Kilfoil, Canada Win U18 Championship

I never shared this but there were a couple of Halifax Mooseheads' representatives participating in the Under-18 World Ice Hockey Championships that was played April 23-May 3 in Texas, USA. 

Photo - Herd Instagram

Defenceman Carlos Handel suited up for the German national team while forward Liam Kilfoil played for Team Canada. Our two players were in separate groups during the tournament so they didn't get to go against each other. 

Handel made some history on April 27 scoring the fastest two goals in a time of 19 seconds to give his team the lead. Germany would go on to win that game 5-4 and finished the preliminary round with a 1-1-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record, good enough for 3rd in Group B. The 18-year-old also recorded two assists in four games played. Carlos was also named captain of the team. In the quarter-finals, the guys from Deutschland would take on Slovakia but lost 3-2. 

Fastest 2 goals scored by a player at #U18MensWorlds‼️

Carlos Handel scores 2️⃣ in 19 seconds to put @deb_teams in the lead! pic.twitter.com/yKpxoOAGkl

— IIHF (@IIHFHockey) April 27, 2025

Canada, meanwhile, went undefeated in Group A which set up a battle against Czechia in the quarter-finals where they won 3-2 in overtime. It was a lack luster showing for Kilfoil who did not record any points in seven games but this was his second time just this season playing for the red & white after participating in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup back in August. The 18-year-old did play 14 minutes 38 seconds in the championship game on the third line as Team Canada went on to defeat Sweden 7-0 in the gold medal game. 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

Congratulations to Liam Kilfoil and Team Canada on becoming U18 world champions on Saturday. 

Canada Skates To Gold

Team Canada is back on top! 

This means that a couple of Halifax Mooseheads players are champions. Defenceman Dylan MacKinnon and forward Mathieu Cataford made Canada's Hlinka Gretzky Cup roster last month and have been participating in the tournament all week in Red Deer, Alberta. The Canadians went undefeated in the preliminary round and went up against Finland in the semi-final match. Canada won the game 4-1 to book their ticket in the gold medal game where they took on Team Sweden. The score of the championship match was 4-1 as well, it is the first Hlinka Cup victory for the red and white since 2018. 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

Both Cataford and MacKinnon finished the tournament with an assist in five games played. Congrats to these two young men and the rest of the team on winning the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup on Saturday. 

Final standings as follows; Canada (gold), Sweden (silver), Finland (bronze), Czechia, United States, Slovakia, Switzerland, Germany

Two Moose Named to Team Canada

Hockey Canada announced their roster for the upcoming Hlinka Gretzky Cup and two Halifax Mooseheads sophomores will be participating in the tournament that begins today. Forward Mathieu Cataford and defenceman Dylan MacKinnon made the under-18 team meaning that they will be in Red Deer, Alberta for the next week. 

Photo - Hockey Canada Twitter

Cataford, who was drafted by Halifax 6th overall in 2021, led the QMJHL's 16-year-old age group in points with 46 (17G & 29A) last season in 62 games. The Saint-Constant, QC native had a goal, an assist and a penalty in Canada's final pre-tournament match on Friday, helping the red and white to a 6-0 victory. 

MacKinnon was selected by the Herd one spot before Mathieu last summer. He picked up a goal and an assist during the 2021-22 regular season in 52 games. 

Congrats and good luck to Dylan, Mathieu and Team Canada this week. The home country will kick off the tournament tonight with a match against Switzerland at 7pm MDT. See the full schedule here. 

3 Herd Invited To Hockey Canada Camp

Hockey Canada has announced it's roster for the 2021 under-18 team summer development camp which will be held July 25-August 4 in Calgary, Alberta. 

Three Halifax Mooseheads players that were rookies during the 2020-21 season are among the 45 invitees. Forwards Markus Vidicek and Jordan Dumais along with defenseman Jake Furlong have been named to the roster. Both Vidicek and Dumais scored 10 goals during the regular season for Halifax and finished with 31 and 29 points respectively. 

From the press release; the players include four goaltenders, 15 defenceman and 26 forwards. Of the 45 invitees, two won a gold medal with Canada's National Men's Under-18 Team at the 2021 IIHF U18 World Championships in Frisco and Plano, Texas. 

"This stage of our Summer Showcase is about bringing together the top under-18 players in Canada to work and learn from an elite-level coaching staff, giving them the necessary skills for their hockey development to grow and succeed,' said Alan Millar, director of player personnel for Hockey Canada. 

