. Charlottetown defeated the Herd yesterday evening and are currently in 4th place overall, the two will meet for a home and home series on December 11 and 13. Saint John has a 3-1-0-0 record versus Halifax and the two will end 2019 battling each other in a New Year's Eve matinee in Moose Country. The two Nova Scotia clubs will have two home and home series, on this weekend and the other after the break in the annual Hurley Cup set.

WJC: Herd Have Two Named

The most wonderful time of the year is upon us. For junior hockey fans, Boxing Day signifies the start of the Under-20 World Ice Hockey Championships and their favourite part of the hockey season. Our Halifax Mooseheads had a few players have a chance to represent their countries with Raphael Lavoie, Jared McIsaac and Ostap Safin being asked to join pre-competition camps. From those three, only McIsaac ended up making his country's team. Lavoie was among the first players to be cut from Team Canada last weekend while it seems like Safin was still too injured to play right now. For more info, check out the official U20 website here.

Canada started the tournament on Boxing Day with a 14-0 win over Denmark and will play 3 more times in the preliminary round on Dec 27 (vs. SUI), Dec 29 (vs. CZE) and Dec 31 (vs. RUS) before the medal round begins on January 2. All game times are 9pm AT.

Mooseheads fans should be particularly interested in the December 29th game as it will pit McIsaac against a former teammate with alum Filip Zadina making the Czech Republic squad. Zadina has played this season in the AHL so far this season with Grand Rapids recording 8 goals and 17 points. The 19-year-old is making his second straight appearance at the World Juniors after helping the Czechs to a 4th place finish last year in Buffalo with 7 goals and an assist. They'll look to improve on that this year.


Congrats to Jared McIsaac and Filip Zadina on making their respective teams. I'll try to keep you updated during the tournament.

Zadina Scores, Help Czechs Advance to Semis

Filip Zadina is on fire!

The 18 year old scored two nice goals on Tuesday afternoon to propel his Czech Republic team to the semi finals at the 2018 World Juniors in Buffalo, USA. Czech Republic went into their quarter-final match up against Finland as the under dogs but were victorious in a shootout, winning 4-3. Zadina got the Czechs on the board first just 6:20 into the game with a power play goal but in the second period, the Finns bounced back with two goals before Kristian Riechel tied it for the white, blue and red. In the third, Filip tipped in the puck with under 3 minutes to go in regulation to send the match to overtime.

The Czechs now wait the winner of the Canada-Switzerland game. Good luck to Zadina and the Czechs in the semi finals.

Herd Word

Welcome to the new year. As it's been the holidays, I've been busy so instead of writing individual stories about news that has happened the last few days, I thought I would do a Herd Word.

FUCALE
Former Halifax Mooseheads goaltender Zach Fucale led Team Canada to a championship once again. Fucale was playing in the Spengler Cup last week and went into the tournament as a backup. However after Drew MacIntyre struggled in the first game, the 21 year old started the second preliminary game and had a 33 save performance as the Canadians won 4-3 over host HC Davos. He was than the starter for the rest of the tournament. The Rosemere, QC native performed quite well the rest of the week to help Hockey Canada back to the gold medal game. Team Canada played HC Lugano for the Spengler Cup and Zach stopped 40 shots en route to a 5-2 victory.

HISCHIER
Switzerland has improved on their 9th place finish from last year's World Junior championship and in part it's because of the great tournament Mooseheads rookie Nico Hischier had over the past week. Hischier, who turns 18 tomorrow, led the Swiss in scoring during the tourney with 4 goals and 7 points. One of his goals was an overtime winner last Tuesday against the Czech Republic. He scored again on Friday in regulation versus Denmark which also ended in extra time. The 4 points Team Switzerland picked up gave them a quarter-final berth where they would play the United States on Monday. The rookie had two really great goals but his performance wasn't enough to get his team to the semis because of a great save by the American goaltender in the last 5 minutes of the game which prevented Nico scoring a hat trick. Hischier was named player of the game as well as one of Switzerland's 3 best players of the tournament.

https://twitter.com/mikemorrealeNHL/status/816096671016898560

RESOP
According to the Miramichi Timberwolves, they have acquired the MHL rights of Herd goaltender Kevin Resop from the St. Stephen's Aces. The Mooseheads have not said anything about a trade or demotion of Resop but it's assumed that he will not be back with Halifax as the Moose traded for goalie Blade Mann-Dixon. Will be interesting to see what happens now for Kevin. Wherever he ends up, Moose Country would like to say good luck!

SATURDAY
As you may know, the game this coming Saturday versus the Saint John Sea Dogs is going to be broadcasted on Sportsnet. Because the match up is on national television, the puck drop for it has been changed to 4:00pm. So come out and support the boys against one of the best teams in the QMJHL this weekend. It should be an exciting game.

CHAINEY
It was announced on Monday that defenseman Jocktan Chainey has been suspended for 4 games after a hit that occurred during the December 30th game in Cape Breton. He will be eligible to return on Sunday afternoon when the Mooseheads visit Saint John. For video and full explanation, click here.

