Notebook: Three ex-Dogs remain in race for Gilles Courteau Trophy

Gatineau Olympiques

Only three former Saint John Sea Dogs remain in the Gilles Courteau Trophy playoffs.

Josh Lawrence of the Halifax Mooseheads and Joshua Roy of the Sherbrooke Phoenix are currently in a battle to grab the second spot in the QMJHL championship series. The winner will face Charles Savoie and the Quebec Remparts in the final round.

The Remparts eliminated Cam MacDonald and the Gatineau Olympiques earlier this week. MacDonald, who the Sea Dogs dealt to Gatineau during the holiday trade period, had five goals and three assists in 13 playoff games.

A fifth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2021, MacDonald remains unsigned by the NHL club, meaning he could return to the QMJHL as an overager next season.

Here's an updated look at how former Sea Dogs have performed in the QMJHL playoffs so far.

Player	Team	GP	Goals	Assists	Points
Joshua Roy	SHE	12	12	12	24
Josh Lawrence	HAL	13	8	15	23
Cam MacDonald	GAT	13	5	3	8
Charles Savoie	QUE	12	2	5	7
Marshall Lessard	BAC	6	1	2	3
Connor Trenholm	MON	12	0	3	3
Leighton Carruthers	ROU	8	0	0	0
Simon Hughes	CHA	4	0	0	0

Rouyn-Noranda goaltender Thomas Couture finished 4-5 with a 3.93 goals against average and a .883 save percentage in nine playoff games.

VELENO HEADED TO WORLDS

Former Sea Dogs forward Joe Veleno has been named to Hockey Canada's roster for the upcoming IIHF World Championship in Finland and Latvia.

This will be the first time Veleno has played for Canada at the men's worlds. The 23-year-old has represented Canada at the under-20, under-18 and under-17 levels.

The former Sea Dogs captain appeared in 81 games with the Detroit Red Wings this past season, recording nine goals and 11 assists. Detroit's general manager, Steve Yzerman, is an associate general manager with Team Canada.

Canada begins the tournament May 12 against Latvia.

IMPORT DRAFT DETAILS

The Canadian Hockey League announced details for its 2023 Import Draft on Friday.

The annual event will take place Wednesday, July 5 beginning at noon. The OHL's Erie Otters will select first followed by the QMJHL's Acadie-Bathurst Titan and the WHL's Edmonton Oil Kings.

The Sea Dogs are scheduled to pick 11th and 71st overall. Teams can not trade picks.

Saint John has two solid import forwards - Pavel Simek and Eriks Mateiko - who are eligible to return next season. While where you pick in the Import Draft doesn't matter a ton, it does matter some, and passing up on the 11th overall pick may be difficult for the rebuilding Sea Dogs. We'll see what happens there.

The CHL also clarified rules regarding Russian and Belarusian players. From the release:

As was the case a year ago, Russian and Belarusian players will be ineligible for selection in the 2023 CHL Import Draft. Specifically, for this year's CHL Import Draft, players who have been resident in Russia or Belarus at any time over the past 24 months are ineligible to be drafted. The only exception is a Russian or Belarusian player who was previously drafted by a CHL club and subsequently deleted on or before the cut-down date in 2023.

GOOD REMPARTS RUN

RDS

The Quebec Remparts are a perfect 12-0 so far this post-season, earning a trip to the Gilles Courteau Trophy final for the first time since 2015.

The Sea Dogs have had some great playoff runs over the years but never made it into the final without suffering at least a loss. Here's how Saint John performed in the first three rounds in years when they advanced to the league final.

2010: 12-3 (lost final 4-2)

2011: 12-1 (won final 4-2)

2012: 12-1 (won final 4-0)

2017: 12-2 (won final 4-0)

TIGHT SERIES

It ended in a sweep, but the Gatineau/Quebec series was real close. How close? It was one of the tightest playoff sweeps in league history.

Statistiquement, on peut pratiquement dire que le balayage de Québec sur Gatineau est le plus serré de l'histoire des séries de la LHJMQ.

2 prolongations, 7 buts d'écart dont deux dans des filets désert, 135 minutes de jeu avec un pointage égal (près de 50% de la série). https://t.co/ZMErWNDweR

— Mikaël Lalancette (@MikLalancette) May 4, 2023

NEW POD EP

This week on The Hockey News on the Q podcast, Will MacLaren and I discuss the QMJHL semifinals, the results of last week's draft lottery and the many QMJHL connections on the Boston Bruins.

.@willmacwriter and @station_nation do some #WorldJuniors show and tell, break down the standouts in the @QMJHL semifinals so far, talk 'Q' alumni on the #NHLBruins and more: https://t.co/14qrubpQVj

— The Hockey News (@TheHockeyNews) May 3, 2023

OTHER THINGS

• The Charlotte Checkers were eliminated from the AHL playoffs on Thursday, falling 6-2 to the Hershey Bears and dropping the best-of-five series 3-1. Former Sea Dogs forward Riley Bezeau, in his first season of pro hockey, finishes the Calder Cup playoffs pointless in two games.
• 16-year-old defenseman Anthony Biakabutuka, a 10th-round pick of Saint John in last year's QMJHL Entry Draft, was taken in the 17th-round of the USHL Entry Draft by the Tri-City Storm. Biakabutuka spent this past season playing prep school hockey in the US.
• Games 1 and 2 of the Gilles Courteau Trophy final will be next Friday and Saturday night in Quebec City. 20,000 tickets sold in 20 minutes for the two games.
• Stephane Julien of the Sherbrooke Phoenix has been named the QMJHL's coach of the year. Julien also won the award in 2020.
• Terrebonne Cobras goaltender Alexandre Marchand, who has been splitting playing time with Nikolas Hurtubise in the playoffs, has been named one of the nominees for CJHL MVP.
• The OHL threw the book at the Niagara IceDogs on Thursday, banning two players from the league; suspending their general manager for two seasons; fining the club $100,000; and taking away the team's 2024 first-round draft pick. According to the press release, "Niagara IceDog players Joshua Rosenzweig and Landon Cato participated in serious violations of the Player Maltreatment Policy and have violated the OHL Code of Conduct including but not limited to Physical Maltreatment and Aiding and Abetting respectively."
• The Winnipeg Ice have advanced to the WHL final, completing a sweep of the Saskatoon Blades. This means part of the WHL's championship series will be played at the 1,600-seat Wayne Fleming Arena on the University of Manitoba campus.
• The Memorial Cup host Kamloops Blazers are down 3-1 in their Western Conference championship series against the loaded Seattle Thunderbirds. Game 5 is Saturday night in Kent, WA. Seattle's 4-1 loss in Game 3 was their first defeat of the playoffs.