Game Day 1 & 2: at Newfoundland

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

ST. JOHN'S, NL - The Saint John Sea Dogs open up the 2026-27 Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League regular season this weekend at Mary Brown's Centre.

The Sea Dogs enter the season with a lot of hype around them. They are ranked seventh in the CHL Top-10 pre-season rankings and most predict the team to be a top-four club in the QMJHL. Tonight, the team will start to try and live up to that hype – and they'll do so in a building they struggled in last season.

Saint John went 0-6-2-0 against the Newfoundland Regiment last season, which included going 0-4-0-0 in St. John's. The Sea Dogs and Regiment will play tonight and tomorrow with both games starting at 6:30 p.m. Atlantic.

The Regiment are flying under the radar a bit this season thanks to Atlantic Canada being so loaded with contenders this season. That's a bit dangerous, especially when you consider the likes of Benjamin Veitch, Quinn Norman and Louis-Antoine Denault taking steps forward this season.

Stream/TV/Radio: FloHockey/None/None

2026-27 regular season records: These are the first games of the regular season for both the Sea Dogs and Regiment.

2026 pre-season records: The Sea Dogs were 2-2-0-0 for four points while the Regiment went 3-2-0-0 for six points.

Last games: The Sea Dogs are coming off a 7-3 pre-season loss to the Halifax Mooseheads on Sept. 4. Alexander Donovan, Zachary Morin and Oliver Ozogany scored for Saint John. Samuel Meloche made 19 saves in the loss. The Regiment are coming off a 5-1 pre-season win over the OHL's Saginaw Spirit on Aug. 31. Louis-Francois Belanger scored twice for Newfoundland while Benjamin Veitch, Matthew Frost and Ryan Dwyer added singles. Louis-Antoine Denault made 34 stops in the win.

Notebook: Joseph, Glance named to QMJHL Prospects Game roster

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Two Saint John Sea Dogs were among the first players to earn invites to October's QMJHL Prospects Game.

Sea Dogs forwards Alexis Joseph and Jamie Glance have both been selected to take part in the event. The roster is selected by NHL Central Scouting.

Carter Meyer and Patrick Déniger of the Quebec Remparts along with Malik L’Italien of the Halifax Mooseheads and Vladimir Shtyrkhunov of the Shawinigan Cataractes were also named to the event's roster on Thursday.

“Alexis, Jamie, Carter, Malik, Vladimir and Patrick have very bright futures ahead of them, and on October 28, they will have the opportunity to showcase their talent in front of approximately 100 National Hockey League scouts and executives,” said QMJHL vice-president of hockey operations Éric Chouinard in a news release.

This will be the second year for the event, which includes the top players available for that season's NHL Draft. Six Sea Dogs took part in last year's game: Olivers Murnieks, Zachary Morin, William Yared, Dylan Rozzi, Cameron Chartrand and Rafaël Courchesne.

This year's event will be held Oct. 28 in Gatineau.

OPENING NIGHT

The Sea Dogs have had quite a bit of success in season openers of late.

The team in 4-1-0-0 in their last five season openers. Two of those five games were on the road – and, technically, against the Newfoundland Regiment franchise (previously the Acadie-Bathurst Titan). The Sea Dogs open the 2026-27 regular season on Friday in Newfoundland.

2025: 3-2 win vs Cape Breton

2024: 3-0 loss vs Moncton

2023: 6-4 win at Bathurst

2022: 4-3 win at Bathurst

2021: 4-2 win vs Charlottetown

Zachary Morin, Olivier Duhamel and William Yared all scored in Saint John's season opener last year. Justin Robinson made 29 stops in the win.

The Sea Dogs have never opened a season in Newfoundland. They did host the St. John's Fog Devils in the club's inaugural game in 2005.

Can Sea Dogs find St. John's success?

Jeff Parsons/Newfoundland Regiment

There's really no way to sugarcoat it: the Saint John Sea Dogs have not played well in St. John's.

The Sea Dogs will open the 2026-27 Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League season at their house of horrors – the Mary Brown's Centre – on Friday night at 6:30 p.m. Atlantic. The two will battle the next night in St. John's as well.

The Sea Dogs made two trips to Newfoundland last season and lost all four games. They were outscored 23-8.

Saint John 3 @ Newfoundland 6 (Oct. 24 2025)

Saint John 1 @ Newfoundland 5 (Oct. 25 2025) 

Saint John 3 @ Newfoundland 7 (Feb. 11 2026)

Saint John 1 @ Newfoundland 5 (Feb. 12 2026) 

At home and away, the Sea Dogs went a combined 0-6-2-0 against Gordie Dwyer's squad last season. 

Struggling in St. John's is nothing new for the Sea Dogs. The team is 2-13-0-0 all-time in the building, which includes results against the Regiment and St. John's Fog Devils.

2005-06: 0-6-0-0 (0-4-0-0 at St. John's) 

2006-07: 3-3-0-0 (0-2-0-0 at St. John's) 

2007-08: 4-4-0-0 (2-3-0-0 at St. John's)

2025-26: 0-6-2-0 (0-4-0-0 at St. John's)

The Sea Dogs have not won a game in Newfoundland since Jan. 3, 2008.

The 2007-08 Sea Dogs team was the only one to win a game in St. John's. That team reached the QMJHL's final four. A win this weekend –  or, if you're feeling positively greedy, a sweep – could be the ultimate positive vibe to start this new season.

