ANOTHER GOALIE RUMOR SURFACES

Sunday, Sports Juniors reported that the Saint John Sea Dogs were rumored to be interested in an 18-year old goaltender currently playing in the United States.

Today, the website says that the goaltender in question is Martin Ouellette who is currently playing with the NCAA’s University of Maine Black Bears. Ouellette was a seventh round pick of the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2010 National Hockey League Entry Draft.

The Quebec born goaltender, who turns 19 on December 30, has played in just three games for Maine this season, going 1-1-1 with a 2.25 goals against average and a .908 save percentage.

According to Hockey’s Future, in 2009-10 “as a senior at Kimball Union Academy in New Hampshire, Ouellette played 27 games with a 1.61 goals against average and .925 save percentage.”

Here is the Hockey’s Future scouting report on the netminder:

Ouellette is a very calm goaltender. He plays with a tremendous amount of poise for his age. He's good at cutting down angles and challenging shooters, and he's also a fairly adept puck handler for a goalie. Consistency is his glaring weakness as he's known for occasionally allowing a soft goal.

This rumor certainly comes out of left field. It makes sense for the Sea Dogs to go after a non-overage goaltender, but it is rare for a Canadian junior team to dip into the NCAA mid-season and grab one.

A Bangor Daily News article written on December 13th doesn’t have any indication that Ouellette is leaving the Bears program in the second half.

“One of the big positives is we’ve learned a lot about our team,” said Maine coach Tim Whitehead about the first half of the season. “We’ve started to get clarity in our goaltending position. It has been solidifying. Dan Sullivan has been our most consistent goaltender and has played the bulk of games. But Martin Ouellette has come on very strong and shown tremendous improvement and promise. And you can’t rule Shawn Sirman out of the mix, either.”

If true and Ouellette will be arriving on the scene, it likely means the end of Jacob DeSerres’ time in Saint John. DeSerres has been very good for the Dogs but continues a rotation with Frederic Piche for net duties. With DeSerres being a 20-year old and only playing half of the games, it isn’t the best use of an overage slot.

Sports Juniors continues to bring up the possibility of an overage defenseman coming to Saint John in Steven Delisle or Yann Sauve - who are both Sea Dogs property. Delisle is reportedly out for several weeks if not the whole season because of shoulder issues while Sauve is a bit of a mystery. The Manitoba Moose recalled the Vancouver Canucks prospect last week from the East Coast Hockey League.

The Dogs have some time to work things out as they do not play again until December 28th in Charlottetown. The QMJHL trade deadline is January 6.