Alumni Taking Part In Jordan Boyd Hockey Challenge

About a year after Jordan Boyd passed away, his family continues to change the ways of junior hockey and celebrate his life. A fund was set up in his name by those close to him with the hope 'to recognize individuals in amateur hockey, in the form of a series of scholarships, who have demonstrated a passion for sportsmanship, learning, leadership and community.' This weekend another fundraiser will be happening to help raise money for those scholarships.


Photo: Hockey Challenge fundraise page

The Jordan Boyd Hockey Challenge will be played at the BMO Centre in Bedford, Nova Scotia on Saturday August 2nd. There will be 9 hours of games between six different teams made up of local hockey celebraties and local kids. An all-star game will be played at the end of the night.



There are a few former Halifax Mooseheads who will be taking part in the games. Player announcements have been made over the last couple of months and 3 players who have played for the Moose have been announced. 2011 Stanley Cup champions Brad Marchand will be taking part, so will current Monchester Monarchs Andrew Bodnarchuk. 2013 Rookie of the Year Nathan MacKinnon will also partipate.

Some names of Herd alumni that are on donation teams include Stephen MacAulay, Mackenzie Weegar and Brendan Duke. Other celebrity names include; James Sheppard, 2004 Stanley Cup champion Darren Rumble, Mason MacDonald and Jacob Brennan.

I will be at the BMO Centre on Saturday so come join me and support this great cause.

Here is the day's full schedule:

11am - 12pm:	Team Boyd vs Dads and Lads
12pm - 1pm:	Sedmha All Stars vs Cole Harbour All Stars
1pm - 2pm:	Rothesay Neterwood vs Bedford Blues Alumni
2pm - 3pm:	Team Boyd vs Sedmha All Stars
3pm - 4pm:	Dads and Lads vs Rothesay Neterwood
4pm - 5pm:	Bedford Blues Alumni vs Cole Harbour All Stars
5pm - 6pm:	3rd place Group 1 vs 3rd place Group 2
6pm - 7pm:	2nd place Group 1 vs 2nd place Group 2
7pm - 8pm:	1st place Group 1 vs 1st place Group 2

All Star Game
Date: August 2, 2014
Time: 8:30 pm
Overview: All celebrities will be split on to two teams with our top fundraisers for a final game. Admission is $5.00

For more info on the hockey challenge or to make a donation click here.

Moose Name Assistant Coach

The Halifax Mooseheads have named the replacement for former assistant coach Steve Hartley. Jon Greenwood will join Dom Ducharme and Jim Midgley on the bench during the upcoming season. Greenwood was named Coach of the Year for Nova Scotia Midget AAA, after leading the Cole Harbour WolfPack to a 26-6-0-1-1 record last season. General Manager Cam Russell had this to say about the hiring;

I’m extremely happy to have Jon join our team. His passion, work ethic and knowledge of the game will make him a welcome addition to an already great coaching staff.

Congratulations to Jon. You can follow him on Twitter at @jgreenwood19

Cape Breton To Play Overseas, Preseason Schedule Affected.

If you've been on the Halifax Mooseheads website recently you will notice that you can now see the season opener game in their upcoming games portion of the site. This is because of the cancellation of two away preseason games that were supposed to be played against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles. The Eagles will represent the Canadian Hockey League at the Junior Club World Cup tournament that will be held in Russia from August 22-30.

The announcement of the Eagles going overseas for part of their training camp leaves Halifax with one home preseason game this year. The August 23rd and August 28th games against Cape Breton were technically Mooseheads home contests with one being in Truro.

The two teams will still play on August 17 and September 6 however, both in Sydney.

Good luck to Cape Breton in the tournament.

Moose named to Futures List

The completion of the 2014 NHL entry draft, where only one of three Halifax Mooseheads ranked players were chosen, means that fans now turn their attention to the upcoming 2014-15 season and the 2015 draft. The National Hockey League puts out a list of players that are eligible for that year's draft. The NHL has released two lists for the 2015 draft; one for players playing in North American leagues even if they are from Europe and one for International leagues.

This year there are two Mooseheads that are on the list. Connor Moynihan and Timo Meier are just two of the 19 Quebec Major Junior Hockey League players listed.

Congratulations to Connor and Timo.

Moose at Development Camps

Even though just one Halifax Mooseheads player was drafted late last month, there are once again still plenty of Herd who have been invited to NHL development camps. Just like last year, the Montreal Canadiens have multiple Mooseheads players on their camp roster.

Jonathan Drouin - Tampa Bay (2013) - Tampa Bay Lightning development camp July 2-6
Nikolaj Ehlers - Winnipeg (2014) - Winnipeg Jets development camp July 7-11
Andrew Ryan - undrafted - invited Minnesota Wild development camp July 9-14
Brandon Vuic - undrafted - invited Calgary Flames development camp July 4-9
Matt Murphy - undrafted - invited to Ottawa Senators development camp July 1-7
MacKenzie Weegar - Florida (2013) - Florida Panthers development camp July 7-11
Zach Fucale - Montreal (2013) - Montreal Canadiens development camp July 7-11
Philippe Gadoury - undrafted - invited to Montreal Canadiens development camp July 7-11

A couple of former Halifax Mooseheads that were invited to camps as well:
Stefan Fournier - Monctreal Canadiens development camp
Randy Gazzola - San Jose Sharks development camp


This will be the second development camp for Andrew Ryan but third camp overall. Ryan, who will be spending his last junior season with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, was passed in the 2012 NHL draft but got the call from the St. Louis Blues to participate in their rookie camp in September. He was invited to the Philadelphia Flyers development camp last summer. Murphy was invited to the Traverse City tournament by the Blues back in September.

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