Photo - Eagles website

HURLEY CUP
Talking about the Screaming Eagles, they swept your Mooseheads in the home and home series late last week which gave them the first ever Hurley Cup. For a number of years now, the two provincial rivals have had back to back games against each other after the holiday break and wear special blue jerseys that get raffled off for Feed Nova Scotia normally. This season, the teams decided to add another aspect to the series in which the team with the most goals over the two games wins the Hurley Cup. For more info on how it worked, click here. Cape Breton won both games and had a 11-5 goal advantage.

UP NEXT
Your Halifax Mooseheads start 2017 by taking a trip to New Brunswick today to visit the Moncton Wildcats. Game time is 7pm and it's Camo Night at the Moncton Coliseum. The two teams will play again on Friday evening in Halifax. Friday's match will be shown on Eastlink TV and it's Teddy Bear Toss night at the Scotiabank Centre. Don't forget to bring a stuffed animal to the game so you can throw it on the ice when the Herd score their first goal of the game.

Herd Word: Fucale To Play in Spengler Cup

HISCHIER
The Canadian Hockey League released the rosters for the CHL/NHL Top Prospects game that will be held on January 30, 2017 in Quebec City. Halifax Mooseheads rookie Nico Hischier was among the players who will participate in the annual showcase of draft eligible players. Hischier leads the league in rookie scoring with 48 points and has been ranked in the top 10 on scouting services listings all season long. Despite not playing in the last few games, Nico still is second on the Moose team.

Congrats to Nico on representing the Mooseheads in the top prospects game.

Photo - Brampton Beast's Facebook

FUCALE
It was announced on Tuesday that Zach Fucale will represent Hockey Canada once again, this time at the Spengler Cup.

The former Halifax Mooseheads goaltender was among the 23 players that were named to Team Canada's roster for the tournament. Fucale is in second year of professional hockey and is playing for the Brampton Beast of the ECHL. He is doing pretty good, recently playing to a shutout in a game against the Adirondack Thunder on Saturday night. Zach and the rest of Team Canada will start the Spengler Cup on Boxing Day in Davos, Switzerland. The tournament will end on December 31 with the gold medal game.

Congrats to Zach and good luck in the tournament. Moose Country will be cheering big time for you!

TAILLEFER
With the holiday break now in full swing, it also brings with it a multitude of trades in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. One of those trades in the first week included a Herd alum. The Gatineau Olympiques announced a big trade on Wednesday with the Charlottetown Islanders. Gatineau traded former Moosehead Jean-Sebastien Taillefer in a 7 player deal.

Moose Country would like to wish good luck to Jean-Sebastien with the Islanders.

WORLD JUNIORS
Another tournament that begins on December 26th is the World Junior Hockey Championships which this year are being held right here in Canada, splitting between Montreal and Toronto. There is no Mooseheads on the host country team but former head coach Dominique Ducharme leads the home nation in a role behind the bench. However, a current player will be in the tourney. The almost 18 year old; Nico Hischier will be on Team Switzerland and will hope to help his country better their 9th place finish at last year's championship.

Good luck to both men next week. Go get em.

LAVOIE
Rookie Raphael Lavoie will be back in the lineup after the holiday break. Halifax announced today that their 2016 second round pick is returning to the team after spending the last 2 and a half months in the Quebec triple A league. The 16 year old began the season with the Moose but after a difficult start made the decision to play for the team he was on last season. Lavoie scored seven goals and recorded 18 points in 15 games played with the College Antoine-Girouard Gaulois.

POSTPONED GAME
The match between the Saint John Sea Dogs and your Halifax Mooseheads on December 16 was postponed until further notice because of bad weather that caused the Herd unable to get out of Nova Scotia. The QMJHL announced the other day a makeup date for the game. The two teams will now play on March 1st at 7pm in Harbour Station.

World Junior Camp Rosters Announced

There will be some current Halifax Mooseheads in Finland this month for the 2016 World Junior Hockey Championships.

While no player on the Herd will be suiting up for Team Canada this year, there will be a couple of Mooseheads personnel behind the bench. Head Coach Dominique Ducharme has been asked to assist in coaching duties and equipment manager Chris MacDonald will serve in the same capacity during the 10 day tournament. The two were not behind the bench on Friday night when Halifax hosted the Saint John Sea Dogs as Canada's selection camp began today.

Halifax's captain Timo Meier was invited to Team Switzerland's camp but will no doubtedly be named to the final roster on Christmas Day. Some believe the 19 year old will be given a letter as well when the tournament starts. The Harisau, Switzerland native left for the team's camp in Lenzerheide this morning.

Former Moose forward Nikolaj Ehlers was invited to Team Denmark's camp as well. The 19 year old is one of two returning players on the Danish team that received their first ever win at the world junior level during last year's tournament. With his experience in the National Hockey League, Ehlers should provide some good leadership though it's yet to be seen if the Winnipeg Jets will let him go.

Canada, Denmark and Switzerland are in the same group this year. The 2016 tournament will run from December 26, 2015 to January 5, 2016 in Helsinki, Finland.