Notebook: Sea Dogs rookies impressing

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

First-year players are making an impact for the Saint John Sea Dogs.

Heading into Wednesday's action, seven Sea Dogs sit in the top-21 in Quebec Major Junior Hockey League rookie scoring.

4. Cole Burbidge - 18 goals, 29 assists, 47 points

7. Noah Reinhart - 16 goals, 25 assists, 41 points

10. Nicolas Bilodeau - nine goals, 31 assists, 40 points

13. Eriks Mateiko - 16 goals, 17 assists, 33 points

15. Pavel Simek - 12 goals, 16 assists, 28 points

18. Vince Elie - nine goals, 16 assists, 25 points

21. Nate Tivey - two goals, 22 assists, 24 points

Six of Saint John's top-nine scorers are rookies.

Bilodeau sits second in assists amongst all QMJHL rookies while Burbidge is fourth.

Bilodeau also continues to lead all QMJHL rookie defensemen in scoring.

While it is worth noting that none of these players are "true rookies" (i.e. 16-year-olds who were drafted last summer), the success of these first-year players certainly provides some optimism for Saint John's rebuild. The discovering of players like Reinhart, Tivey, Joseph Ianniello and others is also impressive.

ISLES INCOMING

The Sea Dogs and Charlottetown Islanders will become quite familiar with each other before the season ends.

Following Tuesday night's meeting in Charlottetown, the Islanders travel to Saint John this Sunday for a 3 p.m. matchup with the Sea Dogs. Then next Friday, March 24, the Sea Dogs play their final regular season road game of the year at the Eastlink Centre.

Following Tuesday's 7-2 win, the Sea Dogs are 4-3-0-0 against the Islanders this season.

NEW ARENA GM

Huddle is reporting that Blair McGauchie is the new general manager of TD Station.

According to his LinkedIn, McGauchie has been with Spectra - which is now part of OVG360 - since 2009, working in the OHL cities of London, Hamilton and Windsor. He was most recently the director of events for the WFCU Centre, home of the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. 

Huddle explains that OVG360 will be paid under a "management fee structure."

The city announced Tuesday that OVG360 took over the management of TD Station last month.

LAWRENCE REACHES 100

Former Sea Dogs forward Josh Lawrence has reached the 100-point mark for a second straight season.

The overage forward reached double digits on March 12 with an assist. Since joining the Mooseheads (and heading into action Wednesday), Lawrence has 28 goals and 40 assists in 38 games.

First QMJHL trio of teammates with 100+ points each since 2005-06 😯

Jordan Dumais - 122
Alex Doucet - 101
Josh Lawrence - 100#GoMooseGo pic.twitter.com/xlhxY2hzxN

— Halifax Mooseheads (@HFXMooseheads) March 12, 2023

Lawrence had 101 points with Saint John last season. Including Wednesday's match, the Mooseheads have six games remaining in the regular season, giving the Fredericton native plenty of time to set a new career high.

DRAFT LOTTERY DATES

The Sea Dogs will sort of be involved in this year's QMJHL Draft Lottery.

The league announced details for this year's lottery on Tuesday. The annual event will take place Wednesday, April 26 at 7:30 p.m. Atlantic and be broadcast live on RDS.

Here are the odds for the team's that finish in the bottom-five of the overall standings:

18th position | 9 balls – 43% 

17th position | 6 balls – 28% 

16th position | 3 balls – 14% 

15th position | 2 balls – 10% 

14th position | 1 ball – 5%

The Sea Dogs will finish in one of those spots - but the Val-d'Or Foreurs currently own Saint John's pick. The QMJHL Entry Draft will be held Saturday, June 10 in Sherbrooke.

The NHL Draft Lottery, meanwhile, will be held Monday, May 8. The NHL Draft will take place June 28-29 in Nashville.

UGLY "FIGHT"

Former Sea Dogs forward Boko Imama was recently recalled by the Arizona Coyotes and made his NHL season debut on March 7. He appeared in three games with the tanking Coyotes before being sent back to the AHL's Tucson Roadrunners.

It was an eventful callup for Imama thanks to this viral "fight" against Minnesota's Ryan Reaves.

Imama has five goals, seven assists and 96 penalty minutes in 41 AHL games this season.

NEW POD EP

On this week's episode of The Hockey News on the Q, Will MacLaren and I discuss the QMJHL's new commissioner, the league standings, Memorial Cup finalist banners, Dallas Stars prospects and more.

.@willmacwriter and @station_nation discuss the @QMJHL new commissioner, the battle in the standings, #MemorialCup finalist banners, #TexasHockey prospects and more: https://t.co/OeV8ycVRrF

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) March 15, 2023

OTHER THINGS

• Former Sea Dogs president Wayne Long has announced that he will not run in the next federal election. The Liberal has been the MP for the Saint John-Rothesay riding since 2015.
• Is it time for the QMJHL to once again discuss shortening the league's schedule from 68 to 60 games? Le Nouvelliste takes a look at that.
• Le Soleil has an article on just who is Mario Cecchini, the man who will be the next commissioner of the QMJHL.
• TVA Sports caught up with former Sea Dogs defenseman Simon Despres to talk about his playing career.
• Grand Bay-Westfield native Lynden Breen, a fifth-round pick of the Sea Dogs in the 2017 QMJHL Entry Draft, was named a Hockey East second team all-star. Breen, 21, led the Maine Black Bears in goals with 21 and finished with 36 points in 36 games.
• 22-year forward Justin Hryckowian, an 11th-round pick of Saint John in 2017, was also named to the second all-star squad. Hryckowian had 15 goals and 36 points in 35 games in his second season with the Northeastern Huskies.