NHL Draft preview

Note: This post will be updated throughout the week until Draft time so check back often and there will be more stories and information everyday.

2013 NHL Draft
June 30, 2013
4:00pm Atlantic time
NBC Sports Network
Prudential Centre, Newark, New Jersey

First round: 1. Colorado, 2. Florida, 3. Tampa Bay, 4. Nashville, 5. Carolina, 6. Calgary, 7. Edmonton, 8. Buffalo, 9. New Jersey, 10. Dallas, 11. Philadelphia, 12. Phoenix, 13. Winnipeg, 14. Columbus, 15. New York Islanders, 16. Buffalo, 17. Ottawa, 18. Detroit, 19. Columbus, 20. San Jose, 21. Toronto, 22. Calgary, 23. Washington, 24. Vancouver, 25. Montreal, 26. Anaheim, 27. Columbus, 28. Calgary, 29. Dallas, 30. Chicago

Will Seth Jones go #1? Or will it be our very own Nathan MacKinnon? Could a Russian go first overall for the second year in a row? Will a goalie be picked in the top 10 for the first time in 8 years?

All these questions will be answered on Sunday but for now lets see what the probability of them happening is.

JONES
Seth Jones has been a very good defenseman in the Western Hockey League for the Portland Winterhawks and was ranked #1 in the final CSS rankings.

Stories - Denver Post (June 18), Edmonton Journal (June 24), Canada.com (June 24), Rant Sports (June 23)

My prediction -  It is very tough to pick a defenseman first overall as normally you want to build a great team around the first overall pick. Because of this I predict Seth to go 3rd overall to Tampa Bay especially after the Bolts freed up some space buying out their captain Vincent Lecavalier earlier in the week.

MACKINNON
Nathan MacKinnon was the top forward for our very own Halifax Mooseheads the past two years and led the team to a Memorial Cup championship with a hat trick and 5 points against rival Jones. He is ranked #2 in the CSS rankings.

Stories - Denver Post (June 22), Mile High Hockey (June 17), Metro News (June 24), National Post (June 17), Metro News (June 27), Sportsnet (June 28)

My prediction - Nate is everything that a team could ask for in a center, he scores A LOT, has great passing abilities and skating skills, and is also pretty good defensively. At the age of 17, he has his good games and bad but who doesn't at the age? It will be interesting to see how he will play after spending the last 17 months pretty much joined at the hip with Jonathan Drouin. With him being the best center in this year's draft, I predict Nathan will go 2nd overall to Florida, he will be a great asset and he already knows how to play with Jonathan Huberdeau.

FUCALE
Zach Fucale is the number #1 North American goalie in this year's draft and he deserves it after the two years he's had with the Mooseheads.

Stories - The Chronicle Herald (June 25), Canada.com (June 26)

My prediction - Some people predict that Zach will go in the Top 10, others believe he will be picked later in the first round. The top 10 teams, as they stand now, all need great goaltending badly and therefore will probably pick him up as soon as they can. As Paul Hollingsworth said Friday morning on CTV Morning Live, the host city of this year's draft could really use a franchise goalie now that Martin Brodeur is thinking about leaving the game. I predict that Zachary will go 14th overall to Columbus, as they really need a good solid goaltender.

DROUIN
Jonathan Drouin started out this past season with a far chance of being picked in the first round, now after taking over when MacKinnon got hurt and having an awesome World Junior tournament, he has quickly moved up to #3 on the final CSS rankings.

Stories - Canada.com (June 25), The Hockey Writers (June 17), The Gazette (June 27), The Chronicle Herald (June 27)

My prediction - Colorado keeps saying that they will pick a forward and that they would pick Nathan MacKinnon, but I believe they need a good winger to balance out their talented centers they already have. Therefore, I predict that Jonathan will go 1st overall to Colorado.

NURSE
Darnell Nurse of the Sault St. Marie Greyhounds was not able to help his team past the first round but he has stayed in the top 10 in the North American rankings.

Stories - Rant Sports (May 30), National Post (May 30), NHL.com (May 31)

My prediction - I predict that Darnell will go 5th overall to Carolina, he seems like he would fit with that group of young guys.

BARKAROV
As the top ranked European skater at the end of the season by CSS, there is little chance I believe that he will go top 3. I predict Alexander will go 7th overall to Calgary who seem to have a lot of Euro players on their team.


June 27 - The players are in New York City now and a few of them visited Yankee Stadium today to the watch the Yankees and Texas Rangers game. Here are some pictures...

        Here is Nathan MacKinnon, Seth Jones and Jonathan Drouin on the big screen.

Final Central Scouting Services Rankings and Bob MacKenzie's Final TSN Rankings

Photos: Instagram accounts: Nathan MacKinnon, National Hockey League and Seth Jones

Herd Word

DRAFTEES
Mike Morreale twitted a picture yesterday of our top guns looking very "dapper", according to Halifax Mooseheads twitter who retweeted the picture, in their suits.

