Five Sea Dogs earn Hockey Canada invites

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Five Saint John Sea Dogs have received invites to Hockey Canada's Program of Excellence summer camps, which will be held later this month in Oakville.

Forward William Yared and defenseman Cameron Chartrand have earned invites to Canada’s National Men’s Summer Under-18 Team selection camp while forwards Alexis Joseph and Nolann Héroux along with goaltender Jase MacPherson have been invited to the national under-17 development camp.

Yared, selected with the fifth overall pick in the 2024 QMJHL Entry Draft, posted 14 goals and 16 assists in 58 games during his rookie season with the Sea Dogs.

Chartrand, meanwhile, spent most of this past season with the Bishop Kearney Selects under-16 team. Selected 18th overall by Saint John in 2024, Chartrand signed with the Sea Dogs in March.

One notable omission from the camp is Sea Dogs forward Dylan Rozzi, who registered 34 points in 62 games in his rookie QMJHL season. Rozzi was picked eighth overall by Saint John in 2024.

40 players—four goaltenders, 12 defensemen and 24 forwards—were invited on the under-18 side. The selected players will represent Canada at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, set for Aug. 11-16 in Brno, Czechia, and Trencin, Slovakia. Sea Dogs head coach and general manager Travis Crickard will be an associate coach with the team.

The selection camp is set for July 29  to Aug. 1.

On the under-17 side, it's no surprise to see Jospeh earn an invite after he was picked first overall by Saint John in this year's draft. He registered 56 points in 42 games with Collège Esther-Blondin Phénix last season and it would be quite a surprise to see him left out of this year's U17 World Challenge.

Three ex-Dogs ink pro deals

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Three former Saint John Sea Dogs recently locked in homes for the 2025-26 season.

The most recent signing was Joe Veleno, who inked a one-year, one-way deal with the Montreal Canadiens on Wednesday. Veleno was previously seen at the club's practice facility, so the signing didn't come as a huge surprise.

From the Habs:

Veleno played 74 games with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks in 2024-25, scoring eight goals and adding nine assists. The Montreal native was traded to the Blackhawks at the NHL Trade Deadline and recorded seven points (3G, 4A) in 18 games with Chicago to conclude his fifth NHL campaign.

Veleno has appeared in 306 NHL games since making his debut in 2020-21, tallying 38 goals and 43 assists in addition to serving 98 penalty minutes. The 6-foot-1, 201-pound forward set career highs for goals (12), assists (16) and points (28) in 2023-24.

The Blackhawks traded Veleno to the Seattle Kraken on June 21. He was later placed on waivers for the purpose of a buyout, making him a free agent.

The 25-year-old was a first-round pick of the Red Wings in the 2018 NHL Draft.

Veleno, who was taken first overall by the Sea Dogs in the 2015 QMJHL Entry Draft after receiving exceptional player status, spent parts of three seasons in Saint John. He helped the club win the President's Cup in 2017.

Another member of that 2017 QMJHL championship squad was forward Cedric Pare, who has re-signed with the AHL's Toronto Marlies for the upcoming season.

In his first season with the Marlies, Pare registered 12 goals and 14 assists in 59 games. The 26-year-old has now appeared in 207 career AHL contests, posting 39 goals and 56 assists.

More forwards added to camp roster

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Three more forwards have been added to the Saint John Sea Dogs' online pre-season roster.

18-year-old Brayden Campbell, a Saint John native, has been added. Campbell spent last season with the Maritime Hockey League's Grand Falls Rapids where he posted 11 goals and 21 assists in 52 games.

Campbell appeared in nine games with the Rapids the previous season along with 34 contests with the Saint John Vitos. He also spent some time at North Shore Academy, a US prep school.

This will be Campbell's second year attending Sea Dogs training camp as a free agent invite.

20-year-old Natan Éthier has been added as well. Étheir has spent parts of the last four seasons with the Shawinigan Cataractes. Last season he appeared in just five games with the Cataractes after requiring surgery to repair an upper body injury he suffered on Oct. 4.

In 169 career QMJHL games, Éthier has posted 24 goals and 45 assists. He was a third-round pick of Shawinigan in the 2021 QMJHL Entry Draft. 

Also added to Saint John's pre-season roster is 16-year-old Kaidan Sahajpal, a Newfoundlander who has spent the past couple seasons in the US. Last season with The Winchendon School, Sahajpal had five goals and 17 assists in 30 games.

Elite Prospects lists him on the roster for the Islanders Hockey Club Prep East for the 2025-26 season.

Sahajpal was a 10th-round pick of the Summerside Western Capitals in the 2024 MHL Draft. 

It's looking like the Sea Dogs will have a large training camp roster this season. We reported on a number of invites on June 24 and a few more on June 29.

The Sea Dogs are expected to make a formal announcement about the free agent group once the full list is finalized.

Saint John's training camp will presumably open the weekend of Aug. 16 with the team's first pre-season game set for Aug. 19 in Dieppe against the Moncton Wildcats.

