Sea Dogs announce training camp roster

The Saint John Sea Dogs released their 2021-22 training camp roster on Friday.

The most notable addition was 18-year-old defenseman Vincent Despont, who the Sea Dogs announced the signing of earlier in the day. A Swiss and Canadian citizen, the 6'2", 190 lbs d-man spent last season with Kloten U20 in Switzerland where he registered three goals and seven assists along with 164 penalty minutes in 45 games.

Despont also took part in the IIHF World Under-18 Championship with Team Switzerland a few months ago.

“Vincent plays a gritty, hard-nosed brand of hockey,” said Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie. “He has great character, competes hard, and leaves everything on the ice. He understands his identity as a player, which is key. We think that his style of play will be something that Saint John fans really enjoy.”

Despont has already arrived in Saint John and will hit the ice when the team opens training camp next week.

Here's a breakdown of Saint John's training camp roster, which includes 22 forwards, 13 defensemen and five goaltenders.

We're back next week with the launch of Training Camp 2021! Check out the projected camp roster 👇 pic.twitter.com/2GC3iV3FsX

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) August 13, 2021

Returning (15): Riley Bezeau, Brady Burns, Ryan Francis, Josh Lawrence, Cam MacDonald, Peter Reynolds, Charles Savoie, Brendan Casey, Charlie DesRoches, Nathan Drapeau, Hunter Gartley, Christopher Inniss, Jeremie Poirier, William Villeneuve, and Noah Patenaude.

Acquired via trade (3): William Dufour, Jonathan Lemieux, and Ventsislav Shingarov.

2021 draft picks (12): Vince Elie (second-round), Carter Graves (13th-round), Kananga Mangala (14th-round pick), Luke Moran (second-round American Draft), Jack O'Blenis (seventh-round), Evgeny Sapelnikov (second-round Import Draft), Eliott Simard (fifth-round), Francis Woods (third-round), Nicolas Bilodeau (fourth-round), Ian Dickie (ninth-round), Natan Grenier (first-round), and Olivier Brideau (second-round).

2020 draft picks (2): Nico LaForge (11th-round) and Michael D'Orazio (third-round).

Others (8): Kobe Burt (appeared in one game last season), William Gagnon (2018 14th-round pick), Carter McCluskey (appeared in five games last season), Gavin Watt (appeared in six games with Moncton last season), Kal White (undrafted 17-year-old played with Charlottetown Knights last season), Vincent Despont (signee), Benjamin Roode (appeared in two games last season), and Brady Stone (undrafted soon-to-turn-17-year-old played with Steele Subaru last season).

Notables not attending include Cole Burbidge (2021 second-round pick who is playing US prep school hockey this year), Davide Patella (2020 fourth-round pick), Jan Hampl (2020 second-round Import Draft pick) and Yan Kuznetsov (2021 first-round Import Draft pick who is in the hands of the Calgary Flames).

Only three players from the team's 2021 draft class are not on the list: Burbidge, Renaud Lalancette (seventh-round) and Zachary Cloutier (11th-round).

Saint John's first pre-season game will be on Thursday night against the Moncton Wildcats at Fredericton's Aitken Centre.