Sea Dogs Notebook

TICKETS

The Sea Dogs announced the other day that “if you pay in full for your Season Tickets before Friday June 28, 2013, your 2013-14 Season Tickets will be printed in a commemorative ticket booklet which will feature full color pictures and action shots of your Saint John Sea Dogs. We hope that this new benefit will enhance the value of being a Season Ticket Holder and we have included an image of the cover (see above) so that you can get a sense of what to look forward to receiving in September.”

More info on that, including details on early bird prizes, can be found here.

CALDER TROPHY

Will Jonathan Huberdeau win the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s Rookie of the Year? We will find out tonight.

According to NHL.com, beginning at 8pm Atlantic tonight, NBC Sports Network and CBC will join forces to co-host a live pregame television special in which the winners of the Hart Memorial, Calder Memorial, James Norris Memorial and Vezina trophies, along with the Ted Lindsay Award, will be revealed.

Huberdeau, who had 14 goals and 17 assists 48 games with a bad Florida Panthers team this past season, is up against Brendan Gallagher of the Montreal Canadiens and Brandon Saad of the Chicago Blackhawks.

CALDER CUP

Tomas Jurco and the Grand Rapids Griffins will have another shot tonight to win the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup.

The Syracuse Crunch kept the series alive with a 3-2 victory last night. The Griffins lead the series 3-1 entering tonight’s Game 5 in Grand Rapids. That game begins at 8pm and can be viewed for free on AHL Live.

In last night’s game, Jurco was a -1 with five shots. Danick Gauthier, once again, did not play for the Crunch.

MCQUAID

So apparently some people are a little upset the Charlottetown Islanders did not select Alexander McQuaid in last week’s QMJHL Entry Draft.

From The Guardian, here’s sports columnist Fred MacDonald on the situation:

However, many fans, including this writer, were rather surprised the Islanders failed to land Cornwall’s Alexander McQuaid, one of the top young defencemen in the region and a physical defender with size. 

McQuaid went in the fourth round, 59th overall to Saint John, and, being Adam McQuaid’s first cousin, he has hockey pedigree on his side as well. This was a rather stunning turn of events especially since one of the alleged shortcomings of the previous regime was its lack of drafting local players. 

The Islanders did land a big defenceman later in the fourth round, a Nova Scotian, but that’s not the point. Nevertheless, let’s hope the draft picks turn out to all be gems for the Islanders.

Drafting hometown players is nice and all but it shouldn’t be a huge focus for teams. Take the best player available.

CAPS

The MHL’s Summerside Western Capitals are staying on the Island.

BREAKING: Caps, Summerside have come to an agreement in principle. Team to play out of @CUPEvents through the 2015-16 season.
— Summerside Capitals (@SsideCapitals) June 14, 2013

The team has unlimited Sea Dogs connections over the years.

Of note, the 2013 MHL Draft takes place this afternoon in Pictou.

NEILY

Former Sea Dog Zane Neily has been named the new head coach and assistant general manager of the North Bay Junior ‘A’ Trappers. Neily spent last season as an assistant coach with the Cambridge Winter Hawks of the GOJHL.

Neily played in eight games with Saint John in 2006-07, recording two goals and two assists.