First Round Recap: L'Italien Selected 3rd by Moose

Photo - QMJHL Twitter

Defenseman Malik L'Italien is now a Halifax Moosehead. 

The Herd selected the 15-year-old third overall at the 2025 QMJHL draft in Quebec City, Quebec on Friday evening. L'Italien played the 2024-25 season with Canadian prep school Stanstead College Varsity. Hailing from Montreal, QC, he had 13 goals and 50 points in 72 games played. According to Pierre Cholette (CSR Director), Malik 'has an undeniable offensive flair, good quick hands, a very good shot and natural poise when in possession of the puck. Constantly facing the play, he is able to move around and make decisions quickly.' L'Italien checks in at 6-foot-2 and 187 pounds. 

The pick is in 🔥

We proudly select defenceman Malik L'Italien with the 3rd overall pick. Welcome to Halifax Malik!#GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/99XlCHieeP

— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) June 6, 2025

First round recap

After previous top prospect James Scantlebury signed a tender with the Chicago Steel of the USHL, Lachenaie, QC native Alexis Joseph become even more of the guy everyone anticipated to be the first name called. The Saint John Sea Dogs used their #1 pick making that a reality, welcoming Joseph from College Esther-Blondin. 

For the first time in franchise history, the Newfoundland Regiment made a draft selection with the 5th overall pick. They chose St. John's, NL native Benjamin Veitch and followed that by drafting fellow Newfoundlander Quinn Norman at #6. Veitch became the first person to ever wear the Regiment jersey, even the junior GM didn't put his own on until after the player did which I thought was a good choice. It looks very nice, I like the colours. 

Photo - Regiment Twitter

There were only three trades during the opening round including a big one that saw the Quebec Remparts trade six picks to Chicoutimi for the 9th overall pick and a 4th rounder in 2025. Quebec than drafted Scantlebury at #9 so it will be interesting to see if the Remparts can get him to report. 

Here is the full list of first round selections
1. JOSEPH, Aleix - Saint John Sea Dogs
2. ARSENAULT, Zack - Rimouski Oceanic
3. L'ITALIEN, Malik - Halifax Mooseheads
4. CHARBONNEAU, Thomas - Quebec Remparts
5. VEITCH, Benjamin - Newfoundland Regiment
6. NORMAN, Quinn - Newfoundland Regiment
7. PROVENCHER, Antoine - Charlottetown Islanders
8. MACLEAN, Phenwick - Newfoundland Regiment
9. SCANTLEBURY, James - Quebec Remparts
10. HEROUX, Nolann - Saint John Sea Dogs
11. LEMAIRE, Deryk - Victoriaville Tigres
12. HALLEY, Louis-Etienne - Gatineau Olympiques
13. LANDRY, Clement - Gatineau Olympiques

14. CHARRON, Olivier - Cape Breton Eagles
15. BERGERON, Frederic - Shawinigan Cataractes
16. NOLETTE-ROBIDOUX, Emrick - Sherbrooke Phoenix

17. MEYER, Carter - Quebec Remparts
18. POMINVILLE, Jayden - Rouyn-Noranda Huskies

The remaining rounds will go tomorrow starting at 11am.

Steinman Goaltender of Year & Friday News

The QMJHL held their annual Golden Pucks awards gala on Thursday afternoon at a hotel in Quebec City. A couple of players who have ties to the Mooseheads were amongst the nominees. 

Photo - QMJHL website

Goaltender Jacob Steinman, who started the season with the Moncton Wildcats before being traded to Halifax at Christmas, won the Patrick Roy Trophy as Goaltender of the Year. He had a 29-16-4-1 record during the season in 52 games played, finishing second in the QMJHL in GAA (2.41) and save percentage (0.923). Steinman will continue his hockey career with Bowling Green State University in the NCAA. 

Meanwhile, past player Mathieu Cataford was the winner of the Marcel Robert Trophy as Student Athlete of the Year. According to the release; Cataford maintained an average of more than 95% while currently studying Business Administration at Saint Mary's University with a 4.0 GPA while suiting up for the Rimouski Oceanic in 2024-26. 

Other news that has come out this week:

• According to Mikael Lalancette the 2026 QMJHL draft will be held in Halifax

  Ce n’est pas encore officiel, mais tout indique que le repêchage de l’an prochain #LHJMQ aura lieu à Halifax.
  
  Il est encore tôt, mais l’un des beaux espoirs de la cuvée 2026 est Zaac Charbonneau, le neveu de Daniel Brière.