Over the 11-day camp, the players will be split into two teams, Red and White, and participate in practices and intrasquad games. The camp will also feature combined practices and intrasquad games with Canada's National Junior Team on August 2-3. The summer camp is typically used to evaluate and select Canada's roster for the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, but Canada will not participate in this year's event due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 

Congrats to our guys on being invited to the summer camp and good luck to all the players. 

Photo - Hockey Canada

Team Canada Wins Gold

Photo - hlinkagretzky.com

The Halifax Mooseheads will have a couple of more players on their team that have won gold medals while representing their country. The Hlinka Gretzky Cup, previously the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, had been happening in Edmonton & Red Deer this past week between 8 of the best U18 teams in the world. As is normal in this tournament, Team Canada dominated and in the end won the championship game on Saturday evening.

Herd players Xavier Parent and Justin Barron were named to the national team and both had really good showings. At one point during the week, Barron led all players in assists but ended the tournament 19th among the scoring leaders with 5 points (all helpers). The 16-year-old Halifax native played in all 5 games for the red and white and while most of the other players in the competition this week will get drafted in the upcoming NHL draft, Justin will have to wait for the 2020 entry draft because of a late birthday.

Photo - Hockey Canada

Parent, meanwhile, scored a nice goal in Canada's semi-final game against USA on Friday, tying the game at 3 in the second period and helping his team to win 6-5 in overtime to head to the championship game. Xavier, 17, spent most of the tournament on the 4th line but had an opportunity to showcase his skills on the power play. The Blainville, QC native finished the week with two goals and an assist in 5 games played.

Despite finding themselves down 2-0 early on to Sweden in the championship game, Canada rallied later in the first period and cruised to a 6-2 victory to claim it's 22nd gold medal at this tournament. Former head coach Andre Tourigny was the bench boss for Team Canada.

Halifax Mooseheads prospect Marcel Barinka had a huge game for the Czech Republic on Friday. Barinka scored a hat trick and assisted on another to help the Czechs pick up a 8-3 victory over Slovakia in the 5th place game. The Prague, CZE native finished the tournament with 6 points (3G & 3A) in 4 games played which was good enough for 13th among the scoring leaders.

Congratulations to Xavier, Justin, Andre and the rest of Team Canada on winning the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. We'll see Parent and Barron in Moose Country when the players report for training camp on Thursday.

Couple of Herd to Represent Canada

Photo - RDS.ca

Hockey Canada has announced it's 22-man roster that will represent the country at the upcoming Ivan Hlinka tournament. Two Halifax Mooseheads players were among the young men to be given a spot on the U18 team.

Sophomores Xavier Parent and Justin Barron will wear the red and white starting on August 6 in Red Deer and Edmonton. The association made the announcement today after twice the amount of players participated in a selection camp in Calgary the past week which included on- and off-ice sessions as well as 3 intrasquad games. The tournament has generally been held in the Czech Republic so this is the first time it has been hosted in Canada and it is now called the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

This is not the first time that Parent and Barron have worn the maple leaf as they both played in the Under-17 World Hockey Challenge in November for Team Canada Red. 17 year old Xavier had a pretty good showing during the tournament, scoring 4 goals and adding 3 helpers in 6 games played while defenseman Justin had an assist.

Barron, 16, had 19 assists and 21 points in 51 games played during the regular season for the Mooseheads in his rookie campaign this past season. The Halifax, NS native is not eligible for the NHL draft until 2020. Parent on the other hand is heading into his draft year so the Blainville, QC native will be looking to have a better campaign this season than 13 goals and 29 points in 63 games he had during 2017-18.

The two Herd sophomores are joined by 4 other QMJHL players; Alexis Lafreniere (RIM), Samuel Poulin (SHE), Maxence Guenette (VDO) and Jakub Pelletier (MON).

Congrats Xavier and Justin on making the team and good luck boys. You can watch Team Canada take on Team Switzerland on Monday at 7:00pm MT on TSN Sports.


Prospect Marcel Barinka was named to the Czech Republic roster and will look to help his country get revenge on the Canadians after last year's disappointing loss to the red and white in the gold medal game. Barinka was drafted in the 2018 CHL Import Draft back in late June 106th overall. The 17 year old had 31 goals and 65 points with RB Hockey Akademie last season in 39 games.