Dufour signs with KHL club

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

William Dufour's time in North America is over for the time being.

The former Saint John Sea Dogs forward has signed a one-year deal with the KHL's Lada Togliatti, the club announced earlier this week.

Dufour will have a familiar teammate on the Russian-based team: former Sea Dog Josh Lawrence, who signed earlier this off-season. Dufour and Lawrence were both part of Saint John's 2022 Memorial Cup championship team.

It's been a difficult few years for Dufour who has struggled to find the form he had during his first pro season in 2022-23. This past season, the 23-year-old recorded nine goals and 13 assists in 57 AHL games split between the Bridgeport Islanders and Colorado Eagles.

Dufour registered 25 points the season prior. In his rookie season, the Quebec City native had an impressive 21 goals and 27 assists in 69 games with Bridgeport. He also appeared in one NHL game with the New York Islanders that year, the team that drafted him in the fifth-round in 2020.

The Islanders dealt Dufour to the Avalanche at the trade deadline. He was not re-signed by the Avs.

Dufour had a legendary 2021-22 season with the Sea Dogs, recording 56 goals and 116 points in 66 regular season games. He added seven goals and an assist in four games at the Memorial Cup, earning tournament MVP honours.

Along with Dufour and Lawrence, former Sea Dogs defensemen Alex Grant (Avangard Omsk) and Ostap Safin (Traktor Chelyabinsk) are currently signed with KHL clubs for next season. The number of ex-Dogs signed to play in the league will likely increase before the season starts.

Notebook: Sea Dogs to play just two 3-in-3s

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs will play just two three-in-threes this season – with only one of those games classified as a road game.

The Sea Dogs will play three games in three days Nov. 28-20 and March 13-15. The November stretch is technically three straight home games – but the third game will be played in Fredericton. In March, Saint John will play back-to-back home games before playing a road game the next day.

Nov. 28 vs Charlottetown (TD Station)

Nov. 29 vs Cape Breton (TD Station)

Nov. 30 vs Cape Breton (Aitken Centre)

March 13 vs Halifax (TD Station)

March 14 vs Halifax (TD Station)

March 15 at Charlottetown (Eastlink Centre)

The Sea Dogs will make four trips to Quebec this season but all of them will be stretches of three games in four nights.

ADDED PRE-SEASON GAME

It looks like the Sea Dogs have added a game to their pre-season schedule.

The game still doesn't appear on the league website, but the Charlottetown Islanders have begun promoting an pre-season game against the Sea Dogs on Sept. 6. The game is scheduled to be played at MacLaughlin Arena on the UPEI campus.

The countdown is on ⏰

Buy Tickets -> https://t.co/S4X9kMww59 pic.twitter.com/0T3XEncv0D

— Charlottetown Islanders (@IslandersHKY) July 7, 2025

This would be the sixth and final pre-season game for the Sea Dogs. Saint John is also scheduled to play the night before in Woodstock against the Moncton Wildcats.

The Sea Dogs will play the Wildcats four times in the pre-season; the Newfoundland Regiment once and the Islanders once.

Saint John's first exhibition game will be Tuesday, Aug. 19 in Dieppe against the Wildcats.

Sea Dogs welcome "Next Wave"

SAINT JOHN - While the Saint John Sea Dogs unveiled their new logo, wordmark and jerseys on Saturday night, the team also went into detail about what the "Next Wave" means.

The "Next Wave" slogan has been appearing of Sea Dogs creative for a bit now. At Saturday's event, team president Trevor Georgie explained why this specific term is being used.

"It's not the new wave, because that would imply what happened before wasn't good," Georgie explained to the crowd in attendance. "The word 'next' is absolutely integral to this, because next means you're up next. To do something again, to repeat, to continue, some continuity. Waves don't just go and have new ones come through. It's always the next one coming in and coming in."

Georgie referenced the Bay of Fundy's famous tides, comparing them to the cyclical nature of junior hockey.

"Very much like the junior hockey cycle, very much like our cycle. Slow, precise, patient and powerful. And at the end of the day, the water line is here. Then it starts, and it comes right back up. 

"2005, the Sea Dogs were born. Young franchise bred into the league. Six years later, championship. The seventh season, championship. The tide came down, the tide came up, 2017 championship. The tide came down, the tide came up, 2022 championship."

A number of players from last year's Sea Dogs team were in attendance along with many newcomers who were in town for development camp. Georgie spoke to them directly in his speech.

"It is not our hope that you young men in this room continue on that tradition as the next wave. It is our expectation," said Georgie. "Hope is not a strategy. It is our expectation. It is not our hope that you leave a lasting impact on this community. It is our expectation."

Sea Dogs head coach and general manager Travis Crickard also spoke briefly, welcoming players and family into town.

"As we move into this part of our phase where we compete, contend and become champions, there are many of you in this room and your families who will be key members of them," said Crickard. "So I'm really happy to have all of you here this weekend for this development camp so we can start this next wave off together on a nice July weekend in Saint John."