I must say they look very handsome in suits. It will be interesting to see where each guy goes in the NHL draft coming up on Sunday in Newark. Who do you think will be drafted first out of the Mooseheads players on June 30? Hit the comments below.

MACAULAY
Press release.

According to Andrew Rankin, Stephen MacAulay has been signed to a tryout contract by the Montreal Canadiens. MacAulay, who is from Cole Harbour, was drafted in 2011 by the St. Louis Blues but never signed with the team. He was invited to the Hamilton Bulldogs training camp last season but didn't make the team. He spent 5 years in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, playing the first 4 and a half years with the Saint John Sea Dogs and finishing his career in Halifax. He helped the Mooseheads win the Memorial Cup this past season. He ahs a very impressive trophy record winning 4 Jean Rougeau trophies, 3 President's Cups and 2 Memorial Cups.

Lower Sackville native and former PEI Rocket player Ben Duffy was also signed to a tryout contract by the Canadiens. He was the regular season scoring champion this past season for the PEI Rocket who lost in the first round and played their last game as the Rocket on April 1st.

Good luck to both boys in training camp.

MACKINNON
There was a nice column in today's paper by Willy Palov talking about Nathan MacKinnon and former Herd player Freddy Cabina. A decade ago, Cabina was living with the MacKinnons as their billet child. He played three years with the Mooseheads and spent all three under the same roof as Nathan and giving the young boy tips about hockey. Freddy used to tell young Nate that he would be drafted first overall in the NHL draft one day and now that might actually happen.

Herd Word

DND DAY
It is DND Family Day here in Halifax with a few things happening today. There were kids out in the harbour riding around on skidoos at lunch time and the Memorial Cup trophy made an appearance at CFB Halifax.

NHL DRAFT
Earlier in the week, Joe Sakic made the statement that the Colorado Avalanche would not be taking Seth Jones first overall in the upcoming NHL draft and will instead chose one of three forwards. Willy Palov has a good article breaking down this new drama of the draft analyzing the statement that Sakic told the Denver Post. You can read that analysis here. On the other hand, Andrew Rankin has now reported that former NHL coach Doug MacLean would "be shocked if [Nathan MacKinnon] isn't No. 1". Here is that story.

MACKINNON
Talking about MacKinnon, he was in Toronto this week after spending the Monday night in Boston. He posted this picture on Twitter this afternoon mentioning that he was doing training.

ALBERTA
I would like to send my prayers and thoughts out to the city of Calgary and cities in Southern Alberta as they are struggling with flooding. According to pictures and Eric Francis of the Calgary Sun the water level of the flood, which started last week in Fort MacMurray, is up to Row 10 at the Calgary Saddledome. The Calgary Saddledome is home to the Calgary Hitmen of the Western Hockey League. According to the release, the dressing rooms are also flooded and there is one miilion dollars worth of damage so far.

Story of the flood first hit the news last Wednesday with Fort Mac having heavy rains for days in a row which caused the flooding. Obviuosly the weather travelled down to Calgary and Southern Alberta.

Press release.

Photo: Nathan MacKinnon's Instagram account

Pre-season matches set

HALIFAX - The schedule for the Halifax Mooseheads pre-season for their 20th anniversary has been released.

The Herd will play four games against their provincial rivals, the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, as well as two against the Moncton Wildcats. This seems like a very short preseason schedule with the team only play 6 games while they were scheduled for 8 last year.

The pre-season will start with a game at the Halifax Forum on August 17 and will than travel to Sydney for a game the next afternoon. Information on tickets have not been released but I will certainly be trying to go to the home games at the very least.

Here is the 2013-14 pre-season schedule:
          Saturday August 17 - 4pm vs. Eagles (Halifax Forum)
          Sunday August 18 - 4pm at Eagles (Centre 200)
          Friday August 23 - 7pm vs. Wildcats (Rath Eastlink Community Centre - Truro)
          Sunday August 25 - 4pm at Wildcats (Centre Aitken - Fredericton)
          Friday August 30 - 7pm vs. Eagles (Metro Centre)
          Saturday September 8 - 4pm at Eagles (Centre 200)

The Mooseheads will begin the regular season on Thursday, September 12 in Halifax against the Moncton Wildcats.

Photo: HalifaxForum.ca

Jones still #1?

Not according to Joe Sakic says a new story in the Denver Post. Appearantly Sakic told the newspaper that the Colorado Avalanche will not be taking Seth Jones with the first overall pick on June 30th. "If we do pick first, we're leaning more toward on of those three forwards," Sakic told the paper. The three forwards that he is talking about are Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Alexander Barkov. Nate and Jo were ranked #2 and #3 respectively in the last CSS report of North American skaters while Barkov was number one in the European skaters.