Herd Word: Mooseheads Part Ways with Coach

Photo - Moose website

MIDGLEY
It was announced on Wednesday morning that the Halifax Mooseheads have let go of their head coach, Jim Midgley. The move comes after a pretty successful regular season but, for most, a disappointing post-season. Midgley was named as the team's bench boss last summer proceeding the announcement that Andre Tourigny was leaving to be closer to his family. Jim led the Herd to a 43-18-6-1 record in 2017-18 which was good enough for 4th in the league in a season where some figured they would be more in the middle of the pack at the end of the year. Halifax was swept in the second round by the Charlottetown Islanders after defeating the Baie-Comeau Drakkar in the 1st round. Midgley, who is from Townsend, Ontario, was assistant coach for six years under Tourigny and previously Dom Ducharme.

"This was a very hard decision that we had to make but we feel it is the right move for the team moving forward. I want to thank Jim for all of his hard work and commitment to the organization," said General Manager Cam Russell.

It was also announced that the assistant coaches will remain with the team while the search for a new head coach will begin immediately.

Good luck to Jim Midgley in his future career.

U18 WORLDS
Jared McIsaac and Raphael Lavoie's season is over now after Team Canada was knocked out of the U18 World Championships earlier this week in the tournament's quarter-final. Despite a good tournament by both of the Mooseheads sophomores, the two 18 year olds couldn't help Canada improve on their 5th place finish from last year's competition. The red and white went a perfect 3-0 in the round robin games but were unable to solve the Czech Republic goaltending more than once, losing the game 2-1 on Thursday. Individually, Lavoie continued his hot play with the Herd and scored five goals in 5 games during the tournament and was a plus-6 while McIsaac had 1 goal, 3 points and was a plus-5. Jared was named one of Team Canada's top 3 players for the whole tournament while Raphael was awarded player of the game in the club's first match.

INJURIES
Bumps and bruises are apart of the world of hockey and during the playoffs most players fight through them and still compete while trying to hunt down the Stanley Cup. However, for the players who have their season cut short because they were defeated in the first or second round of the post-season, sometimes their injuries can prohibit them from representing their countries in the annual IIHF World Championships. This is the case for two former Moose forwards, Jakub Voracek and Nico Hischier. Their respective NHL teams announced that the two men will not got the 2018 tournament. New Jersey tweeted that Hischier had played with a chronic left wrist/hand injury the entire season.

Get better soon boys.

Photo - Abeltshauser's Facebook page

ABELTSHAUSER
Konrad Abeltshauser is a champion once again. The 25 year old has found success on a really good EHC Munchen team that has now won the DEL championship for three straight years. EHC was ranked first in the German league after the regular season with a record of 30-11-6-5 for 107 points. The team than defeated the Fischtown Penguins and Adler Manheim in the playoffs on their way to the finals where they met Eisbaren Berlin. Abeltshauser and the Red Bulls won the 7 game series 4-3. Konrad, who played defense for Halifax from 2009 to 2013, scored the Munchen's first goal of Game 7 and finished the post-season with three goals and 8 points in the playoffs. He had 3 goals and 18 points during the regular season.

Congratulations to Konrad and the Red Bulls on another championship season!

DUCHARME
Big news for former head coach Dom Ducharme. The Joliette, QC native has made the big leagues after the Montreal Canadiens announced that they have hired Ducharme as an assistant coach. Dom coached your Halifax Mooseheads for 5 years and won the President's Cup with the team in 2013 before deciding it was best to go back home and coached the Drummondville Voltigeurs from 2016-2018.

Herd Word

KENNEDY
It was announced last week that former Mooseheads forward Bradley Kennedy has committed to play with the Mount Royal University Cougars hockey program for the 2017-18 season. Before getting traded at the Christmas trade deadline he played 37 games with the Herd collecting 29 points. Kennedy came to the Herd from the Charlottetown Islanders in June 2016 and was shipped to the Moncton Wildcats in January to make room for incoming overage players. The 21 year old never played for Moncton, instead choosing to finish the season with the Pictou Weeks Crushers of the MJAHL.

HISCHIER
During the month of August, NHL.com is doing analysis of each of the 31 teams, called 31 in 31, in preparation of the upcoming season. Late last week they did the New Jersey Devils. Rick Kowalsky, of the Devils' American Hockey League affiliate Binghamton Devils, said that "this year's group is by far the best-skilled group we've had at a development camp"  and it's led by Halifax's 2016 import draft pick Nico Hischier. The 18 year old is projected to be in the National Hockey League this season.

