Notebook: Dogs begin season ranked third

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs will open the 2021-22 regular season as the No. 3 ranked team in the Canadian Hockey League.

The Sea Dogs trail only the top-ranked Edmonton Oil Kings and the No. 2 Quebec Remparts in the pre-season rankings. The Acadie-Bathurst Titan (No. 7) and Shawinigan Cataractes (No. 9) were the only other ranked QMJHL teams.

Did your team make the list?

Introducing the @KiaCanada Top-10 Rankings: 2021-22 Preseason Edition

📝: https://t.co/50wg4GDOVr pic.twitter.com/tbk3NwuCJC

— Canadian Hockey League (@CHLHockey) September 30, 2021

The Charlottetown Islanders, who the Sea Dogs will play twice this weekend,  were an honourable mention.

The Sea Dogs began last season ranked eighth in the CHL (yes, there were actually pre-season rankings last year).

TOUGH OPENING

The Sea Dogs will not have an easy start to the season.

Most QMJHL followers have the Sea Dogs, Titan and Islanders finishing at the top of the Maritimes Division in some order. Then there is the Halifax Mooseheads followed by the rebuilding Cape Breton Eagles and Moncton Wildcats.

Saint John will start the season with five straight games against either the Islanders or Titan.

The Sea Dogs kick things off with a home-and-home with the Islanders and follow that up with a home-and-home against the Titan. They then visit Charlottetown on Thanksgiving Monday.

Saint John will play both Charlottetown and Bathurst four times each in October.

SEASON PREVIEW

CBC, now one of the CHL's official broadcasters, previews the upcoming season.

CBC's first CHL broadcast is on Saturday afternoon when the Regina Pats host the Prince Albert Raiders.

Four Sea Dogs reassigned to Saint John; Kuzentsov sent to AHL Stockton

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs may have a close-to-normal lineup when they open the regular season on Friday night.

Forwards Cam MacDonald and Peter Reynolds along with defensemen William Villeneuve and Jeremie Poirier have all been reassigned to Saint John by their respective NHL clubs.

MacDonald was attending Tampa Bay Lightning camp; Villeneuve was at Toronto Maple Leafs camp; and Poirier took part in Calgary Flames camp.

Reynolds was attending Columbus Blue Jackets camp as a free agent. 

That leaves overage forward Ryan Francis as the lone Sea Dog still attending an NHL camp. The Flames prospect is eligible to play professional hockey this season but it seems more likely he'll be sent back to junior at some point in the near future.

Defenseman Yan Kuznetsov, Saint John's first-round pick in this year's CHL Import Draft, was assigned to the AHL's Stockton Heat by the Flames. It's still possible he could make his way to the Sea Dogs at some point - but we'll see what happens.

The Sea Dogs begin the regular season on Friday at home against the Charlottetown Islanders. Game time is 7 p.m.

Some NHL camp updates

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs lead the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League in current players/graduates attending NHL training camps this year.

According to a CHL.ca story, the Sea Dogs have a total of 20 players - five current and 15 graduates - taking part in NHL camps.

Current players include Ryan Francis (Calgary), Jeremie Poirier (Calgary), Peter Reynolds (Columbus), Cameron MacDonald (Tampa Bay) and William Villeneuve (Toronto).

Graduates of the Sea Dogs include Bokondji Imama (Arizona), Callum Booth (Boston), Charlie Coyle (Boston), Jakub Zboril (Boston), Eric Gelinas (Carolina), Spencer Smallman (Carolina), Brett Gallant (Columbus), Jonathan Huberdeau (Florida), Mike Hoffman (Montreal), Julien Gauthier (New York Rangers), Thomas Chabot (Ottawa), Zachary Emond (San Jose), Mathieu Joseph (Tampa Bay), Matthew Highmore (Vancouver) and Nathan Beaulieu (Winnipeg).

Not included in the total are players who played with Saint John but ended their junior careers elsewhere. That list includes Nathan Larose (Anaheim), Olivier Leblanc (Columbus), Joe Veleno (Detroit), Ostap Safin (Edmonton), Joshua Roy (Montreal), Alex D'Orio (Pittsburgh) and Maxim Cajkovic (Tampa Bay).

A total of 981 current or former CHL players are attending NHL camps this year. 226 are from the QMJHL.

Unsurprisingly, the London Knights lead all CHL teams with 49 players attending camps.

A final look at the pre-season

Saint John Sea Dogs

SAINT JOHN - The Saint John Sea Dogs are pre-season champions.

The Sea Dogs finished with the most of points (13) of any QMJHL team during exhibition play and finished tied with the Shawinigan Cataractes for the most wins (six).

What does all of this mean? Absolutely nothing! But hey, any positive momentum heading into the regular season - especially after how the past few seasons have gone in Saint John - is, well, a positive thing.

