Saturday, May 31, 2025

Five Sea Dogs questions heading into draft week

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
We're less than a week away from the 2025 QMJHL Entry Draft taking place in Quebec City.

The first-round of the draft will take place next Friday at Videotron Centre while the remaining rounds will be held on Saturday.

The Saint John Sea Dogs own the first overall pick in this year's draft. Who they'll select is just one of the questions facing the team heading into next weekend.

Here's five questions facing the Sea Dogs heading into the draft.

1. What will a Crickard draft look like?
This will be the first draft as Saint John's general manager for Travis Crickard. He wasn't overly busy during the holiday trade period, so we weren't able to get a great read on what his style will be as a GM. The organization seems to be committed on returning to competing/contention in 2026-27, but how they get there will be interesting. Will Crickard take some big swings? Be more conservative? Shake up any of the core already in place? We'll see.

2. Who will Saint John take at No. 1?
This is certainly the biggest question that everyone around the league will have heading into Friday's first-round. The stars seem to be aligning for Alexis Joseph to be taken first overall – but we'll see. The QMJHL Entry Draft is known for its drama and the NCAA rule change could create a chaotic draft. Let's remember that Saint John has a number of new faces on the scouting side as well, along with Crickard.

3. What impact will the NCAA rule change have?
There's a lot going on here and a lot to digest. Over the past decade, Saint John has been one of the more aggressive teams when it comes to drafting players with NCAA intentions, some years more than others. Results have varied, but it's probably safe to say that the Sea Dogs will remain as aggressive – if not more – with the rule change. There are a couple key questions facing the Sea Dogs (and all teams) heading into this weekend:

  • Are players still using the USHL as a real threat? If a player from these parts would still prefer to play junior hockey in Nebraska (no offense to Nebraska), all the power to them. But... I don't know, it's not going to be a great look or sign for the QMJHL as a whole if they continue to lose players to the USHL even after this rule change.
  • How long will these college bound players stay in the QMJHL? We're starting to now see some players with junior eligibility remaining make the bounce to college hockey. I'm not sure how many players will be making the jump early, but it's something to keep in mind when drafting and building teams moving forward.

The NCAA impact will definitely be the most interesting storyline to follow at this year's draft.

4. Will Saint John add any veterans?
Yes, the last rebuild ended with a Memorial Cup championship. Yes, COVID complicated more than a few things. But let's face it: the last rebuild didn't didn't go as smoothly as hoped and, because of that, I'm keeping an eye on what the team may do differently this time around. There are pros and cons to adding a lot of veteran players at this stage of a rebuild, but I do wonder if Saint John may go after some to help insulate and guide this young core a bit. I don't expect Saint John to trade a first-round pick for a 19-year-old or anything like that, but there could be some reasonable moves (or signings) to be made that would give this group an instant boost on and off the ice. Also, given the reality of Saint John's attendance figures, I would hope they're looking at any and all ways possible to make this team as entertaining as it can be next season without jeopardizing future assets.

5. What's going on in net?
It wouldn't be an off-season without some question marks about what Saint John's goaltending will look like for the upcoming campaign. As everyone remembers, the Sea Dogs were content with cycling through goaltenders during the last rebuild. Will they stick with that strategy? Will they draft a high end goaltender either this coming weekend or during the CHL Import Draft? Do they feel like Justin Robinson – who had his ups and downs last year – will be the No. 1 guy this season? Lots of questions to be answered here, as there always is at this time of year. It's worth remembering as well: Crickard was a goaltender himself and he no doubt has some ideas of what he wants Saint John's net to look like moving forward.

1 comment:

  1. Unfortunately we have a Jr A manager running a major junior team ......doesn't mix well so don't expect big improvements until Georgie and McCain wake up and get serious again of building a contender or sell the team to the local group that want to buy it with an experienced GM in waiting . Until then we will be a stepping stone for players going to NCCA. That CHL deal with NCCA SUCKS for junior hockey.

    ReplyDelete