Sea Dogs Notebook

MEDIA GUIDE

To say the Sea Dogs are all over the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s media guide would be an understatement.

From the QMJHL website:

Prepared for the most part since 1998 by Denis Demers, the chief statistician of the QMJHL, this book of 352 pages is intended as a great reference tool to track daily activities of the QMJHL. 

All players, goalies and coaches who will be involved in the league this season are listed along with their stats along with regular season and playoff leaders. Obviously, the front page is dedicated to the 2010-11 championship team, Saint John Sea Dogs.

You can download the guide by clicking HERE.

GALLANT GETS A TRYOUT

Former Saint John enforcer Brett Gallant has agreed to a professional tryout deal for training camp with the New York Islanders, the National Hockey League club announced today.

Gallant spent last season in both the East Coast Hockey League and the American Hockey League. He recorded a goal, two assists, and 132 penalty minutes with the Elmira Jackels and Reading Royals of the ECHL. In the AHL, he recorded a goal and 73 penalty minutes in 17 games with the Bridgeport Sound Tigers who are the Islanders’ top affiliate team.

Gallant spent parts of three seasons in Saint John, tallying a total of 439 penalty minutes with most of them being fighting infractions. He holds the Sea Dogs team record for penalty minutes in a season as he registered 192 during the 2006-07 campaign.

DIDO

We completely forgot Chris DiDomenico was a Chicago Blackhawk prospect (probably because the Hawks took forever to post their tournament roster). The Hawks are playing in the Ontario rookie tournament in Oshawa.

DiDomenico had four assists in 25 games with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs and had nine goals and 16 assists 37 ECHL games with the Toledo Walleye.

SCOTT McCAIN STORY

Progressmedia.ca had a story on Sea Dogs CEO and majority owner Scott McCain earlier this. The article discusses the rough few years the Sea Dogs had in Saint John and their rise to the top in a just a few seasons.

“The second year was tough—our financial losses were pretty heavy,” said McCain. “But we all believed strongly in what we were doing. We were all prepared to weather the storm.”

The article also mentions that Sea Dogs president Wayne Long initially attempted to move the Sherbrook Castors to Saint John in 2003. That franchise eventually moved to Lewiston to become the Maineiacs.

ABOUT OPENING NIGHT

Only 4,550 fans took in the home opener at Harbour Station on Thursday night which is almost 2,000 fans short of complete sellout. Here is what Marty Klinkenberg had to say in the Telegraph-Journal on Friday:

A crowd of 4,550 turned out, perhaps a bit disappointing for a team after such a wildly successful season, but maybe not. The turnout was actually smaller on opening night last year - 4,514 - and that was on a Friday, not a school night.

We’re not surprised at all about the attendance. After the city failed to sellout Game One of last year’s President’s Cup – which was also on a Thursday – nothing really surprises us.

HUBERDEAU SPEAKS

Here is Jonathan Huberdeau speaking with reporters at Florida Panthers rookie camp.