"In Nico, you're looking at a player who has high hockey sense and is very competitive, and those are things you're looking for in someone to play down the middle," [New Jersey's coach John] Hynes said. "They have to have that ability to read and think the game quickly. Now it's trying to find ways to help him be consistent and play at his maximum capacity every night."

IVAN HLINKA
Earlier this month, Team Canada which was made up of eight QMJHL players, were in the Czech Republic for the Ivan Hlinka tournament and were playing in the gold medal game against Team Czech Republic. Of those eight Q players, three were from the Mooseheads; Alexis Gravel, Jared McIsaac and Benoit-Olivier Groulx. The team went on to win the championship by a 4-1 score with McIsaac opening up the scoring for the red and white in the first period in the final match.

Congratulations to @BO_groulx57, @McisaacJared, @agravel37 & Team Canada on winning the U18 #IvanHlinka Memorial Cup 🇨🇦🏒🏆 pic.twitter.com/ZIQb5QULTC

— Moose Country (@MC_MooseCountry) August 12, 2017

MOORE
It was announced that long time radio voice of the Herd John Moore has decided to step down to focus more on his own website and to look at a broader spectrum of sports. He is still going to be covering the Mooseheads and the QMJHL but there is going to be more MHL content as well as other leagues. We want to wish John all the best in the future. The search for the next voice of the Moose has already began.

ALUM AT CAMPS 
Main training camps around the league started to begin on Sunday and as such there are a few former Herd players among the names on team rosters.
Taylor Ford      Rouyn-Noranda Huskies     traded in Jan 2017
Domenico Argento      Charlottetown Islanders     free agent invite
Morgan Nauss     Chicoutimi Sagueneens     traded in Aug 2016

CUTS
This afternoon it was announced that there were four more cuts made at training camp. The following players are no longer in camp; Felix Gascon, William Smith, Fabian Capparelli, Maxime Emery. This leaves the amount of players fighting for a spot on the Moose team at 37 young men.

Team Canada Going For Gold

Photo - Mooseheads twitter

At the U-18 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup in Bratislava, Slovakia and Břeclav, Czech Republic 3 Halifax Mooseheads have led their country to the championship game again. Benoit-Olivier Groulx, Jared McIsaac, Alex Gravel and Team Canada are going for gold after a 4-1 win over Sweden earlier today.

McIsaac set up the eventual game winner, Groulx had the insurance goal along with an assist, and Gravel was the back up to Olivier Rodrigue. Team Canada will play Team Czech Republic tomorrow at 12pm Atlantic in the final match of the tournament.


So far for the tournament:
Benoit: 3 points (2G & 1A), 6 PIM
Jared: 2 assists, 4 PIM
Alexis: 1 GP, 3.69 GAA & .857 SAV%


Canada is currently 3-0-1 with their only loss being in a shoot out to Russia in the first game of the tournament. Czech Republic is 3-1 on the tournament with their only loss being a 7-3 one to Sweden.

3 Herd In Ivan Hlinka

Photo - BO Groulx's Twitter

Hockey Canada released the roster tonight for who will participate in the 2017 Ivan Hlinka Tournament next week. The announcement comes after an U18 development camp in Calgary during the past week. For the first time since 2012, your Halifax Mooseheads will have multiple players on the Team Canada roster.

Three players who were rookies for the Herd in 2016-17, will represent their country later this month. Forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx, defenceman Jared McIsaac and goaltender Alexis Gravel are among the 22 young men who will wear the red and white. All 3 are ranked to go in the first round of the 2018 NHL draft in June and this will be a great opportunity for them to improve on their draft position before playing their second junior season with Halifax in 2017-18. Gravel, McIsaac and Groulx all doned the maple leaf at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympic Games so the trio aren't strangers to international completion.

The Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup runs from August 7-12 in Breclav, Czech Republic and Bratislava, Slovakia. Eight countries will participate, Canada joins host Slovakia, Finland and Russia in Group B while in Group A, Czech Republic will host Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. Our boys and Team Canada will begin the tournament on Monday against Russia. For the full roster, click here.

Follow me on Twitter to get up to date scores and stats. I'll also try to post some on the blog. Go Canada Go!

