Three Sea Dogs get NHL rookie camp invites

Three Saint John Sea Dogs will attend National Hockey League rookie camps this weekend.

Goaltender Samuel Meloche, a fourth-round pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2025 NHL Draft, is off to Sabres camp. Forwards Alexander Donovan and Ryan Howard will attend Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets rookie camps, respectively, on a free agent basis.

The Sabres will host the Boston Bruins prospects for a pair of games on Sunday and Monday.

The Times Herald reports that Meloche will likely start one of Buffalo's games against Boston. The Times Herald also reports that Meloche expects to join Northeastern University next fall.

“It’s great for everyone, especially goaltenders, because as we know, it takes longer to develop,” Meloche said. “… It’s advantageous for everyone that you don’t have to rush to sign your contract and turn pro early. You can (have) a couple more years to develop and keep growing your game.”

The Canadiens and Jets will both participate in the NHL Prospect Challenge in Gatineau this weekend. The Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators will also take part.

The Jets and Habs will meet on Saturday afternoon. On Sunday, Winnipeg will play Toronto while Montreal will face Ottawa.

Sea Dogs prospect Brian McFadden, meanwhile, will take part in Washington Capitals rookie camp. McFadden, who is playing with the USHL's Chicago Steel this season, was a fifth-round pick of the Caps in this year's NHL Draft.

Former Sea Dogs forward Eriks Mateiko will also participate in Capitals rookie camp. A 2024 draft pick of Washington, Mateiko missed a large chunk of last season with an Achilles injury. 

Former Sea Dogs defenseman Max Vilen, who the team traded to the Moncton Wildcats last season, will attend Tampa Bay Lightning rookie camp. Vilen was a seventh-round pick of Tampa Bay in this summer's NHL Draft.

Videos: Beaulieu fights again in WHL pre-season

Two games, two fights for Jacob Beaulieu.

Making his second appearance of the Western Hockey League pre-season, Beaulieu dropped the gloves with Luke Warrener of the Medicine Hat Tigers early in the second period. The Broncos went on to win the game 4-3 in a shootout.

Beaulieu, a 20-year-old free agent invite at Swift Current Broncos training camp, is listed at 5'9", 175 lbs while Warrener, 17, is 6'4", 201 lbs.

ROCK 'EM SOCK 'EM IN CO-OP PLACE!!! 🥊💥

Luke Warrener and Jacob Beaulieu go at it in a heavyweight pre-season tilt! 🐅 pic.twitter.com/8asEDJ0Xa1

— Medicine Hat Tigers (@tigershockey) September 12, 2026

A friendly exchange to start off the 2nd period! 🤝🏼💥 pic.twitter.com/CYLqHgj6Dk

— Swift Current Broncos (@SCBroncos) September 12, 2026

In his previous pre-season appearance, Beaulieu dropped the gloves with Triston Mitchell-McElhone of the Saskatoon Blades just 22 seconds into the Sept. 4 game.

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 before being dealt to the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada during this year's holiday trade period. In 210 career QMJHL games, Beaulieu posted 16 goals and 10 assists – along with 249 penalty minutes.

The Broncos play their final game of the pre-season on Saturday against the Tigers. They open the regular season next Saturday against the Prince Albert Raiders.

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.