Herd Word

DEVELOPMENT CAMP
Matt Murphy and Jonathan Drouin are the first Halifax Mooseheads players to be invited to NHL development camps. The Ottawa Senators released information on their camp and Murphy was on the roster. The Sens camp begins on Canada Day and will run until July 7th with an evening scrimmage, practices and a 3 on 3 tournament to end camp. Murphy gets the invite despite being passed over in two consecutive drafts. A year ago today, Jonathan Drouin was drafted third overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning who invited him to their camp for a second year. Tampa Bay's camp will run July 2-6.

CHL IMPORT
The Canadian Hockey League Import Draft is on Wednesday. It begins at 11am/ET. Your Mooseheads pick 50th and 110th overall. However don't expect Halifax to use either pick, according to Willy Palov.

BOUDREAU

Titan Nation reported that former Mooseheads player Matt Boudreau has been signed to play with a team in France next season. Boudreau will play with the Brest Albatros during the 2014-15 season. 

PRESEASON

Tickets to the three home preseason games will go on sale August 1st. Camp starts on August 11 and the first preseason game will be at the Halifax Forum on August 16th. 

Halifax to host HNIC

Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada is coming to Halifax!

Each year, the Canadian National Hockey League teams celebrate the great game of hockey with CBC's Hockey Night in Canada crew in one special town or city and on February 14, 2015 it is happening in Halifax. The 2015 version will be the 15th of its kind but second time that it will be held in Nova Scotia after Windsor hosted the third annual event in 2002.

The announcement of the event was made last week, two days after the NHL awards were handed out and Nova Scotian native Sidney Crosby won three awards and former Mooseheads player Nathan MacKinnon, and fellow Cole Harbour native, won the Calder Trophy. There will be 13 hours of broadcasting from the city which will include five games on CBC.

“Halifax has a tremendous hockey history, and is a vibrant Canadian community – a perfect combination for hosting Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada,” said Joel Darling, Executive Producer, NHL Special Events, Rogers. “This region has a strong tradition of supporting all facets of hockey – from grassroots, to junior hockey, to the NHL."

Coincidentally, there will be a game on the newly renamed Scotiabank Centre ice featuring your Halifax Mooseheads and provincial rivals Cape Breton Screaming Eagles at 7pm.

 “This is fantastic news for hockey-mad Halifax” said Mayor Mike Savage. “With locally-grown heroes like Nathan MacKinnon and Sidney Crosby, and championship teams like the Halifax Mooseheads, Halifax is a natural home for Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada. We’re extremely proud to host an event which celebrates Canada’s game and showcases our contribution to its bright future.”

Here is the broadcast schedule:

• Edmonton @ Ottawa, 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT
• Winnipeg @ Detroit, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT
• Toronto @ Montreal, 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT
• Dallas @ Colorado, 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. PT
• Vancouver @ Calgary, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT

NHL DRAFT: Ehlers drafted in top 10

The 2014 National Hockey League entry draft was this weekend in Philadelphia...

• For the first time since 2006, a defenseman was drafted first overall. Aaron Ekblad of the Barrie Colts was drafted by the lottery winner Florida Panthers. 
• Nikolaj Ehlers of your Moose got drafted 9th overall by the Winnipeg Jets. He was the only Quebec League player to be drafted in the 1st round on Friday. 
• A total of 17 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League players were selected, about half of the amount of players that were drafted last year.
• Mason McDonald, of Halifax, was the first goaltender to be drafted. The Charlottetown Islander was picked 34th overall by the Calgary Flames on Saturday.
• Danny Moynihan and Matt Murphy were the other Herd players that were ranked but neither got drafted. This is the second year in a row that Murphy has been passed in the draft. 
• The 2015 draft will be held in Sunrise by the Florida Panthers.

Poll 6 Results

It's the night before the 2014 NHL draft and thus the most recent blog poll has concluded. Your Halifax Mooseheads have three players projected to get drafted this year but the poll question was about the rookie star that came to Canada to play with the Moose this past season. Three weeks ago I asked you where do you think Nikolaj Ehlers will be drafted on June 27th?

The results are in and the winner is... 

8th to 10th

36% of the voters believe Nik will get drafted to one of the teams that are in the 8th, 9th or 10th spot. 

