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| Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs |
With on-ice sessions beginning Friday at Saint John Sea Dogs training camp, here are five storylines to follow this year.
1. Which rookies will impress?
The players that were expected to report to Sea Dogs training camp are reporting. So which members of Saint John's 2024 draft class will make it?
I wrote the following in a draft recap in June:
(Sea Dogs general manager Anthony) Stella said the ideal scenario for the team would be to have four players from this draft class in their lineup next season – but that will depend on how many players report to Saint John come August. "But the plan would be a minimum of threes 16s," the GM added.
Five of Saint John's top six picks will all be in camp (at least to start): forward William Yared, forward Dylan Rozzi, defenseman Cruz Scanzano, goaltender Rafaël Courchesne and defenseman Joshua Henry.
2. "Outsiders" have a shot
One of the fun parts about where Saint John is at in this rebuild: just about every player in camp has a shot at making the team. There are vacancies just about everywhere.
This is especially fun for free agents, who will enter camp as a bit of an unknown. There have been plenty of free agent success stories over the years – the Sea Dogs included – and a pleasant surprise or two would certainly be welcome to a team in Saint John's state.
There are also the four players on loan from other QMJHL teams to keep an eye on.
Saint John will have six free agents and four players on loan at camp.
3. The overage situation
The Sea Dogs will have four overagers competing for three roster spots to start camp: forward Charles-Antoine Lavalleé and defensemen Joseph Ianniello, Matteo Mann and Nate Tivey.
That's a storyline on its own – but the Sea Dogs also don't seem to content with that mix.
SJ Sea Dogs will open camp with 4 20-year-olds and the team will assess camp and other overagers as camp progresses - both in Q and NHL....no update on rookie forward F Dylan Rozzi but his status for 2024-25 season should be clarified very soon.
— Kevin Barrett (@KevinBarrettNB) August 15, 2024
Will see what happens there. But no matter what, it's an important camp for any 20-year-old.
4. The defense situation
The Sea Dogs have a lot of returning defensemen attending camp. For a team still at the bottom of the rebuild cycle, that's a bit of a unique situation.
The Sea Dogs likely want to create some space for another younger player or two. Part of that issue will likely be solved at the same time as the overage situation – but all of this does create some interesting battles for roster spots to keep an eye on.
Here are the D set to return:
Joseph Ianniello - 2004
Matteo Mann - 2004
Nate Tivey - 2004
Nicolas Bilodeau - 2005
Matthew MacLean - 2006
Olivier Duhamel - 2007
Benjamin Amyot - 2007
5. Who will be Robinson's partner?
Who will join Justin Robinson in the crease this season? That job, on paper at least, seems wide open.
The Sea Dogs will have five goaltenders in camp. Along with Robinson, they'll have two netminders on loan – Luciano Ruggiero (2006) and Jack Flanagan (2005) – along with draft picks Charles-Antoine Girard (2006) and Rafaël Courchesne (2008).
Robinson looked quite good in the 26 games he played in last year – but that's all he has under his belt. The rest of the goaltenders in camp have very little or no QMJHL experience. Do the Sea Dogs feel confident in Robinson having an inexperienced partner?
It's worth noting that – like the overage situation – the Sea Dogs could look elsewhere for goaltending. Saint John has not been afraid to cycle through goaltenders over the past five years to see what works.
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