Herd Word

Photo - Moose website

EURO DRAFT
The Canadian Hockey League Import Draft was at the end of June and your Halifax Mooseheads used one of their two picks during the day. With the 10th overall selection (11th originally but Sherbrooke passed), Cam Russell and company drafted 17 year old Filip Zadina of the Czech Republic. All of the scouts call him a dynamic offensive player. With a late '99 birthday this is Zadina's draft season. In international junior play he has 73 points in 65 games. For more on his stats click here.

FAVREAU
With the promotion of Jim Midgley to the Herd's head coach, Halifax was without a second assistant coach until June 29 when the team announced that they have welcomed Sylvain Favreau to the bench staff. Favreau was Head Coach and Director of Hockey Operations with the Cumberland Grads of the CCHL in Ontario during the 2016-17 season. On joining the team, Sylvian said: “I am very proud and excited to join such a storied franchise and to pursue my coaching career with the Mooseheads. I look forward to working with Jim Midgley and Jon Greenwood. The Mooseheads’ talented group of players and the organization’s focus on developing players to their full potential presents a great and welcome challenge."

TIDE FEST
This weekend, Brett Crossley of your Mooseheads along with 2017 Q draft pick Justin Barron were in attendance to help kids attending Tide Fest shoot on a gigantic blown up Zach Fucale. Each child got the chance to be able to score on the former fan favourite.

HISCHIER
The New Jersey Devils announced today the signing of Nico Hischier to a 3 year entry level contract. In his first season with the Halifax Mooseheads, he led the QMJHL rookie scoring with 86 points during the regular season while also being second in team scoring. Hischier was named the CHL & QMJHL rookie of the year, Q offensive rookie of the year as well as top professional prospect. The Swiss star has a good shot at making the devils come October. Nico was impressive during the Devils' scrimmages this week while showing off his stickhandling skills and skating along teammate Jocktan Chainey.

Good luck in New Jersey Nico and congratulations on signing your first pro contract! Moose Country is cheering for you loud and proud.

GRENIER
Herd alumni Alexandre Grenier has signed a one year two way deal with the Florida Panthers on July 3rd. Grenier was on the Utica Comets this past season and spent 3 seasons with the Vancouver Canucks organization after the team drafted him in 2011. Will be interesting to see if this gives Alex another chance at making the NHL or if he spends most of 2017-18 in the American Hockey League. Read more here.

Photo - Canadiens' twitter

DROUIN
Since being traded to the Montreal Canadians, it was presumed that Jonathan Drouin would change his jersey number since the team already had a #27 on player Alex Galchenyuk. The Sainte-Agathe, Quebec native announced earlier this month that he will be wearing number 92 for the upcoming season. It was thought that Drouin would go with 72 so it was a surprise to all that he went with 92.

ROOKIE TOURNIMENT 
With training camp just around the corner, there has a change in the name of the mini tournament the Halifax Mooseheads will participate in. Last year, the Moncton Wildcats welcomed the 5 other Maritime teams' rookies to the Hub City Showcase. This year the tourney is called the Rookie Challenge. Tickets for this are on sale now, you can call to secure your tickets to see the defending champs; your Mooseheads. The tournament runs from August 18-20 at Superior Propane Centre in Moncton.
We are about a month away from the rookies reporting to camp and making it that much closer to the regular season.

Hischier Leads NHL Dev Camp Invites

The NHL draft has been over for a couple of weeks now and while only 3 players got selected during that weekend in Chicago, there are a number of former and current Halifax Mooseheads on team development camp rosters.

Nico Hischier, who was second in Herd team scoring in 2016-17, is the biggest name of players who have played for Halifax and will or have participated in camps this summer. Hischier made history last month by becoming the first Swiss born player to be drafted 1st overall.

