SEA DOGS OUTSIDER: It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

By Bert Richardson
Station Nation Staff

And so it begins.

Today marks the first day of the Quebec Major Hockey League’s holiday trading period, a two-and-a-half week frenzy that can turn pretenders into contenders and put mid-pack teams into rebuild mode.

The Saint John Sea Dogs enter the trade period ranked first in the Maritimes Division, first in the QMJHL, and first in the BMO CHL MasterCard Top 10 Rankings. Not too shabby.

The Port City juniors were expected to take a bit of a step back this season after a trip to the President’s Cup Final last season. But with a 29-4-0-2 record in the first half, they have done anything but.

So here are the Sea Dogs, in a similar position they were in last year. The only moves Saint John made during the holiday trading period were minor, acquiring defenseman Christian Morin and overage goaltender Marco Cousineau.

Could this year, however, be a different story?

“Everyone keeps telling me Saint John is going to make a splash during the trade period,” tweeted the Chronicle Herald’s Willy Palov earlier this week. “They have the assets to do it.”

Right now, the Sea Dogs have more options than Christmas shopping at the As-Seen-On-TV Store.

They could sell, showing they are focused on their 2012 Memorial Cup run and nothing else. At the start of the year, I thought this would be the way the way to go. Then the Sea Dogs went 29-4-0-2 in the first half and Zach Phillips and Jonathan Huberdeau are on pace for 100 points. Selling doesn’t seem likely at this point.

They could do absolutely nothing, or maybe a few minor tweaks like last season. But then the problem becomes what if another team chooses to go for it all this year, possibly surpassing the Sea Dogs like the Moncton Wildcats did last season.

Then there is the buying option. With the thoughts of hosting the Memorial Cup next season, the last thing the Sea Dogs will do is sell the farm like Moncton did last season. But as Palov pointed out in his tweet, the Sea Dogs have so many assets that they could easily pull off a big trade and still be dominant next season.

The Sea Dogs have been solid just about everywhere this season, leading the league is goals score and allowing the fewest goals against. But, obviously, anything can be improved.

One area I wonder about is the goaltending situation. The rotation of 19-year old Frederic Piche and 20-year old Jacob DeSerres has worked wonders so far this year. But having one of the teams three permitted 20-year olds sitting on the bench every-other game is a bit of a waste. Plus, Saint John may want to get a head start on settling their yearly goaltending problems that will take place next fall.

Nathan White of Yahoo! Sports had a solid run down of players who may be on the market over the next couple of weeks. The Times & Transcript's Neil Hodge had an epic column yesterday of players who may be on the move as well:

- Victoriaville goaltender Antonio Mastropietro and forward Philip-Michael Devos, the league scoring leader.
- Chicoutimi goaltenders Christopher Gibson and Robin Gusse and defenceman Eric Gelinas. It would be Gibson or Gusse on the way out, but not both.
- Gatineau goaltender Maxime Clermont
- P.E.I. goaltender Evan Mosher, defenceman Matthew Hobbs and forwards Andrej Nestrasil, Philippe Paradis and Jordan Escott
- Shawinigan goaltender Gabriel Girard and forward Dave Labrecque
- Rimouski defencemen Ryan Kavanagh and Gleason Fournier and forwards Jakub Culek and Petr Straka

Sea Dogs director of hockey operations, Mike Kelly, seems to be tight lipped as there have been little rumblings of what Saint John may do or who they may target. During his post-game show tonight, Tim Roszell certainly didn’t know what to expect either.

It’s going to be an interesting few weeks.