Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Notebook: The final week is here

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs
SAINT JOHN - Folks, we made it.

The final week of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's regular season has arrived. It wasn't the smoothest ride with a pretty significant bump in the middle (thank you, COVID!) but here we are. A little later than originally planned, but we made it.

The Sea Dogs have three regular season games remaining. On Thursday and Friday night the team will host the last-place Cape Breton Eagles in the final regular season games at TD Station. Both contests start at 7 p.m.

The Sea Dogs will honour their three overage players on Thursday night. Then on Friday, Saint John resident Maestro Fresh Wes will perform as part of the team's first ever Throwback Night.

Saint John will close out the regular season with a Sunday afternoon match in Moncton. Game time for that one is 4 p.m. All 18 teams will be in action on Sunday.

DUFOUR SIGNS
If you missed it last week, Sea Dogs forward William Dufour has signed a three-year, entry-level deal with the New York Islanders.
Dufour was a fifth-round pick of the Islanders in the 2020 NHL Draft. The Quebec City native will likely play professionally in the Islanders system next season.

POINT LEADERS
Speaking of William Dufour, he entered play Tuesday night as the QMJHL's leading point getter (112) and goal scorer (53). Joshua Roy could still catch him in the points race (110 points) while Patrick Guay (51 goals) and Zachary Bolduc (50 goals) are closing in on his goal total.

From a CHL perspective, Dufour is two goals away from matching the league high.

In the OHL, Windsor's Wyatt Johnston won the scoring race with 124 points while London's Luke Evangelista led the league in goals with 55.

Over in the WHL, Red Deer's Arshdeep Bains had a league best 112 points. Ben King, also of the Rebels, led the WHL in goals with 52. Regina's Connor Bedard had two goals and five points in his final game of the season to finish with 51 goals and 100 points in 62 games.
GOALS GOALS GOALS
If you want to watch William Dufour's first 50 goals of the season...


WINS WINS WINS
The Sea Dogs recently surpassed the 40-win mark, something the franchise hasn't done since their President Cup winning season in 2016-17.

This is the seventh time in franchise history that the Sea Dogs have won 40 or more games.

2007-08: 41 wins
2009-10: 53 wins
2010-11: 57 wins
2011-12: 50 wins
2015-16: 42 wins
2016-17: 48 wins
2021-22: 44+ wins

The Sea Dogs, who have won 12 straight contests, could reach a maximum of 47 wins this season, which would be the fifth most in club history.

TITAN SALE?
Several outlets have now reported that 60% of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan could be sold to Steve Leal, the owner of Quebec-based Fix Auto.

According to RDS, Leal would like to place a QMJHL team on the South Shore of Montreal - but that would require a new arena to be built, which would obviously take some time.

JF Plante of the Gatineau newspaper Le Droit reported that Leal would like to leave the team in Bathurst until a rink is built in Longueuil which... would be interesting. "Lame duck franchises" typically produce terrible attendance figures - and understandably so.
In an interview with the Telegraph-Journal (paywall), Titan president Serge Theriault said the interest is serious but not a lock at this point.

This will be a story to follow over the coming months.

WHITE HOUSE VISIT
Former Sea Dogs forward Mathieu Joseph, now a member of the Ottawa Senators, rejoined his former club, the defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning, this past week for the team's trip to the White House.
MISA IS EXCEPTIONAL
Michael Misa of the Mississauga Senators has been granted Exceptional Status, which will allow him to play in the Ontario Hockey League a year early.

Misa joins a small list of players to be granted Exceptional Status into the Canadian Hockey League, following Connor McDavid, John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Shane Wright and Sean Day in the OHL; Connor Bedard in the WHL; and Joe Veleno in the QMJHL.

The Canadian Press notes that the 15-year-old Misa recently broke McDavid's OHL Cup scoring record, posting 20 points in seven games.

The Saginaw Spirit will select first overall in the OHL Draft, which will take place this Friday and Saturday.

OTHER THINGS (and catching up on some things)
  • Sea Dogs defenseman Nathan Drapeau has been named the QMJHL's Scholastic Player of the Month.
  • Saint John goaltender Thomas Couture entered play Tuesday in a tie with Bathurst's Jan Bednar for the league lead in wins with 27. Couture is 16-2 with the Sea Dogs.
  • Former Sea Dogs goaltender Jonathan Lemieux faced a career high 60 shots and made a career high 56 saves in the Moncton Wildcats' 4-1 loss in Quebec City on April 15. The overager netminder is now 8-12 with a 4.06 goals against average and a .894 save percentage in 21 games with the Wildcats.
  • The Remparts, celebrating the 25th anniversary of this edition of the franchise, honoured their 2006 Memorial Cup winning team during that April 15 game - playing against the franchise they beat in the final.
  • Saw 17-year-old Francis Woods, a third round pick on Saint John in the 2021 QMJHL Entry Draft, recently play for the Val-d'Or Foreurs in Chicoutimi. Woods, who was dealt in the Marshall Lessard deal, has appeared in six games with the Foreurs this season, recording one goal.
  • Attended a Utica Comets game a couple weeks ago. It was "Roaring 20s Night" at the Adirondack Bank Center, one of the more creative theme nights I've seen in some time.
  • The Belleville Senators defeated the Comets 4-1 in a very good game. There continues to be quite the Cape Breton connection on the Sens with Logan Show (the team's captain), Clark Bishop and Egor Sokolov all playing in that game. Bishop setup Shaw for a goal that proved to be the game-winner.
  • The AHL regular season, like the QMJHL, runs until the end of the month.
  • The OHL's Mississauga Steelheads still can't draw crowds, The Athletic writes.
  • Jonathan Huberdeau. What a season.
  • There's going to be some major coaching moves around college hockey this off-season. One of the biggest being at Boston College, where the legendary Jerry York has retired.
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