Full breakdown: Top 5: 27%; 6th-7th: 27%; 8th-10th: 36%; 11th-30th: 9%; on Sunday: 0% 

Thank you for voting and don't forget to watch TSN (in Canada) starting at 8pm tomorrow to see if your choice was correct. 

BREAKING: Mooseheads Home Arena Gets New Name

The Halifax Metro Centre is no more. The naming rights of the 35 year old arena have been sold to Scotiabank for a reportedly 6.5 million dollars. It will now be called the Scotiabank Centre according to the press conference that was held on the covered up ice during lunch hour on Wednesday.

It will take some getting used to the new name that will be in the downtown core for at least 10 years. I always liked that our arenas were not attached to big companies as is the case for the Eastlink Centre in PEI and Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary but times are changing in Halifax and this is one example of that.

The first time your Halifax Mooseheads will play in the renamed arena will be September 12 at their 2014-15 season home opener. The selling of the rights to Scotiabank will allow the arena to get new seating, better bathrooms and other improvements. When those will happen is not yet known.

I very much agree with this:

Hit up the comments below and let me know what you think of the new name. I personally have mixed feelings about it.

BREAKING: MacKinnon wins Calder

Photo credit: NHL twitter account

That pretty much says it all. Congratulations to the former Halifax Mooseheads player on being named the NHL Rookie of the Year but really who is surprised? 

Nathan MacKinnon played 2 seasons for the Moose and collected 153 points in 102 games played in the QMJHL. In his rookie season, MacKinnon led the NHL in many of the rookie categories. Nathan scored 24 goals and recorded 63 points in his first National Hockey League season. He also played in all 82 games during the 2013-14 season. 

Herd Word

NHL AWARDS
Happy NHL awards day!! Tonight the 2013-14 National Hockey League awards will be presented in Las Vegas. The show can be seen on TSN starting at 8pm Atlantic time. Former Halifax Mooseheads star Nathan MacKinnon is one of three canditates for the Calder Trophy which is presented to the NHL Rookie of the Year. The other two are teammates from the Tampa Bay Lightning who join the Colorado Avalanche as the teams with the most nominees with four each.

WORLD JUNIORS
It was announced on Monday that three Moose players have been invited to their country's world junior development camps which will be held in August. For the third straight year, Jonathan Drouin and Zach Fucale have been invited to Team Canada's camp that is held in Brossard and Sherbrooke, Quebec every summer. Not exactly sure how this will play out with NHL team camps but either way that is a busy month for both boys and I will have details when they become available. Camp is August 3-8 this year. I guess coming to the Canadian Hockey League and playing quite well was good for Timo Meier who got the news on Monday that he has been invited to Team Swizterland's camp. It will be held in Arosa, Swizterland sometime in August.

GALLANT
Gerard Gallant has been hired as the Florida Panthers new head coach. He was the assistant coach of the Montreal Canadiens for two years after spending three years as head coach of the Saint John Sea Dogs. This reunites Gallant with former Dogs player Jonathan Huberdeau.

NHL DRAFT
The National Hockey League Entry Draft is on Friday and the Mooseheads have three players who are projected to be drafted. The highest ranked player being rookie sensation Nikolaj Ehlers, who has gone up in the draft rankings throughout the season with his play. Some are hesitant to really believe he is as good as he is because he spent a lot of time with Jonathan Drouin. Thirty of Drouin's 79 assists were on the PP but probably a third were actually on Ehlers' goals. Last night on TSN, Bob MacKenzie released his final rankings (1-30) in the first of many pre-draft shows that TSN is hosting this week. For the full list click here.

Matt Murphy and Danny Moynihan are also eligible for this year's draft. Moynihan is ranked #77 in the final Central Scouting rankings. In his second year of eligibility, Murphy is ranked #128. In a year that had big names and four Moose drafted, there just wasn't enough space for Matt.

CHL IMPORT DRAFT
Just a reminder the Canadian Hockey League import draft is on July 2nd (next Wednesday). The Sarnia Sting will pick first while the Quebec Remparts, Saint John Sea Dogs and Shawinigan Cataractes are the only QMJHL teams in the first 10 picks. Your Mooseheads will pick 50th and 110th overall. I will have a recap of Halifax's picks at the end of the night.