MHL season underway for Sea Dogs connections

The Maritime Junior Hockey League season got underway on Thursday.

As usual, the MHL will feature a number of players with Saint John Sea Dogs connections – whether they be former players or draft picks.

Here are a few players to keep an eye on. Players with an * are draft picks/prospects.

Amherst - Coen Miller, Darien Reynolds, Brock Lyons* and Jeremie Richard

Grand Falls - Jonah Leard and Reid Calder

Miramichi - Eliot Tozer*

Summerside - Matthew MacLean

Valley - Felix Pronovost*

West Kent - Sam Pitcher*

There are also two former Sea Dogs coaches leading MHL teams this season. Greg Leland is the head coach of the Campbellton Tigers while Jeff Cowan will lead the Grand Falls Rapids.

Prospects Brock Lyons and Eliot Tozer – both forwards who spent most of last season with the Saint John Vito's – will be interesting to follow given the long looks they got at Sea Dogs camp. They could certainly be called up at some point this year.

Lyons scored his first career MHL goal in Amherst's 3-2 loss in Pictou County on Thursday. Coen Miller had the Ramblers' other goal (and a fight as well).

First goal in the MHL for Brock Lyons!! pic.twitter.com/ifo3WGZDHj

— Amherst JrA Ramblers (@AmherstRamblers) September 11, 2026

The league's other 10 teams begin play this weekend. The MHL can be watched on FloHockey.

Sea Dogs' final pre-season game cancelled

The Saint John Sea Dogs' pre-season schedule came to an abrupt end on Thursday.

The Sea Dogs's final exhibition game, scheduled for Friday night at Dartmouth's RBC Centre, has been cancelled for what the Halifax Mooseheads are calling "roster limitations." The game will not be rescheduled.

From the Mooseheads' news release:

The Halifax Mooseheads and Saint John Sea Dogs preseason game scheduled for Friday, September 11 at 7:00 p.m. at the RBC Centre in Dartmouth has been cancelled due to roster limitations. The game will not be rescheduled.

Fans who purchased tickets for the game do not need to take any action. Refunds will be automatically processed to the credit card used for the original purchase within 48 hours.

We apologize for any inconvenience this cancellation may cause and appreciate your understanding.

The limitations are presumably due to several players being away at NHL camps plus a few injuries.

This is a bit of an odd one, but there's not much point in figuring out affiliates and callups for a game that doesn't really mean anything. Pre-season games are often cancelled and not rescheduled for a variety of reasons (hurricanes, illness, UNB campuses being evacuated that one time, etc.).

The cancellation means the Sea Dogs finish the pre-season with a 2-2-0-0 record. They were outscored 16-13.

The Sea Dogs begin the regular season next Friday in St. John's. That game will take place two weeks since the team played a pre-season game.

Notebook: Donovan invited to Habs rookie camp

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Saint John Sea Dogs forward Alexander Donovan will attend Montreal Canadiens rookie camp.

The Canadiens announced their rookie camp roster last week. Donovan will attend as a free agent invite, joining former Sea Dogs defenseman Kale McCallum and goaltender Arseni Radkov.

According to a news release, the camp "will be held at the CN Sports Complex in Brossard and Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau, from September 11-15. Habs prospects will play two games against the Winnipeg Jets and Ottawa Senators at the Slush Puppie Centre on September 12 and 13 as part of the 2026 NHL Prospect Challenge."

Donovan, 19, is entering his second season with the Sea Dogs. Last year, the Connecticut native recorded 25 goals and 28 assists in 63 regular season games. He had another goal and an assist in four playoff games.

COMING UP

The start of the QMJHL regular season is now less than two weeks away.

The Sea Dogs will open the year Sept. 18-19 with a pair of games in St. John's against the Newfoundland Regiment. Saint John went winless at Mary Brown's Centre last season.

Saint John will host the Moncton Wildcats on Friday, Sept. 25 in the team's home opener at TD Station.

Before all that though, the Sea Dogs have one pre-season game left to play. Saint John, 2-2-0-0 in exhibition play, will take on the Halifax Mooseheads, 4-1-0-0, on Friday at Dartmouth's RBC Centre. These two met last Friday in Saint John where Halifax posted a 7-3 win.

TD Station going cashless

TD Station is going cashless, the venue announced Thursday.

At Friday's Saint John Sea Dogs pre-season game, signs about the change were placed at the front of concession line entrances.

