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Sunday, July 3, 2022

Notebook: Overagers get first touch

Vincent Ethier/CHL
The Saint John Sea Dogs' overage players were the first to lift the Memorial Cup on Wednesday.

After accepting the trophy from CHL president Dan MacKenzie, captain Vincent Sevigny handed the hardware off to forward Ryan Francis. Francis then passed the Cup to Philippe Daoust.

Here's the full trophy raising order from Wednesday's celebrations.

Vincent Sevigny
Ryan Francis
Philippe Daoust
William Villeneuve
Jeremie Poirier
William Dufour
Charlie DesRoches
Josh Lawrence
Brady Burns
Nikolas Hurtubise
Yan Kuznetsov
Raivis Ansons
Riley Bezeau
Olivier Picard
Marshall Lessard
Nicholas Blagden
Peter Reynolds
Thomas Couture
Cam MacDonald
Connor Trenholm
Zach Welsh
Noah Patenaude
Nathan Drapeau
Vincent Despont
Nico Laforge
Jacob Chantler
Hunter Gartley

After his skate around, Hunter Gartley handed the trophy to head coach Gardiner MacDougall.

SCORING LEADERS
Sea Dogs forward William Dufour was the winner of the Ed Chynoweth Trophy, which is awarded to the top scorer of the Memorial Cup tournament.

Dufour finished with seven goals and one assist for eight points in four games. His goal total was also a tournament high, one better than Mason McTavish of the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Hamilton's Logan Morrison led all players in assists with seven. Saint John's Philippe Daoust finished second in assists with six.

Both Dufour and Daoust set franchise bests for scoring in a single Memorial Cup. Here's how their numbers compare to past performances. 

2022: Points - William Dufour (8); goals - Dufour (7); assists - Philippe Daoust (6)

2017: Points - Julien Gauthier (6); goals - Joe Veleno (3); assists - Gauthier (4)

2012: Points - Jonathan Huberdeau (7); goals - Huberdeau (5); assists - Nathan Beaulieu and Charlie Coyle (4)

2011: Points - Jonathan Huberdeau (6); goals - Tomas Jurco (4); assists - Michael Kirkpatrick and Zack Phillips (4)

FINAL ATTENDANCE
Saint John welcomed a total of 41,084 fans to the 2022 Memorial Cup for a per game average of 5,136. It's still not quite clear what the seated capacity was, but an average of 5,136 is somewhere between 88% to 94% capacity, which is pretty good.

The final game of the round-robin and the final were both announced as sellouts.

Game 1 - Hamilton vs Saint John: 5,021
Game 2 - Shawinigan vs Edmonton: 4,692
Game 3 - Saint John vs Edmonton: 5,245
Game 4 - Shawinigan vs Hamilton: 4,650
Game 5 - Edmonton vs Hamilton: 4,856
Game 6 - Saint John vs Shawinigan: 5,657
Semifinal - Hamilton vs Shawinigan: 5,114
Final - Hamilton vs Saint John: 5,849

This year's scheduling format, which saw only two games played on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, certainly didn't help attendance figures.

HOST TEAM
Kitchener Rangers radio voice Mike Farwell argues that it might be time to revamp the Memorial Cup tournament format now that host teams have seemingly figured out how to successfully use long layoffs to their advantage.


TRUST THE PROCESS
This is neat.
COOL VIDEO
POST-GAME
A couple more post-game videos from Wednesday night that were shared by the CHL on YouTube.




CROWD REACTION

ONE MORE PICK
According to Zakary Mercier, who covers the Tigres for the Victoriaville newspaper La Nouvelle Union, the Sea Dogs will be sending a 2025 third-round pick to the Tigres to complete the Nikolas Hurtubise deal.
NEW HOME
Nathan Drapeau shared this message on Twitter following his trade to the Val-d'Or Foreurs on Saturday.
SAVOIE TRADED
The Cape Breton Eagles traded former Sea Dogs forward Charles Savoie to the Quebec Remparts on Saturday.

Savoie, who was part of the Connor Trenholm trade, had a goal and five assists in 28 games with Cape Breton during the second half of the season. Savoie was a second-round pick of the Sea Dogs in the 2019 QMJHL Entry Draft.

The Eagles made a total of 10 trades on Saturday. They currently have three first-round picks in this year's QMJHL Entry Draft - including Saint John's, which is 16th overall.

GRANT SIGNS IN KHL
Original Sea Dog Alex Grant, who performed the ceremonial puck drop before the Memorial Cup final, has signed with the KHL's SKA St. Petersburg for the 2022-23 season.
Grant has spent the past four seasons with Finland-based Jokerit, which left the KHL following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The defenseman had five goals and 12 points in 27 games last year.

The 33-year-old was Saint John's first ever draft choice in 2005.

OTHER THINGS
  • CHL president Dan MacKenzie noted in his post-game speech Wednesday that it had been 1,127 days since the Memorial Cup had been awarded. Congrats to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies on their historic reign.
  • This was the first Memorial Cup tournament for MacKenzie, who was officially named CHL president way back on July 30, 2019.
  • Gardiner MacDougall brought up his time spent coaching in the Manitoba Junior Hockey League quite a bit during the Memorial Cup. The MJHL website has a small story on MacDougall and Sea Dogs goaltender Thomas Couture, who spent part of the 2020-21 season in the MJHL.
  • Craig Eagles writes about Saint John's core five, which was formed at the 2018 QMJHL Entry Draft and breaks up as Memorial Cup champions. "Five players, five personalities, but one common goal," writes Eagles. "They reached that goal together, which is quite something considering the journey they took to get to this point."
  • Peter Reynolds following Wednesday's championship, in an interview with the Telegraph-Journal (paywall): "We proved all the doubters wrong," said Reynolds. "Everybody for the past two years said Saint John is a toxic spot, Saint John is a (crappy) spot, but we are Mem Cup champs, so nobody can say anything any more."
  • CBC New Brunswick recaps last week's championship parade.
  • Scott Wheeler of The Athletic (paywall) breaks down each NHL prospect that played in the Memorial Cup.
  • There was a letter to the editor in Saturday's Telegraph-Journal criticizing Fleaburn's "at least we don't live in Edmonton" sign that was used during the Sea Dogs/Oil Kings game. Come on, man. Lighten up.
  • The Blainville-Boisbriand Armada could have quite the offensive punch next season with Josh Lawrence, Patrick Guay and import Ivan Miroshnichenko. We'll see if the Armada can get Miroshnichenko to report and if he's healthy enough to play.
  • The MHL's Edmundston Blizzard and head coach Emery Olauson have parted ways. Olauson is a former head coach and general manager of the St. Stephen Aces.
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