  — Mikaël Lalancette (@MikLalancette) June 5, 2025

    
• Two former Herd players are on the move in Europe; D'Artagnan Joly will be playing in the DEL2 with ESV Kaufbeuren next season while Zach Fucale signed a 2 year contract with Dinamo Minsk of the KHL 
• Champions are colliding as the Hockey East Tournament winning Maine Black Bears of the NCAA have received a commitment from Herd alumni Mathis Rousseau, who won the Gilles Courteau trophy in March with the Moncton Wildcats 
• Logan Crosby, who played for the Mooseheads from 2021-2024, will finish his junior career with the Pictou County Crushers during the 2025-26 season   

Photo - Crushers Twitter

• Moose alum Brad Marchand and the Florida Panthers find themselves down 1-0 in a Stanley Cup finals rematch against the Edmonton Oilers. Game 2 is tonight in Edmonton

QMJHL Draft Weekend Info

Here is some info to get you ready for the 2025 QMJHL Entry Draft. 

When: Friday June 6 at 8pm AT & Saturday June 7 at 11am AT

Where: Videotron Centre in Quebec City, QC

Follow: Both Eastlink TV and TVA Sports will be broadcasting Round 1 this evening while the remaining rounds tomorrow can be seen live on the league's YouTube channel. Fans can also watch the whole thing on CHL TV with a subscription. The full list of selections is available on the QMJHL website as well. 

Mooseheads picks (currently): 

Round 1, 3rd overall
Round 2, 21st overall
Round 4, 59th overall
Round 5, 77th overall
Round 6, 95th overall
Round 7, 113th overal

Round 8, 131st overall
Round 8, 143rd overall

Round 10, 167th overall

Round 11, 185th overall

Round 12, 203rd overall

Halifax made a trade earlier this week sending their 29th pick, that was originally Blainville's, to Moncton in exchange for the Wildcats' 2026 second round pick. 

Good luck to all the players who are eligible to be drafted. Check back probably on Sunday for a recap on my blog. 

2025-26 Regular Season Schedule Released

Photo - QMJHL website

The QMJHL unveiled its 2025-26 regular season schedule on Wednesday. 

In a turn of events, the league champion Moncton Wildcats will not open at home but instead are set to travel to St. John's for the first game of the regular season to battle the Newfoundland Regiment on September 18. 

Our Halifax Mooseheads are set to kick off the regular season on the island and take on the Charlottetown Islanders on September 19. The two clubs will battle each other the next night in Moose Country for the Herd's home opener. Puck drop for both games is scheduled for 7 p.m.

Some other observations on the Mooseheads' schedule: 

• The Newfoundland Regiment will make their first visit to the Scotiabank Centre for two games October 17 and 18. 
• Halifax's first road trip to the province of Quebec between October 29-November 1 when they visit Blainville, Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d'Or. 
• Once again, a home-and-home series between the two Nova Scotian teams will happen to end 2025 with a match in Halifax on December 30 and in Sydney on December 31. 
• The longest home-stand of the season is 6 games between October 9-25 while the Herd will have three road trips of 5 games each, including one to end the season from March 8-21. 
• A Family Day matinee will see Halifax visiting the Moncton Wildcats at 2 p.m. on February 16

Halifax's full schedule can be found here. 

Herd Word

ALL-STAR TEAMS

Photo - QMJHL website

Despite having a not so good season, a couple of Halifax Mooseheads players were honoured for their efforts during the regular season. Goaltender Jacob Steinman, probably mostly because of his stats while he was with the Moncton Wildcats before being traded to Halifax at Christmas time, was named to the QMJHL First All-Star Team earlier this month. In 52 games played in 2024-25, Steinman had a 29-16-4-1 record, a 2.44 goals against average with a 0.923 save percentage and 3 shutouts. At the same time, defenceman Carlos Handel was one of six players to be on the All-Rookie Team after picking up 3 goals and 26 points in 52 games, all with the Mooseheads. 

Congrats to both guys being given the recognition!

MOOSE TRACKS
I haven't shared all the Moose Tracks videos but thought I would post this one as it seems like it will be the last one for the season. For episode 7, we get behind the scenes looks at play by play announcer Garreth MacDonald and go into the dressing room. 

PRE-SEASON SCHEDULE
Our Mooseheads announced their pre-season schedule a couple of weeks ago and the team will play four exhibition matches, all against provincial rivals Cape Breton. I noticed the schedule being up a couple days before the team made it official, but it looked odd so wasn't sure it was the full schedule. Nice to see the team will be sharing the love around Nova Scotia this year. This is the least amount of games I have seen Halifax play. 

August 19  at Cape Breton     7:00 p.m.  Centre 200
August 20  vs Cape Breton     7:00 p.m.  St. Margaret's Centre
August 23  vs Cape Breton     4:00 p.m.  Rath Eastlink Community Centre
September 6  at Cape Breton     4:00 p.m.  Port Hawkesbury Civic Centre

GOLDEN PUCK AWARDS
The QMJHL announced the nominees for the first seven Golden Puck Awards a few weeks ago and former Herd Markus Vidicek was among the three names vying for the Guy Carbonneau Trophy as top defensive forward. Unfortunately, the next day the winner was announced as Matyas Melovsky of the Baie-Comeau Drakkar. 

On May 21, the league released the names for the final eight awards. First, net-minder Jacob Steinman has been nominated for the Patrick Roy Trophy as goaltender of the year. The 20-year-old had a 0.917 save percentage in 22 games with Halifax according to the article. Mooseheads alumni Mathieu Cataford is one of the final three players who will look to win the Marcel Robert Trophy which is given to the student athlete of the year. The winners will be announced on June 5. 

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
It was a mixed bag of results for former Halifax Mooseheads players at the World Championships. After Winnipeg was eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs, forward Nikolaj Ehlers joined host Denmark, making it six alumni participating in the tournament. The 29-year-old Ehlers helped his country to a 4th place finish, their best ever result, by scoring 3 goals in 4 games. They would battle against Nathan MacKinnon, MacKenzie Weegar and Canada in the quarter-finals, winning 2-1. MacKinnon recorded 13 points in 8 games but couldn't help the Canadians finish higher than 5th place. Filip Zadina and Czechia lost 5-2 to Sweden in the quarters. Nico Hischier was once again named captain of Switzerland but unfortunately got injured just a week into the competition, ending his tournament. Timo Meier finished 17th in scoring with 3 goals and 10 points as the Swiss lost a very tight final game, 1-0 in overtime to the United States.

Congratulations to Timo Meier, Nico Hischier and Switzerland on becoming silver medalists on May 25. 

Other things..

• Mooseheads alumni Maxime Fortier has signed on with SaiPa of Liiga for the 2025-26 season 
• The 2025 Memorial Cup is over for the two Q teams after the Rimouski Oceanic went 0-3 in the preliminary round while the Moncton Wildcats were defeated by London in the semi-finals 
• Beginning next year, the CHL along with its membership leagues, announced that Under Armour will be the exclusive jersey, footwear and apparel partner while Bauer will serve as the official equipment supplier 
• Another university commitment was made last week with assistant captain Braeden MacPhee joining the recruitment class for the UNB Reds 
• From Scott Wheeler; d-man Carlos Handel has been invited to this year's NHL draft combine which begins on Monday

Wildcats Are League Champs

Photo - QMJHL Facebook

First in the Maritimes division, regular season champions and now Gilles Courteau Trophy winners. The Moncton Wildcats were dominate this season and it continued in the playoffs with them finishing as league champs on Monday afternoon for the first time since 2010. 

The game started pretty even with the teams going to the locker rooms for the first intermission in a scoreless tie in Rimouski. Forward Gabe Smith scored the opening goal for Moncton at the 6:30 mark of the second period and he picked up another one later in the middle frame to give the Wildcats a 3-0 lead after 40 minutes. The Oceanic weren't going to go away easy though and they scored twice in the third to make the game close but at the final buzzer, the score was 3-2. 

Overage goaltender Mathis Rousseau, a former Halifax Mooseheads player, made 24 saves to pick up the victory. He and the Wildcats' other net-minder Rudy Guimond shared the load throughout the playoffs. 

Draft-eligible forward Caleb Desnoyers, who had 30 points during the post-season, was named Most Valuable Player. 

The moment they were all waiting for! @monctonwildcats | #QPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/WAtljX7u6n

— QMJHL (@QMJHL) May 19, 2025

Herd alumni Markus Vidicek captained the Wildcats and was the first person to lift the trophy before passing it to Rousseau. Fellow alum Dylan MacKinnon and Logan Crosby also became champions after falling just short 2 years ago with Halifax. 

On Rimouski, former Herd Mathieu Cataford finished in the top 10 of playoff scoring with 18 points. Lou Levesque and Jack Martin, who suited up for Halifax before being traded at Christmas time, now play for the Oceanic as well. 

Both clubs will join the London Knights of the OHL and the WHL's Medicine Hat Tigers in the 2025 Memorial Cup tournament, which will be held in Rimouski, QC starting on Friday night. 

Congratulations to Vidicek, Crosby, Rousseau, MacKinnon and the Moncton Wildcats on winning the Gilles-Courteau Trophy. 

Where are the Moose drafting?

In less than a month, personnel from the 18 QMJHL teams will gather in Quebec City, QC for the annual entry draft. Our Halifax Mooseheads will be drafting 3rd overall after finishing in the last playoff position following the 2024-25 regular season. 

Like I said after the lottery results, this is the highest the Mooseheads have drafted since the 2016 draft. Because of trades, Halifax also has two picks in the second round and two selections in the 8th round. In total the Herd have 12 picks across the recently shortened twelve round draft. 

For the time being, here is where the Herd are picking on draft day
Round 1 - 3rd overall
Round 2 - 21st overall
Round 2 - 29th overall
Round 4 - 59th overall
Round 5 - 77th overall
Round 6 - 95th overall
Round 7 - 113th overal

Round 8 - 131st overall
Round 8 - 143rd overall

Round 10 - 167th overall

Round 11 - 185th overall

Round 12 - 203rd overall

The Mooseheads have not officially released what picks they have but above is according to the Q website. Check back in early June to see who the brass selects with a full recap.