Here's what TD Station shared on Facebook about the change:

TD STATION IS GOING CASHLESS!

We’re making things easier, faster, and more convenient for our guests! TD Station will be moving to a cashless payment system for food, beverage, and most purchases throughout the venue.

There will still be a few locations where cash will be accepted:

• Box Office: Cash will be accepted for tickets, gift cards, and our new **Food & Beverage Gift Cards.
• Sea Dogs Store: Cash will continue to be accepted.
• 50/50: Cash will continue to be accepted.
• Parking: Cash will continue to be accepted at select parking locations for now.
• Food & Beverage Gift Cards: We’ll be rolling out TD Station Food & Beverage Gift Cards, which can be purchased directly at the TD Station Box Office. These will be a great option for guests who prefer to use cash while enjoying food and beverages at the venue.

We appreciate your understanding as we make this transition and look forward to providing an even smoother experience at TD Station!

The move, unsurprisingly, brought quite a bit of negative feedback on social media. A number of people did point out, though, that many venues that are TD Station's size have been cashless for quite some time. Halifax's Scotiabank Centre, for example, is cashless.

Venues started going cashless just before the pandemic and the trend certainly picked up when live events returned.

While this will likely be a disturbance to some fans, it's becoming an industry norm, just like digital ticketing.

As written about a number of times in recent years, TD Station has really been falling behind venues like Scotiabank Centre and Moncton's Avenir Centre. Even Sydney's Centre 200 has gotten upgrades in recent years that give the fan experience more "bells and whistles" than TD Station. Hopefully some more modernizations to the fan experience are coming soon.

Sea Dogs claim Roop from Oceanic

Embed from Getty Images 

The Saint John Sea Dogs announced a roster move on Saturday, claiming forward Logan Roop off waivers from the Rimouski Oceanic.

A Brookfield, NS native, Roop has spent parts of the past three seasons with the Oceanic. In 62 games last season, Roop posted nine goals, seven assists and 56 penalty minutes.

The 19-year-old has appeared in 89 career QMJHL games, recording 10 goals and nine assists. He also appeared in five playoff games during Rimouski's 2025 run.

The #SJSeaDogs have claimed forward Logan Roop off waivers from the @oceanicrimouski.#GoDogsGo pic.twitter.com/8vbC57JDro

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) September 5, 2026

Roop adds some size to Saint John's lineup. He's listed at 6'4" and 201 lbs. He'll likely be a bottom six, depth forward for the Dogs, assuming he sticks around.

The move doesn't come as a huge surprise given that Saint John's latest round of cuts left the team with just 12 forwards. The Sea Dogs played all 12 of them in Friday's pre-season loss to the Halifax Mooseheads.

The Sea Dogs play their final game of the pre-season on Friday when they take on the Mooseheads in Dartmouth.

Saint John begins regular season play on Sept. 18 in St. John's.

Videos: Beaulieu fights 22 seconds into WHL pre-season debut

Welcome to the Western Hockey League, Jacob Beaulieu.

Just 22 seconds into his first pre-season game with the WHL's Swift Current Broncos, Beaulieu dropped the gloves with Triston Mitchell-McElhone of the Saskatoon Blades – and what a tilt it was.

It only took 22 seconds for Jacob Beaulieu to make his presence felt in Swift Current. 👊🐴 pic.twitter.com/g0D2QyBhk6

— Swift Current Broncos (@SCBroncos) September 5, 2026

Heck of a tilt at the Broncos pre-season game today! Jacob Beaulieu and former Legionnaire Triston Mitchell-McElhone. pic.twitter.com/zBobcEHkPB

— Shawn Mullin 🇨🇦 (@shawnmullin) September 5, 2026

Beaulieu, an overage forward, was named to Swift Current's pre-season roster earlier this week. A fight in his debut felt inevitable.

Swift Current's head coach and general manager is Travis Crickard, who previously held those roles with the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Beaulieu spent parts of four seasons in Saint John. He was a seventh-round pick of the team in the 2022 QMJHL Entry Draft. 

The Sea Dogs traded Beaulieu to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada during last season's holiday trade period. He appeared in 32 regular season games with the Armada and another 17 playoff contests.

In 210 career QMJHL games, Beaulieu posted 16 goals and 10 assists. He also had 249 penalty minutes – and was known more for his physical presence than offensive abilities.

The Broncos play the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday.