QMJHL trade deadline just a few days away

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League trade deadline is just a few days away and plenty of questions remain for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Times & Transcript (paywall) reported last week that Thursday's trade deadline is expected to remain in place even with the regular season currently on pause. It's been a quiet week around the league but that should change as Thursday gets closer.

The Sea Dogs have made just one move during the holiday trade period, acquiring overage defenseman Vincent Sevigny from the Victoriaville Tigres. It's certainly expected that the Sea Dogs, as Memorial Cup hosts, will make more moves before Thursday's deadline.

Some questions facing the Sea Dogs:

• The overage situation: the Sea Dogs currently have four 20-year-olds on their roster: defensemen Vincent Sevigny and Christopher Inniss; forward Ryan Francis; and goaltender Jonathan Lemieux. One will have to be moved.
• The goaltending situation: somewhat related to the overage situation is the goaltending situation. There was speculation that the Dogs were interested in Drummondville's Francesco Lapenna before he was dealt to Charlottetown. "Rumours are swirling around the Sea Dogs potentially moving Lemieux between the pipes," wrote Craig Eagles in his latest post.
• The import situation: Yan Kuznetsov is obviously a lock here, but the team's other import spot is something to watch. Forward Evgeny Sapelnikov has improved as the season has gone along but again, with the Sea Dogs being Memorial Cup hosts and going all in, you have to wonder if they'll look to upgrade.
• Forward depth: and somewhat related to the import situation, the Sea Dogs are no doubt looking to add to their top six. Halifax's Elliot Desnoyers, who has spent the past few weeks with Team Canada, has been an obvious target all season.

"We are evaluating every position," Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie told the Telegraph-Journal (paywall) last week.

The biggest unknown is COVID and how that will impact the trade deadline. Some teams may opt to be more conservative with the uncertainty, which is understandable. But this is the QMJHL where creativity is part of every deal.

The conditional pick attached to the Baber trade is if the OHL playoffs actually come to completion this season. It's the Knights' first trade with Covid-related stipulations.

— Ryan Pyette (@RyanatLFPress) December 31, 2021

The Acadie-Bathurst Titan and Charlottetown Islanders have already made major moves and the Sea Dogs should be active this week. What other teams will be buyers? The Shawinigan Cataractes are a team to watch. The Quebec Remparts have been quiet but had planned to be contenders heading into the year. The Gatineau Olympiques, given their very talented but still young core, are a wildcard. The Sherbrooke Phoenix, who lead the Western Conference, may end up being sellers.

We'll see what happens with all that.