Herd Players, Prospects Invited to Summer Showcase

Photo - Hockey Canada website

There will be lots of Halifax Mooseheads flavour during the Hockey Canada summer showcase next month in Calgary. Hockey Canada announced on Tuesday the players that have been invited to it's annual development and selection camps.

Four current Herd players got an invitation to the under-18 camp and are among the 44 young men who are vying for a spot on the Canadian Ivan Hlinka Team. Newly turned sophomores goaltender Alexis Gravel, forward Raphael Lavoie, defenseman Jared McIsaac and forward Benoit-Olivier Groulx were named to the roster. The 4 players will be in Calgary for five days at the end of July. Full U18 camp roster which is formed of all 2018 draft eligible players from all three CHL leagues as well as two players from the Ontario Junior A Hockey League and the Central Canada Hockey League.

Halifax will also have four prospects participating in the under-17 camp that will see 111 midget players in on- and off-ice sessions at the Markin MacPhail Centre. Defenseman Justin Barron as well as forwards Arlo Merritt, Alex Newhook and Xavier Parent will look to use the development camp as a way to get on the World U17 Championship team. This camp begins on July 22. The roster, which you can view here, is formed of players from many different minor leagues including the Greater Toronto Hockey League, the Nova Scotia Major Midget Hockey League and Alberta Midget Hockey League plus others.

Per the Hockey Canada press release: Ryan Jankowski, director of player personnel for Hockey Canada, was responsible for all player selections, with assistance from regional scouts Carl Bouchard (Quebec), Barclay Branch (Ontario), Barclay Parneta (West), Kevin Mitchell (Atlantic), and Darrell Woodley (Ontario), Canadian Hockey League general managers and branch representatives for the under-17 roster, and with input from coaches and general managers from across the CHL for the under-18 and under-20 rosters.

With such a young team, the Moose do not have any players who were invited to the World Junior camp. In fact only two players from the QMJHL are on the roster; Samuel Girard of the Shawinigan Cataractes and Blainville-Boisbriand Armada's Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Good luck to all 8 young men next month in Calgary! Moose Country will be cheering you on.

Somppi In Ivan Hlinka Tournament

Otto Somppi
Photo - Mooseheads website

Halifax Mooseheads 2015 import draft pick Otto Somppi will be spending this week with Team Finland in Slovakia at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament. As announced by the Mooseheads last week, he will join the team at camp on August 18. The 17 year old and the Finns have already played one game in the tournament, defeating Team USA 5-1 this morning. Somppi had a goal and an assist to help his team get the victory.For the full schedule click here.

Congrats to Otto for making the team. Check back on Friday when the tournament finishes to see how the young prospect did.

CANADA SKATES TO GOLD

Dominique Ducharme is a winner once again.

After leading the Halifax Mooseheads to a Quebec league championship and a national championship in May as head coach, Dom has won gold at the 2013 Ivan Hlinka tournament as assistant coach with Team Canada.

The win was Canada's 6th straight gold medal at the special U18 tournament. It was their 18th gold of all time at the Ivan Hlinka Memorial tournament. The team shutout Team USA 4-0 with goals coming from Michael Dal Colle (Oshawa Generals, OHL), Jayce Hawryluk (Brandon Wheat Kings, WHL), Aaron Ekblad (Barrie Colts, OHL) and Brendan Lemieux (Barrie Colts, OHL). Julio Bullia was in net for Canada and made 21 saves in the shutout.

Congrats to Canada.

Photo credit: Matt Cade, twitter

Dom & Team Canada play on

Dominique Ducharme, coach of your Halifax Mooseheads, will get a chance to win again. 

Team Canada won Group A at the Ivan Hlinka memorial tournament to get a bye into the semis against Russia today. The Canadians went 1-1-0-1 (W-OTW-OTL-L) during round robin play to end the first part of the tourney with 5 points and tied for first in their group. The red and white got first place by virtue of beating the other two tied teams, Czech Republic and Switzerland on Monday and Wednesday, respectively. This led to a battle against the Russians in which Canada won, 3-1.

Ducharme is helping Dale Hunter coach the Under-18's along with DJ Smith. The team will have to get past Team USA if they want to win their 6th straight gold medal at the summer tournament. USA played the Czechs in the other semi final on Friday. The 5th and 7th place games were earlier in the morning. 

