Battle for final few roster spots continues

It's a big week for several players at Saint John Sea Dogs training camp.

The team will play its final three pre-season games before breaking for nearly two weeks. For several players who are battling for the final few rosters spots, this is a big few games.

Up front, the top six will likely consist of returnees Josh Lawrence, Brady Burns, Peter Reynolds, Cam MacDonald and Ryan Francis along with newcomer William Dufour. Then you've got returnees Riley Bezeau and Charles Savoie somewhere in the bottom two lines. Add in import Evgeny Sapelnikov and that leaves only four forward spots remaining.

It certainly seems like Carter McCluskey and second-round pick Vince Elie are poised to make the team. Along with performing very well in the team's scrimmages, both have recorded hat tricks in the pre-season.

If McCluskey and Elie are on the team, that leaves only a couple forward spots open. Other forwards who were on the ice at Sunday's scrimmage in Quispamsis include Gavin Watt, Kananga Mangala (2021 14th-round pick), Jack O'Blenis (2021 seventh-round), Elliot Simard (2021 fifth-round), Francis Woods (2021 third-round), Nico LaForge (2020 11th-round) and Loik Miville (I think?).

The final spot on the backend is an interesting one. Assuming there are no surprises, William Villeneuve, Jeremie Poirier, Charlie DesRoches, Christopher Inniss, Nathan Drapeau and Vincent Despont will make up the team's regular group of d-men. That leaves one extra spot open.

Does the team opt to go with experience and take Brandon Casey or Benjamin Roode? Could Hunter Gartley crack the lineup again? Where is the best spot for first-round pick Natan Grenier this season? It's a tough decision - and all of this is before the possibility of Yan Kuznetsov joining.

Other defensemen who were on the ice Sunday include Nicolas Bilodeau (2021 fourth-round), Ian Dickie (2021 ninth-round) and Brady Stone (invite).

In net, Noah Patenaude, Jonathan Lemieux (trade), Olivier Brideau (2021 second-round) and Ventsislav Shingarov (trade) were all on the ice Sunday. Brideau and Shingarov have looked decent in pre-season play, but the net will very likely belong to Lemieux and Patenaude this season.

Many if not all of these players should be in action this week. The Sea Dogs take on the Charlottetown Islanders on Tuesday night in Cornwall before returning to New Brunswick to host the Isles in Fredericton on Wednesday. The team then travels to Bathurst on Saturday afternoon.