Sea Dogs Notebook

FlASHBACK



SeaDogsTV video from April of 2009.

KELLY

The Summerside Journal Pioneer has an article on Mike Kelly who was named the fourth head coach in Sea Dogs history on Friday.

“We think we have some real good young players,” said Kelly about the team he'll operate this season.

“We are real excited about having them come in, and have an opportunity to play. The one thing we have always been big on in Saint John is playing our kids. The kids play, and get an opportunity to develop.”

By the sounds of the article, there could be some other adjustments made to the coaching staff.

AAA

Four Sea Dogs were picked by Maritime Junior Hockey League teams over the weekend. Two others were selected in the Quebec Junior 'AAA' Hockey League draft yesterday. Here’s who was picked:

125th overall - Round Nine - STL - Alex Fournier - Saint John Sea Dogs

149th overall - Round Ten - SHE - Jérémy Brown - Saint John Sea Dogs

Fournier, a goaltender, was a fifth found pick of the Sea Dogs in last year’s draft while Brown, a forward, was picked in the 14^th round of this year’s draft.

Even Strength has a full list of QMJHL prospects/players taken.

STAFF

There were some odd reports from the CBC on Thursday stating that the Sea Dogs had laid off four employees.

On CBC Radio's Information Morning on Friday, Sea Dogs president Wayne Long talked about the report and basically said that wasn't true. Listen to the interview for the full details. The interview was done before the Gerard Gallant/Mike Kelly news became official but it’s a solid listen nonetheless.

BEAULIEU

Nathan Beaulieu was in Montreal at Canadiens development camp this past week. The camp ran from June 13-16 at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard.

Nineteen of the 32 players at camp are Canadiens draft selections. Other notable players included Morgan Ellis, Michael Bournival, and Olivier Archambault.

Former Sea Dogs goaltender Robert Mayer was also at the camp. He went 14-18-1 with a 2.94 goals against average and a .909 save percentage this past season with the AHL’s Hamilton Bulldogs.

Via the Canadiens website, here’s Beaulieu speaking to the media Wednesday.

And here’s Beaulieu speaking Thursday.

And here’s Beaulieu on Friday.

As for Mayer, Dan Kramer of All Habs didn’t care for his performance on day two of camp.

“I don’t really see anything here,” he wrote. “Mayer is known to be inconsistent, and if that’s putting it nicely, this hasn’t been an ‘on’ start to camp for him.  As of now, seems like he’s wasting one of the organization’s 50 contract spots.”

Ouch.

NO TRADES

Although they could have, the Sea Dogs didn’t blow their team up during last weekend’s trading period.

“That’s not how we like to do things,” Gerard Gallant told Metro Halifax at the draft. “We don’t like to make a whole lot of changes.

“We have some veterans who would be huge on the market for other teams. We’ll see how this season goes and maybe when Christmas comes it will be a different situation.”