The bottom four places in the standings have been decided and it's Finland at 5th followed by Switzerland, Sweden and Slovakia. Russia will take on the Czech Republic Saturday for the bronze after the gold medal game. In a wierd twist, the gold medal game is being played before the bronze medal game but it is, not sure why. 

Go CANADA Go 

Herd Word

HOCKEY SCHOOL
The Halifax Mooseheads Hockey School started this morning with the IP group on the ice at 7:30 this morning with the Novice group on the ice at 8:30. It is being held at the BMO Centre in Bedford until Friday. Sessions are 4 hours long and are being taught by Moose players. The Atom group will be on the ice at 12:30 with the Peewees skating at 1:20. Skills that the kids will be learning are puck handling, passing and shooting, faceoffs and positional play as well as power and agility skating. Have fun boys and girls.

IVAN HLINKA
The U-18 Ivan Hlinka tournament, which Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin attended last summer, also started today in Slovakia and Czech Republic. Team Canada is playing in Czech Republic with the host team, Sweden and Switzerland. Timo Meier is the only player in the tournament related to the Mooseheads. Meier was drafted last month in the CHL Import Draft.

DROUIN
Jonathan Drouin is not participating in Canada's Junior development camp now with a sore foot. He was invited to the camp with fellow Halifax Mooseheads players Nathan MacKinnon and Zach Fucale. Hopefully this does not ruin his chances on making the team in December.

WORLD JUNIORS
With Drouin injured, MacKinnon has now been paired up with Mark Janowski and Tom Wilson for the Red/White scrimmages over the next couple of days. Nate is on Team White. Fucale is also at the camp and will be the only Herd player to travel to Lake Placid for pre-tournament games that start on August 7th.

TRAINING CAMP
The 2013 training camp for your Halifax Mooseheads will start on August 14th. Red/Green team scrimmages will happen on the 14th, 15th and 16th between 4pm and 6pm at Cole Harbour Place. Admission is free to all scrimmages to fans who would like to watch the rookies. The first preseason game is August 17th at the Halifax Forum.

Coach going to Europe

Head Coach of our Halifax Mooseheads, Dom Ducharme is heading to Europe!

Don't worry he isn't leaving the junior club that we have come to love the last 19 years. He is just on his way to the Czech Republic to help assist Dale Hunter coach Canada's greatest Under-18 players at the Ivan Hlinka tournament. Team Canada leaves today for the European country. The 22 young men who will represent this great nation were anounced yesterday while the coaching staff was announced a month ago. Dale and Dom are joined behind the bench by Oshawa Generals coach DJ Smith.

The tournament runs from August 5th to 10th in Breclav, Czech Republic and Piestany, Slovakia. Canada will be playing in Breclav with the host country, Sweden and Switzerland. Team Canada is looking for a 6th straight gold medal.

Another Alum signing

Andrew Bodnarchuk has agreed to a 2-year deal with the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. He spent last season with LA's affiliate in the American Hockey League, the Manchester Monarchs. There he collected 20 points in 69 games. He was drafted in 2006 by the Boston Bruins after playing a year with the Halifax Mooseheads. Andrew spent two more years after being drafted with the Mooseheads collecting 123 points.

Press release.


In other news....

• Goaltender Mason McDonald was the only Nova Scotian to be named to the U18 Ivan Hlinka tournament. He along with 6 other QMJHL players were named to the team which will play in Barclav, Czech Republic starting August 5 and ending August 10. Press release.
• Seth Jones of the Portland Winterhawks took over the EA Sports NHL twitter account this afternoon.
• Mooseheads hockey school starts in a week and will last all week for kids born between 2001 and 2008.

Ivan Hlinka coaches announced

The bench bosses for the 2013 Ivan Hlinka tournament have been announced and our very own head coach Dominique Ducharme will be an assistant coach when play gets underway in August, Hockey Canada announced this morning. Dale Hunter, who coached the London Knights this past season, will be the head coach and DJ Smith, coach of the Oshawa Generals, will be the other assistant.

The tournament will be played in mid-August in Slovakia. Team Canada will be going for their 6th straight Gold Medal at the tournament.


In other news...

• Hockey Canada also announced the coaches for the 2014 World Junior tournament. Brent Sutter will be leading the way this Christmas with Benoit Groulx and Ryan McGill helping him out.
• Ryan Jankowski was named the head scout of Hockey Canada's Program of Excellence today as well and will be in charge of the U17, U18 and U20 programs.