Sunday, May 26, 2024

Notebook: Sea Dogs have job openings

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
If these job postings are any indication, we may see the business side of the Saint John Sea Dogs change things up this season.

The Sea Dogs posted three prominent job openings on LinkedIn this past week.


These positions will be come with challenges for whoever takes them. Saint John's attendance has not rebounded from the pandemic like most other teams and the squad is likely in for another rough year on the ice.

One of the postings also mentioned something that has perhaps been forgotten: this upcoming season will be the team's 20th.

SCHEDULE COMING
According to a tweet from the Cape Breton Eagles, the QMJHL will release its 2024-25 regular season schedule on Monday at 12:30 p.m.

The season will likely open on the weekend of Sept. 20-21. The Sea Dogs played their first game of the season on Sept. 22 last year – which was also game No. 1 for the entire QMJHL.

The biggest adjustment to this year's schedule is the league moving to a 64-game slat, which removes four matches. For Maritimes Division teams, that is expected to mean four less games within the division and four less mid-week games.

NCAA CHANGES
Major changes are coming to the NCAA following a $2.7 billion court settlement this past week.

This is still messy (and will be for the next few months) and it's not clear how much it will impact hockey. The changes will have a much bigger impact on college football and basketball, but there will definitely be some impacts to hockey as well.

The biggest expected changes:

  • There will likely be opportunities for hockey players to be straight up paid by some schools.
  • Those same schools and others will be able to increase the number of scholarships they can offer hockey players.
  • On top of that – and the biggest change for the sport as a whole – is CHL players will very likely be able to play NCAA hockey in the near future. This will not be an automatic change based on last week's settlement, though. Either the NCAA will have to willingly drop the current rule or a player(s) will have to challenge the rule in court (which the player(s) will almost certainly win).


HYPE VIDEO
A new Memorial Cup hype video, which has aired multiple times on TSN, features a few Sea Dogs clips.
UNDER-18 NEWS
It sounds like the IIHF Under-18 World Championship could be coming to North America much more frequently, reports Chris Peters of FloHockey.
Gardiner MacDougall and Travis Crickard helped Canada win gold at this year's tournament in Finland.

Canada has never hosted the event, which began in 1999. Hockey Canada would presumably have interest in hosting the tournament, but building availability could be challenging given that the event takes place during the CHL playoffs.

AUS SCHEDULE RELEASED
Atlantic University Sport released its winter schedule last week.

The UNB Reds men's hockey team, the defending AUS and U Sports champions, begin regular season play on Friday, Oct. 4 at the Aitken Centre. The Reds host StFX the following night.

UNB traditionally plays some pre-season and non-conference games before the regular season begins.

The AUS men's hockey season officially begins Wednesday, Oct. 2 when UPEI hosts Saint Mary's. The season ends Saturday, Feb. 15.

The University Cup will be held in Ottawa in March.

OTHER THINGS
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