Saturday, June 24, 2023

Notebook: Development camp underway

QUISPAMSIS, NB - The Saint John Sea Dogs got the on-ice portion of their 2023 summer development camp underway on Saturday at the qplex.

Goaltenders, defensemen and forwards took to the ice in separate sessions in the morning. Later in the day, the three groups combined to take part in a couple hours of practices.

The sessions allowed Sea Dogs management and fans to see some of the team's top prospects on the ice together for the first time, including 2023 second-round picks Egan Beveridge, Olivier Duhamel and Benjamin Amyot. The full roster of invitees can be found here.
The group attended the Sea Dogs Hall of Fame ceremony on Friday night. Development camp continues on Sunday with a 9 a.m. practice and a 10:30 a.m. 3-on-3 series at the qplex.

This is the first time the Sea Dogs have held a development camp since 2019 due to the pandemic.

COYLE SPEAKS
One video that didn't make it into Friday night's Sea Dogs Hall of Fame induction ceremony for Gerard Gallant and Mike Kelly was this message from Charlie Coyle.
Coyle, now a member of the Boston Bruins, joined the Sea Dogs for the second half of the 2011-12 season and was named the QMJHL's playoff MVP.

ANOTHER COACHING MOVE
The head coaching moves aren't over yet in the QMJHL in what has been an unprecedented amount of change this off-season.

Sherbrooke Phoenix head coach and general manager Stephane Julien announced Friday that he is stepping down from the role and is expected to accept a position in the American Hockey League. The Phoenix are entering the early stages of a rebuild.

Sherbrooke joins Gatineau, Blainville-Boisbriand, Drummondville, Quebec, Rimouski and Cape Breton as teams currently without a head coach, a staggering amount of vacancies for this time of the year. Training camps begin in less than two months.

Sherbrooke is the only club without a general manager at this time. Gatineau has named Serge Beausoleil, formerly of the Oceanic, their new general manager while Blainville-Boisbriand has named Olivier Picard, formerly of the Phoenix, GM.

STRONG CHL NUMBERS
The CHL issued a news release on Thursday with some interesting numbers from the 2022-23 season. A few takeaways:

  • "... over the course of the 11 days of the 2023 Memorial Cup in Kamloops, B.C., 4.5 million viewers tuned in to TSN and RDS to catch some or all of this year’s Memorial Cup, including an average audience of 687,000 who watched the event’s championship game between the Québec Remparts and the Seattle Thunderbirds."
  • "... 3.6 million fans tuned in to watch some or all of the CHL’s three member leagues crown a champion."
  • CHL TV "totalled over 3.5 million views on its platform over the course of the 2022-2023 campaign — which represents a 25% increase from last season."
  • "In terms of attendance, the CHL saw an increase in the last year of over 30%, having welcomed over 8.5 million fans to the arenas of its 60 member clubs over the course of the 2022-2023 season (playoffs included)."
    • "The QMJHL had an attendance record broken for its Championship Series, as more than 85,300 fans attended the six-game series that saw the Québec Remparts top the Halifax Mooseheads for the Gilles-Courteau Trophy; the series also had an average attendance of 14,229 fans, which bested the QMJHL’s previous mark of 11,424 set in 1983."
  • Per game attendance numbers haven't been released, but the CHL noted that the 2023 Memorial Cup featured sellout crowds with a total of 48,405 fans coming through the doors in Kamloops.

SOME DESROCHES HIGHLIGHTS
NEW POD EP
On last week's episode of The Hockey News on the Q, Will MacLaren and I discuss the QMJHL Entry Draft, recent trades, coach firings, Toronto Maple Leafs prospects and more.
OTTAWA GETS WJC
The Ottawa Senators and Ottawa 67's will host the 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship.
Ottawa hosted the very successful 2009 world juniors that saw Chris DiDomenico and Team Canada capture gold.

Halifax and Moncton hosted last year's tournament. The 2024 event will be held in Sweden. The 2026 tournament will be held in the United States before returning to Canada in 2027.

OTHER THINGS
  • Eyes on the Prize examines Sea Dogs forward Cole Burbidge, who could have his name called on day two of the NHL Draft next week.
  • The Moncton Wildcats will trade Maxim Barbashev to the Shawinigan Cataractes in August, reports le Nouvelliste. Barbashev will occupy an overage and import slot.
  • Rhyah Stewart of the Cape Breton West Islanders was among the free agents invited to Cape Breton Eagles camp. “First, let’s be clear, she is invited to camp because she deserves it," said Eagles general manager Sylvain Couturier. "She is quick and competes on every shot. You’re not getting an offer from the University of Wisconsin for nothing, and an invite to Hockey Canada if you’re just average. She is special.”
  • The Chicoutimi Sagueneens' year-long logo saga is over: the team will return to its old logo for this coming season.
  • The 2023-24 season will be the last for WHL commissioner Ron Robison, the league announced earlier this week. Robison has been WHL commissioner since 2000-01.
  • The Ottawa Senators are coming to Nova Scotia for NHL pre-season games. They'll face the Florida Panthers in Sydney on Oct. 1 as part of Kraft Hockeyville celebrations. Then on Oct. 2 they'll take on the Pittsburgh Penguins in Halifax.
  • The Hershey Bears won the Calder Cup on Wednesday night in California, defeating the Coachella Valley Firebirds 3-2 in overtime of Game 7. Former QMJHL players Zach Fucale and Hendrix Lapierre were on the Bears roster.
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