Sea Dogs announce camp roster

The Saint John Sea Dogs have released their roster and schedule for the first week of training camp.

50 players will attend this year's camp, which begins with on-ice sessions on Saturday at TD Station. The roster includes 25 forwards, 20 defensemen and five goaltenders.

The headliners up front include returning players Peter Reynolds, Pavel Simek, Eriks Mateiko and Noah Reinhart - the four that will be expected to carry much of Saint John's offense with Brady Burns gone and Cole Burbidge traded.

The Sea Dogs drafted just two forwards in this year's QMJHL Entry Draft: highly touted American Egan Beveridge (second round) and Alexis Beaudoin (seventh round). Both will be attending camp.

There appears to be some spots up for grabs up front, but on the backend, available space seems to be more limited. The camp roster includes returning defensemen Nicolas Bolideau, Jared Cosman, Joseph Ianniello, Jeremie Richard and Nate Tivey. Also attending is overager Mathis Gauthier, who the Sea Dogs acquired at the draft.

Gauthier, Cosman, Reynolds, Mathis Cloutier and Alexis Brisson will compete for the team's three overage spots.

As expected, 20-year-old Ventsislav Shingarov was left off the camp roster, meaning there will be a competition to see who will join Olivier Brideau in the Saint John crease. Kyan Labbe, who the Sea Dogs drafted in the fourth round of June's draft, looked good at development camp but his size is a concern (5'7" and 148 lbs).

The full camp roster can be found here.

#SJSeaDogs Training Camp almost is here! Below is the schedule for week one.

On-ice activities take place at TD Station and are open to the public. pic.twitter.com/if6TIuM35t

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) August 16, 2023

The Sea Dogs will play a few intra-squad games before opening the pre-season on Tuesday against the Charlottetown Islanders at TD Station.

A few other notes...

• Forwards Nico Laforge, Sam-Luca Thifault and defenseman Jeremie Richard are all listed as "injured, will report at a later date."
• The only member of Saint John's 2023 draft class not attending is goaltender Samuel Doyon-Cataquiz, who is believed to have NCAA intentions. Defenseman Jeremy Poirier, Saint John's top pick in the American Draft, is also not attending.
• Daniel Daley, Saint John's second-round pick in this year's American Draft, is included on the roster. It'll be interesting to see if he opts to stay longer than 48 hours or not. Players who stay longer than 48 hours lose NCAA eligibility.
• Danny Akkouche, who has been listed as a forward but spent most of last season as a defenseman, is listed as a forward once again.
• 11 free agents have been invited and a few seem like strong candidates to make the team. Of those previously announced, forward Cameron Lowe is not listed on the camp roster.