Saint John's 2024-25 schedule released

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs will kick off the 2024-25 regular season by hosting a familiar friend: Gardiner MacDougall.

MacDougall and the Moncton Wildcats will visit the Sea Dogs on Friday, Sept. 20 – the opening day of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League season. MacDougall, who joined the Wildcats a couple weeks ago, and Sea Dogs head coach Travis Crickard helped bring a Memorial Cup title to Saint John two years ago and recently teamed up to win gold with Team Canada at the IIHF Under-18 World Championship.

The game is the first of 64 for the Sea Dogs, a four-game reduction from the 68 the league has been scheduling for some time now. According to a league press release, 93% of all QMJHL games will be played between Thursdays and Sundays and/or during school holidays.

Here's a breakdown of Saint John's 2024-25 schedule.

• As mentioned, Saint John will start the season at home, hosting the Wildcats on Sept. 20 and the Halifax Mooseheads the following night.
• Saint John's first road game will be Friday, Sept. 27 in Charlottetown, the first of three straight games away from TD Station.
• The Sea Dogs will welcome a non-Maritimes Division team to TD Station for the first time on Oct. 11 when they host the Sherbrooke Phoenix.
• Saint John will make four trips into Quebec:
• Oct. 25-27: Sherbrooke, Drummondville and Gatineau
• Nov. 7-9: Victoriaville, Quebec and Rimouski
• Jan. 29 - Feb. 1: Blainville-Boisbriand, Rouyn-Noranda and Val-d'Or
• Feb. 20-23: Baie-Comeau, Chicoutimi and Shawiniagn
• The Sea Dogs host the Wildcats on Halloween night, which falls on Thursday. 
• Saint John will make their lone visit to Rimouski – this season's Memorial Cup hosts – on Nov. 9. The Oceanic visit Saint John on Jan. 24.
• The Sea Dogs will play their final game before the holiday break on Dec. 14 at home and return to action on Dec. 28 in Moncton. Saint John will not play at home during the holidays, returning to TD Station ice on Jan. 8.
• Saint John plays in Bathurst on New Year's Eve, which will be a first. They'll host the Cape Breton Eagles on Family Day (Monday, Feb. 17), which comes a couple days after playing a 3 p.m. Saturday home game against the Shawinigan Cataractes.
• Saint John's Wednesday, Feb. 5 game in Blainville-Boisbriand is scheduled for 11 a.m. local time, which is presumably a school day game. The Sea Dogs have never taken part in one of these games.
• Saint John ends the regular season on Saturday, March 22, hosting the Cape Breton Eagles in a 4 p.m. matchup.
• Saint John's longest home stretch: five games (Jan. 12-24 and Feb. 5-17).
• Saint John's longest road stretch: five games (Nov. 7-16)

Saint John's full regular season schedule can be found here.

The QMJHL also unveiled its 2024 pre-season schedule. The Sea Dogs will play three exhibition games at "home" and three on the road. Only one of Saint John's home games will be played at TD Station with the other two scheduled to be played in St. Stephen and Fredericton.

Four of Saint John's six pre-season games will be against the Charlottetown Islanders while the other two will be against the Cape Breton Eagles.

Saint John's full pre-season schedule can be found here.