Several Sea Dogs trades confirmed

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The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League confirmed several major transactions during Wednesday's trading period.

The majority of the deals announced had been all but confirmed for months now, but there were a few smaller trades that had not been reported on previously.

Here are the deals that the Sea Dogs were involved in:

• The Sea Dogs acquired 19-year-old defenseman Christopher Inniss from the Rimouski Oceanic, completing the Nicolas Guay/Jeffrey Durocher trade made in December. Saint John returned Rimouski's 2022 first and third (Gatineau) round picks in exchange for Inniss.
• The Sea Dogs acquired 19-year-old forward Nicholas Girouard from the Drummondville Voltigeurs in exchange for two 2021 second-round draft picks.
• Saint John acquired a second (38th overall) and fourth round (59th) pick in this year's draft from the Halifax Mooseheads in exchange for forward prospect Robert Orr. Orr was a fifth-round draft pick of the Sea Dogs in last year's draft.
• The Sea Dogs traded forward prospect Alexandre O'Neill to the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in exchange for a conditional seventh-round pick (Charlottetown) in 2021. O'Neill, a fifth-round pick in 2018, recorded one goal in six games with the Sea Dogs.
• Saint John also sent a sixth-round pick in 2021 to the Victoriaville Tigres for no compensation. This apparently is part of the Alexis Belisle trade. Saint John acquired the sixth-round pick and a 2022 10th-round selection (Moncton) in exchange for Belisle in January. Belisle never played a game with the Tigres, though.

The next trading period begins on Friday. According to the Cape Breton Eagles website, "trades will open again during the draft, although any trades made during the first round must contain a first round choice in 2020. Teams will not permitted to make trades after round 11. Following the draft, each team’s protected list can hold no more than 60 players."

The two big trade questions facing the Sea Dogs are: 1) will they deal either or both of their first round picks (currently third and 15th overall) and 2) will they be acquiring a veteran goaltender through trade?

Following today's deals, here's where the Sea Dogs are currently picking on Friday and Saturday:

Round 1, 3rd overall (Baie-Comeau)
Round 1, 15th overall (Drummondville)
Round 2, 34th overall (Rimouski)
Round 2, 38th overall (Sherbrooke)
Round 4, 59th overall (Bathurst)
Round 4, 70th overall (Charlottetown)
Round 5, 88th overall (Charlottetown)
Round 7, 120th overall
Round 9, 156th overall
Round 11, 192nd overall
Round 13, 228th overall
Round 14, 246th overall

The first round of the QMJHL Entry Draft takes place Friday evening at 7:30 p.m. and can be watched live on the league's YouTube channel. The rest of the draft will take place Saturday morning beginning at 10 a.m.