Here are a few more stats from Saint John's eight pre-season games:

• The Sea Dogs finished with a 6-1-1-0 record with both losses coming against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
• Saint John scored a league high 45 goals for an average of 5.6 per game.
• Josh Lawrence led Saint John in pre-season scoring with nine points (five goals and four assists). He appeared in six of Saint John's eight pre-season contests, which is a lot for a veteran.
• William Dufour led the team in goals with six. He scored at least once in all four pre-season games he appeared in.
• Lawrence, Peter Reynolds and Vince Elie all scored five goals while Carter McCluskey had four.
• Riley Bezeau had a team high six assists in six games. Nico Laforge had five.
• Noah Patenaude allowed five goals on 83 shots in just over 136 minutes of work, giving him a 2.21 GAA and .940 SV%.
• Jonathan Lemieux rebounded from a rough debut. The overager allowed 10 goals on 83 shots in just under 154 minutes of work, giving him a 3.90 GAA and .880 SV%.

Saint John begins regular season play on Friday night at TD Station, hosting the Charlottetown Islanders.

Notebook: Dogs have assets to work with

Kevin Chambers/Station Nation

No matter what happens in the first half of the 2021-22 season, the Saint John Sea Dogs, as Memorial Cup hosts, will definitely be swinging some deals come the holiday trading period.

What do the Sea Dogs have to work with? For starters, a plethora of draft picks. Here's what they have for the next three drafts according to the French fan forum:

2022: 1-1CHA-2-2GAT-7-7VIC-8- 9-10MON-10GAT-11-12-13-14

2023: 1-2-3ROU-4-5-6-10-11-13-14

2024: 1-2-3-5-6-7-7VDO-8-9-10-11-12-13-14

The Sea Dogs also have a number of high end prospects - especially from this summer's draft - who could be dealt for immediate help.

Even if the Sea Dogs have a strong first half, the team will very likely still look at upgrading in some spots. Winning the Memorial Cup is hard - winning the Memorial Cup on home ice is both hard and a rare accomplishment. You don't want to have any regrets when June rolls around.

DOGS WERE IN ON BOLDUC

In non-surprising news: the Sea Dogs had strong interest in acquiring now former Rimouski Oceanic forward Zachary Bolduc.

The Journal le Soir reported last week that the Sea Dogs had been having discussions with the Oceanic about Bolduc for quite some time. Oceanic head coach and general manager Serge Beausoleil said they received a better offer from the Quebec Remparts, which is where Bolduc was dealt to in August.

The Oceanic received a 2022 first-round pick (Sherbrooke); 2022 sixth-round pick; 2023 first-round pick (Rimouski); and another 2023 first-round pick from the Remparts in exchange for Bolduc.

A first-round pick of the St. Louis Blues in the 2021 NHL Draft, the 18-year-old had 10 goals and 19 assists in 27 games with Rimouski last season.

BOUTHILLIER SIGNS IN ECHL

Former Sea Dogs goaltender Zachary Bouthillier has signed with the Maine Mariners, the ECHL affiliate of the Boston Bruins.

A former Toronto Maple Leafs prospect, Bouthillier posted a 19-25 record to go along with a 4.16 goals against average and a .897 save percentage during his overage season with the Sea Dogs in 2019-20.

Bouthillier joined the UQTR Patriotes of U Sports last season but never played a game due to the pandemic.

Poirier, Villeneuve both signs ELCs

Maple Leafs Website

HALIFAX - Two Saint John Sea Dogs have signed three-year entry-level contracts with their respective NHL clubs.

Jeremie Poirier has signed an ELC with the Calgary Flames, the team announced Friday, while William Villeneuve has signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team announced Saturday.

Poirier was a third-round selection of the Flames in the 2020 NHL Draft.

"Poirier is an offensive dynamo, excellent at puck movement and a strong skater who can zip up and down the ice," writes Flames Nation. "The hole in his game is his defensive zone play and play away from the puck. But evidently the Flames have seen enough from him to think they can round him out. (He was very noticeable in both rookie camp games against Edmonton.)"

Poirier is currently at Flames training camp after taking part in the team's rookie/development camp.

"The guys are faster, the guys are bigger so plays around the net are a little tougher so you've got to bear down a little more, play more physical."

Jeremie Poirier gives his take on the first rookie game and looks ahead to tonight's rematch against the Oilers. pic.twitter.com/D5I2mvWkly

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) September 20, 2021

The 19-year-old, who is entering his fourth season with Saint John, recorded nine goals and 28 assists in 33 games last year. He added four goals and five assists in nine playoff games.

Villeneuve, meanwhile, was a fourth-round pick of the Leafs in 2020. He recently played with his fellow prospects at the Traverse City tournament where "he tallied two assists over four games with the Leafs," writes Leafs Nation.