The Sea Dogs also travel to Newfoundland Feb. 11-12.

Dogs open season ranked 7th in CHL Top 10

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The hype surrounding the 2026-27 Saint John Sea Dogs continues to grow.

In the pre-season edition of the CHL Top-10 rankings – released on Wednesday – the Sea Dogs were ranked seventh. Only two other QMJHL teams cracked the rankings and both play in the Eastern Conference: the Cape Breton Eagles at No. 2 and the Quebec Remparts at No. 8.

The Memorial Cup host Guelph Storm were ranked first.

This is the first time the Sea Dogs have appeared in the CHL Top-10 rankings since the final weeks of 2021-22 regular season.

Here's what the CHL website said about the Sea Dogs:

Saint John’s playoff-series drought dates back to its 2017 QMJHL championship run, though the club captured the Memorial Cup as host in 2022. With an experienced core and a busy offseason, the Sea Dogs appear poised not only to end that drought, but to challenge for their first QMJHL title in a decade. Top 2027 NHL Draft prospect Alexis Joseph (24G-36A in 54 GP) leads an attack reinforced by former U.S. National Team Development Program forward Jamie Glance and CHL Import Draft picks Matyas Cancik and Oliver Ozogany. The club’s top-three scorers from last season—Joseph, Alexander Donovan (25G-28A in 63 GP) and Olivier Groulx (20G-46A in 64 GP)—all return, while former eighth-overall QMJHL pick Dylan Rozzi (20G-25A in 64 GP) is another breakout candidate. The Sea Dogs rebuilt their defense by adding former fourth-overall pick Thomas Charbonneau (2G-9A in 48 GP), Brandon Delarosbil (8G-14A in 60 GP) and veteran Julien Lanthier (3G-12A in 43 GP) to a group led by Olivier Duhamel (5G-21A in 58 GP). Buffalo Sabres fourth-rounder Samuel Meloche gives that revamped blue line an established goaltender behind it.

The Sea Dogs open the QMJHL regular season on Friday against the Newfoundland Regiment at the Mary Brown's Centre.

Saint John won't have to wait long to face another one of the CHL's most hyped teams. The Dogs will host the Eagles on Sept. 26 and visit Sydney on Oct. 2. The two will meet eight times in the regular season but only twice after the holiday trade deadline.

The Sea Dogs will face the Remparts Nov. 12 at TD Station and March 12 in Quebec City.

Opening night roster unveiled

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs unveiled their opening night roster on Wednesday.

The Sea Dogs will start the 2026-27 Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League season with a roster of 24 players: two goaltenders, nine defensemen and 13 forwards.

The final roster comes with no surprises. As mentioned, the team is expected to open the season at nearly full strength. Defenseman Olivier Duhamel is expected to remain on the injured list for a couple months, which is likely the reason for the team opting to keep nine defenders for the time being.

Introducing your 2026-27 #SJSeaDogs opening night roster 🐶🌊

🗞️ » https://t.co/UYfXKhdMFA
🎟️ » https://t.co/HddIyY3yaQ#GoDogsGo pic.twitter.com/DbXjNoMxW8

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) September 16, 2026

Only 12 of these 24 players ended last season with the Sea Dogs. The team had a busy summer bolstering its lineup – and it feels like more changes could come over the next few months.

The Sea Dogs will start the season with just two overagers (forward Olivier Lemieux and defenseman Julien Lanthier) and two imports (forwards Matyas Cancik and Oliver Ozogany), leaving the team with some roster flexibility.

Along with Cancik and Ozogany, the Sea Dogs also selected defenseman Vertti Svensk in this summer's CHL Import Draft but he remains in Finland playing pro hockey. Defenseman Lawrence Williams is the lone member of Saint John's 2026 QMJHL Entry Draft class to start the season with the club.

Cancik, Ozogany and Williams join highly touted American forward Jamie Glance as the lone players on Saint John's roster without any QMJHL experience.

The Sea Dogs open the regular season on Friday night when they visit the Newfoundland Regiment in the first of back-to-back games.

Sea Dogs appear close to full strength

It looks as though the Saint John Sea Dogs will be close to full strength when the 2026-27 Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League season opens on Friday.

The Buffalo Sabres announced Tuesday that Sea Dogs goaltender Samuel Meloche has been reassigned back to junior. The 19-year-old was a fourth-round pick of the Sabres in the 2025 NHL Draft and had been attending the team's rookie camp, which included seeing some action in a game against Boston Bruins rookies.

With NHL training camps shortened by the increased 84-game season, many players like Meloche probably won't get main camp invites like they once did.

Two other Sea Dogs attended NHL rookie camps last weekend: Alexander Donovan joined the Montreal Canadiens while Ryan Howard earned a Winnipeg Jets invite. Both the Habs and Jets prospects played in a tournament with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators in Gatineau over the weekend.

Neither Donovan nor Howard earned invites to their team's main camp.

On the injury front, the only Sea Dogs player expected to be out long term is defenseman Olivier Duhamel. The 18-year-old is expected to miss the first couple months of the season.

In short, the Sea Dogs will be close to full strength when they open the season in St. John's on Friday night. Game time against the Newfoundland Regiment is 6:30 p.m. Atlantic.

Of note, it looks like the team will start the season with just two overagers (forward Olivier Lemieux and defenseman Julien Lanthier) and two imports (forwards Matyas Cancik and Oliver Ozogany). The Saint John lineup that starts the season likely won't be the same as the one that finishes it.