Titan officially moving to St. John's

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan are officially relocating to St. John's at the end of this season.

The Titan and the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League made the announcement in a virtual press conference Friday morning. The move has been rumoured and reported for a few months now. The sale was finalized Thursday night.

The Titan, who have been at or near the bottom of the QMJHL's attendance figures for 15 years or so now, have officially been for sale since January. During the press conference it was revealed that three buyers came forward to purchase the team – but none had intentions of leaving the franchise in northern New Brunswick.

″I said it last January when the sale process began: the objective of the QMJHL and the Titan owners has always been to find local investors to keep the team in Bathurst," said commissioner Mario Cecchini in a news release. "However, none of the interested groups had any intention of operating the team in Bathurst in the medium term. My heart goes out to the Titan fans. I sympathize and understand their pain and frustration."

In what was a very transparent news conference, it was said that the Titan have been losing around $1 million per season.  

″It’s a sad day," said Titan president Serge Thériault, one of the 11 Titan shareholders. "The Titan has been an integral part of the Bathurst community for 27 years. The team gave us great moments and rallied the population. Unfortunately, we were playing in the smallest major junior market in Canada, and attendance dropped over the years. This made it impossible for us, the owners, to continue. I’d like to thank the Titan fans and corporate partners for their support since 1998.″

Sea Dogs reassign Caputo to QJHL

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs have yet to make a transaction since the holiday trade period opened – but they have made a roster move.

On Thursday night, the team announced that defenseman Giuliano Caputo has been reassigned to the Terrebonne Cobras of the Quebec Junior Hockey League.

The 18-year-old spent all of last season with the Cobras where he registered five assists and 52 penalty minutes in 47 games.

Caputo appeared in just 16 games with the Sea Dogs in the first half. He was held pointless with 23 penalty minutes and a -5 rating.

A 13th-round pick of Saint John in the 2023 QMJHL Entry Draft, Caputo, who is listed at 5'11" and 232 lbs, impressed at training camp with his energy and physical presence. During the regular season, he was never able to solidify a regular spot on a crowded blue line.

Five of the 16 games Caputo appeared in came this month with the Sea Dogs missing several regulars due to injuries.

Saint John now has seven defensemen on their active roster.

The Sea Dogs are expected to make a few roster moves in the coming weeks. The QMJHL's holiday trade period ends Monday, Jan. 6. 

QMJHL, Titan to hold press conference

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The future of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan could become clearer on Friday.

Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League commissioner Mario Cecchini and two of the Titan's current shareholders – Marc Guignard and Serge Thériault – will hold a virtual press conference on Friday at 11 a.m. The subject of the press conference wasn't included in the invite, but it's almost certainly about the club's future in Bathurst.

Rumours and speculation about the franchise being sold and relocated to St. John's have been circulating all season. In recent weeks, those rumours have turned more into facts and, at this point, it would be a surprise to not see the team move to Newfoundland in time for next season.

The league is in a tough spot here and it will be interesting how they choose to handle this sale. On the one hand, you'd like to get the news out soon to help generate some excitement in Newfoundland. On the other hand, it's generally not a good idea to create a "lame duck" team that knows its days in the city are numbered, which we recently saw with the Oakland Athletics baseball team.

RDS reported this week that the Titan were sold to a group from Newfoundland for more than $5.5 million. RDS also reported that draft schedules are already in the works for next season, which includes travel to St. John's.

The Titan have been publicly up for sale since January. The franchise has been at or near the bottom of league attendance for the last 15 years.

Notebook: Gallant, Kelly to lead Canada

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Former Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Gerard Gallant has gotten the call to coach Canada at the international level once again.

Gallant has been named the head coach of Team Canada for this year's Spengler Cup tournament, which will begin on Boxing Day in Switzerland. Gallant will, as usual, be joined by Mike Kelly, who will be one of three assistant coaches.

The duo had success at the international level just a few years ago. From Hockey Canada's news release:

Gallant returns behind the bench for the first time since winning a gold medal with Canada’s National Men’s Team at the 2021 IIHF World Championship. As an assistant coach he won gold and silver at Men’s Worlds in 2007 and 2017. He also served as an assistant coach with Team North America at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey.

Canada's first game will be against host HC Davos on Dec. 26. All games will air on TSN.

GRAVEL IN SO

Charles-Edward Gravel remains lights out in shootouts this season.

Gravel stopped all three shots he faced in Saturday's shootout, helping the Sea Dogs earn a 5-4 win over the Acadie-Bathurst Titan. The 20-year-old goaltender has allowed just one goal on 23 shootout attempts this season and leads the league in shootout victories with three.

The franchise record for shootout attempts faced in a single season is 31, set by Travis Fullerton in 2007-08. Gravel and Fullerton are now tied for the most shootout saves in a single season with 22.

Gravel has a career .792 save percentage in shootouts. This season he is running at .957%.

QMJHL trade period opens Monday

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

It's that time of year.

The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League trade period officially opens on Monday and will run until Jan. 6, the day after the gold medal game of the IIHF World Junior Championship.

The Saint John Sea Dogs are expected to make at least one major trade, which will involve captain Eriks Mateiko. The 19-year-old forward is one of the top import players in the league and is expected to be dealt to a contender.

The Washington Capitals prospect has appeared in just 23 games this season due to NHL camp and injuries but has posted an impressive 14 goals and five assists. He's been out of Saint John's lineup since Nov. 29 due to an injury and is now off to play for Latvia at the world juniors.

Mateiko is the only obvious candidate for the Sea Dogs to move but, especially with a new general manager in place, the team is expected to make some other roster moves whether that be through trades or signings.

Saint John is still on the rebuilding side of this cycle – but there's a chance this could be the last trade period where the team is amongst the sellers. One thing to keep an eye on is that the team is still lacking in draft picks for the next couple drafts, which will likely be a priority for Travis Crickard.

Here's Saint John's current bank of picks, via the French fan boards.

2025: 1-1CB-2-6-6Rim-7-8-11-12

2026: 1-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-12Sha 

2027: 1-2-3-6-6gat-7-8-9-10-11-12

The wildcard for the Sea Dogs in this year's trade period is Crickard. Obviously, we don't know his style as a GM yet. It's also his team now, and there could very well be some moves that weren't expected.

Overall, this year's trade period is likely to be a bit unusual. There aren't a lot of big names on selling teams, so the major deals may not be as huge as we often see – even with the Memorial Cup being hosted within the league. But we'll see what happens.

Plus, there's the NCAA rule change that will no doubt make an impact. Some teams may look to make moves just to open up roster spots for new signings.

Recap: Sea Dogs win 5-4 (SO)

FINAL: Bathurst 4, Saint John 5 (SO)

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - What a way to end the first half.

Just like they did less than 24 hours prior, the Saint John Sea Dogs pulled off an extra time comeback win, this time defeating the Acadie-Bathurst Titan 5-4 in a shootout.

The Sea Dogs fell behind 4-1 early in the second period but stormed back to tie things at 4-4 before the frame ended. After a scoreless third period and overtime, William Yared netted the lone goal of the shootout to give Saint John the extra point.

The Sea Dogs are now 8-0 in games that go beyond regulation time. They are 5-0 in overtime and 3-0 shootouts.

While this game – like Friday's overtime win over the Cape Breton Eagles – had its ups and downs, it was another impressive performance by a Saint John squad that was without veteran forwards Eriks Mateiko and Tyler Peddle along with three regulars on the backend.

This was the seventh meeting of the season between the Sea Dogs and Titan and it got chippy at times. In what could have been Bathurst's last ever visit to Saint John, this had the feelings of an old school Sea Dogs and Titan matchup at times.

Yared, Ben Cross, Nate Tivey and Zachary Morin all scored in regulation for the Sea Dogs. Charles-Edward Gravel made 35 stops in the victory.

Louis-Francois Belanger scored a pair of goals for Bathurst while singles came from Tyson Goguen and Tyler Wood. Joshua Fleming made 30 stops in the loss.

The win improved the Sea Dogs to 16-16-0-0 on the season, sending the team into the Christmas break with a .500 record.