Below you'll find a list of Mooseheads who are attending development camps:
Otto Somppi - Tampa Bay (2016) - Tampa Bay Lightning development camp June 27-July 1
Maxime Fortier - undrafted - invited to Montreal Canadiens camp July 2-5
Timo Meier - San Jose (2015) - San Jose Sharks development camp July 3-7
Jocktan Chainey - New Jersey (2017) - New Jersey Devils development camp July 11-15
Mathieu Charlebois - undrafted - invited to Anaheim Ducks camp June 29-July 2
Nico Hischier - New Jersey (2017) - New Jersey Devils development camp July 11-15
Cavan Fitzgerald - undrafted - invited to San Jose Sharks camp July 3-7
Arnaud Durandeau - New York (2017) - New York Islanders development camp June 26-July 1
Cody Donaghey - undrafted - invited to Ottawa Senators camp June 27-July 3

Halifax 2016 draft pick Jack Rathbone participated in the Vancouver Canucks camp after being drafted by the them last month.

Events

The Halifax Mooseheads released their schedule for the upcoming season earlier this month and have announced the events happening during the 2017-18 season. Check out below for the dates of the yearly special games.

Annual events
HOME OPENER - September 30 vs. Acadie Bathurst Titan
Pink in the Rink 10 - October 14 vs. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
DND Appreciation Night - November 11 vs. Sherbrooke Phoenix
Battle of Nova Scotia/Hurley Cup - December 30 vs. Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
Teddy Bear Toss - January 27 vs. Saint John Sea Dogs
Fan Appreciation Night - March 16 vs. Moncton Wildcats & March 17 vs. Acadie-Bathurst Titan

NHL Draft

The 2017 National Hockey League entry draft was held this weekend in Chicago, Illinois.

• For the first time in a few years, no one really knew absolutely who was going to get drafted first overall except for the team who won the lottery and was selecting in that top spot; the New Jersey Devils who picked Halifax Mooseheads rookie sensation Nico Hischier.
• The expansion Vegas Golden Knights made their first selection in franchise history when they drafted Cody Glass of the Portland Winterhawks 6th overall. They picked 3 players in the 1st round and a total of 12 over the weekend.
• It was a pretty quiet draft as most of the trades involved draft picks.
• Two more Mooseheads heard their names called when defenseman Jocktan Chainey was picked by the Devils 191st overall while forward Arnaud Durandeau went to the New York Islanders 165th overall. A total of 14 QMJHL players were drafted.
• Somehow, Halifax's leading scorer Max Fortier was passed over for the second year while d-man Walter Flower also didn't get selected.

Hischier Number One

The highest drafted Switzerland hockey player honour now belongs to Nico Hischier of your Halifax Mooseheads.

Nico was selected first overall at the 2017 NHL entry draft on Friday evening by the New Jersey Devils. With getting drafted at number 1 Hischier makes history for his home country in becoming the highest ever Swiss player to be selected, beating out Nino Niederreiter who was picked 5th overall back in 2010. The 18 year old also joins former Herd Nathan MacKinnon as the only Mooseheads to be drafted in the top spot.

Congratulations to Nico and his family on the accomplishment.

We'll most likely see Hischier in the Devils green and red sometime during next week when New Jersey hosts their development camp.

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.

Mooseheads Name New Head Coach

Photo - Mooseheads website

For a second straight year, the Halifax Mooseheads will have a new coach than the year before. The team announced yesterday that they have named Jim Midgley as head coach.

The position is a promotion for Midgley from his previous job. The 39 year old had been an assistant coach for your Herd since 2011. He helped coach Dom Ducharme lead the team to the franchise's first President's Cup in 2013. Before coming to the Mooseheads, the Townsend, ON native was an assistant coach for the Saint John Sea Dogs from 2007 to 2009. He's also helped with Hockey Nova Scotia and Hockey Canada.

“I am honoured and excited to take over behind the bench of the Mooseheads franchise. I can’t wait to get started in August,” noted Midgley in a press release.

The move was necessary since Andre Tourginy, who signed a 5 year contract with Halifax last May, stepped down to take a position with the Ottawa 67's as their head coach and VP of hockey operations. Tourigny took the new job to be closer to his family who live in Rouyn-Noranda.

Your Mooseheads open up their pre-season schedule with the rookie tournament in Moncton against the Saint John Sea Dogs on August 18.