Sea Dogs resume pre-season Friday

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs are back in action Friday when they travel to Saint-Quentin, NB to face the Acadie-Bathurst Titan in pre-season play.

This will be Saint John's first game since Aug. 25 when the Dogs defeated the Titan 5-2 at TD Station.

Saint John has just three pre-season games remaining and it looks like the team's roster is nearly locked in to start the regular season. The regular season roster hasn't been inserted online but the pre-season roster shows that 14 forwards, eight defensemen and two goaltenders have been assigned numbers.

That list of forwards includes the injured Nico Laforge and Sam-Luca Thifault. On the backend, the injured Jeremie Richard was not assigned a number.

This weekend should be the first appearance for two new Sea Dogs: defenseman Matteo Mann, who was acquired in a trade from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, and overage goaltender Patrick Leaver, who the team signed out of the Ontario Hockey League.

Mann will presumably miss some time shortly to attend Philadelphia Flyers camp. The Flyers selected the Sackville, NB native in the seventh-round of this year's NHL Draft.

To make room for the Leaver, the Sea Dogs had to release 20-year-old defenseman Jared Cosman — who has since joined Titan camp and could face his old club on Friday.

Nous avons eu quelques nouveaux visages à l'entraînement ce matin ! Accueillons Milo Roelens et Jared Cosman sur le territoire du Titan !

We had some new faces at practice this morning! Let’s welcome Milo Roelens and Jared Cosman to Titan Territory! pic.twitter.com/lMVLgODuEa

— Titan Acadie-Bathurst (@ABTitan) September 5, 2023

Following Friday's game against the Titan, the Sea Dogs will take on the Charlottetown Islanders on the UPEI campus on Sunday at 3 p.m. The team will play their final game of the pre-season next Friday at home against the Islanders.