I really don't know how I feel about this, the Avs definitely need help at all positions considering they were 27th in both goals for and against. However, I think their biggest issue is defense and goaltending. You do take a risk though drafting a defenseman first overall and it is possible that Jones would go back to Portland if he does not perform while MacKinnon and Drouin would make the team right away I am sure. We will just have to see though come next Sunday.

Press release.

This news comes a day after the top four ranked North American players hit up the Stanley Cup finals Game 3 in Boston on Monday. It has become tradition for prospects to go and watch a Finals game. This year, Nate, Jo, Seth and Darnell Nurse travelled to the Massachusetts city to catch the action between the home town Bruins and Chicago Blackhawks. It was the first game in this year's Finals that didn't go to overtime as the Bs shutout the Hawks 2-0. This gave the Bruins a 2-1 series lead. Mooseheads alumni Brad Marchand is now two wins away from winning his second Stanley Cup.

Comment below who you think will go number one and if you think Colorado will even keep thier first overall pick.

20th season sked released

The schedule for the 2013-14 season was released today and for the first time in franchise history, your Halifax Mooseheads will open the season on opening night after winning the President's Cup. The winner always plays on the first night of the season which is normally a Thursday and will be the only game played that night. The Moose will raise the banners on September 12th against the Moncton Wildcats.

The upcoming season is the 20th anniversary season and it's awesome that the team will raise a championship banner to kick it off. Halifax will play its first game against the newly renamed Charlottetown Islanders the next night, September 13, on the island. The Patrick Roy era in Quebec is now over with and your Mooseheads will play the first game against the new coached team when they visit Halifax on December 6. The final two teams in the 2013 Quebec league playoffs will meet again for the first time since that Game 5 series clinching win on September 28 in a game at the Metro Centre. Halifax will play 4 home and home series in the first half of the season, two of them will be against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. The Battle of Nova Scotia will be the last of the home and homes when the teams meet in the last weekend of the year. The two teams will meet on December 28 in Halifax and December 29 in Cape Breton. The season ends on March 15 with another game against our provincial rivals in Halifax and a total of 9 games will be played that day which means every team.

The annual events dates have not been released yet but when they are check back here and I will have a full list of all the exciting things happening this season.

For the full schedule click here.

Herd Word

IMPORT GOALIES
The Canadian Hockey League in association with Hockey Canada announced on Tuesday that the 2013 CHL Import Draft will be the last for European goalies to be drafted. Current goaltenders are able to continue to play with their junior teams until their eligibility has expired while goalies selected in this year's draft can play their four or five years in the CHL. The biggest issue that Hockey Canada is seeing with European goalies playing in the CHL is that they learn how to play our style of game and become better goaltenders thus beating Team Canada at national competitions and in the National Hockey League. "In partnership with Hockey Canada, the CHL has identified the need to further develop Canadian goaltenders by providing increased opportunities for them to compete in our league and succeed at the next level," David Branch, CHL president, said in a statement explaining the reason behind the change.

Press release.

TICKETS
Season tickets and 15-game packs for the Mooseheads 20th season will go on sale on Monday June 17 at 9am for fans who do not currently have either or. Current holders were supposed to renew their seats by May 31 and those seats that did not get renewed were released for the public and other current holders who wanted to change seats. I do not believe that the prices have changed since last season. For the full list of prices and benefits of being a holder click here.

BANNER
Not only is the 2013-14 season the Herd's 20th season in Halifax as a member of the Quebec league, it is also #Banneryear. The Mooseheads will raise their 3 banners on home opening night in September. They will raise the most likely raise a banner for being Regular Season Champs, as well as the customary President's Cup and Memorial Cup Champions banners. I cannot wait for the home opener and I will have lots of pics posted on here so stayed tuned. I think they should invite Nathan, Jonathan and Zach back if they make the NHL and they should also invite back Konrad, Stephen and Stefan back because they were the biggest part of this championship season.

NHL DRAFT
I guess Chris Clarke is going to go support his Moose teammates in New Jersey at the upcoming NHL Entry Draft. He had this to say on twitter today:

The National Hockey League Entry Draft is on June 30 this year and is being held by the New Jersey Devils. It is only one day this year and it is on a Sunday. Normally it is a Friday and Saturday I believe with Round 1 being on Friday and Rounds 2 through 7 on Saturday.

SCHEDULE
The schedule for the 2013-14 QMJHL season should be out really soon which is good I am excited to find out when the season opener is. According to @HFXMooseheads twitter in a reply to a fans question if it was out already, "Should be in the next few weeks. In the final stages right now." Come back in July (probably) and I will have the schedule posted under the 'Schedule' tab above.

Photo: Twitter