Tuesday, June 4, 2024

Notebook: Jay joins Titan

Vincent Ethier/QMJHL
The Saint John Sea Dogs will have a new equipment manager next season.

Tyler Jay, who has been Saint John's head equipment manager since the 2019-20 season, has joined the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, the team announced Monday. 

“We are excited to bring Tyler into our organization” Titan general manager and head coach Gordie Dwyer said in a news release. “His experience working with elite junior players at the club and national team levels will help to prepare our players for the season and the next level.”

Jay will be reunited Dwyer, who was Saint John's head coach during the 2021-22 season. Jay worked as an assistant equipment manager with the Charlottetown Islanders when Dwyer was the club's head coach.

Jay was also part of Saint John's staff during the 2016-17 season, helping the club win the President Cup.

BROADCAST INFO
On Monday, the QMJHL officially announced broadcast details for this year's Entry Draft.


The 2024 QMJHL Entry Draft presented by Fenplast will take place on June 7 and 8 at Moncton’s Avenir Centre.

The first round will begin this Friday at 7 p.m. Eastern / 8 p.m. Atlantic and will broadcast live on Eastlink and TVA Sports.

Rounds 2 to 14 will take place on Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Eastern / 9:30 a.m. Atlantic, and fans will be able to catch them on both Eastlink and CHL TV.

This is the first time the QMJHL has held its first round on a Friday night. Traditionally all rounds have been held on Saturday.

The draft is free to attend.

NCAA DOGS?
Saint John's last rebuild featured the club drafting a number of US-bound players with high picks. Le Nouvelliste's mock draft has the team doing the same this year.

The Shawinigan-based newspaper has the Sea Dogs selecting forward Tynan Lawrence with the fifth overall pick and defenseman Cameron Chartrand eighth.

Lawrence, a Fredericton native and the younger brother of former Sea Dogs forward Josh Lawrence, played last season at Shattuck St. Mary's and has already signed a tender agreement to play with the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks next season.

Chartrand, from Saint-Lazare, Quebec, spent last season playing US prep school hockey with the Bishop Kearney Selects.

On paper, these would certainly be home run picks for the Sea Dogs – even if the players didn't report to Saint John until the 2025-26 season. But there's obviously risk here, and Saint John is not a team with an abundance of picks and prospects that makes it easier to take some big swings. It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out.

HALL CALL
Former Sea Dogs head coach Danny Flynn will be inducted into the Nova Scotia Sports Hall of Fame this November. Flynn will enter the Hall in the builders category.


Flynn is the only Nova Scotia-born hockey coach to have won a World Junior Championship, Memorial Cup, and CIS National Championship. He has also coached teams to gold medal wins at the World Under-18 Championship and the Spengler Cup. A three-time QMJHL Champion and three-time OHL Champion, he has developed and coached over 150 players who have gone on to play in the NHL.

Flynn coached the Sea Dogs during the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, helping the team win the President Cup in 2017.

The induction ceremony will take place Nov. 9 in Halifax.

COMBINE SEASON
Sea Dogs forward Eriks Mateiko is one of the more than 100 players that will take part in this year's NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo.

According to NHL.com, "the combine, which will run June 3-8, gives the 32 NHL teams physical and medical assessments of the top prospects ahead of the 2024 draft at Sphere in Las Vegas on June 28-29."

Mateiko is listed at 6'5" and 208 lbs, making him one of the larger players at the Combine.

MACKENZIE SPEAKS
CHL president Dan MacKenzie was a guest on TSN during the first intermission of Sunday's Memorial Cup final and was asked about Darren Dreger's report of a new CHL event potentially coming in 2025-26. MacKeznie downplayed the report a bit, saying nothing has been finalized yet.

MacKenzie also did a Q&A with PNW Hockey Talk and touched on a few interesting topics:

  • MacKenzie talked quite a bit on the potential changes coming to NCAA hockey, saying the CHL will be ready to react when it happens.
  • On that new CHL event: "When I think about the priorities for the CHL, I think about player development and player recruitment being critical. I think when I look at our CHL event calendar, we have the Memorial Cup, a prospects event, and we don’t have the Canada/Russia series anymore, given the situation going on over there. I think we are going to probably look to see if we can find another CHL national event that we can bring to life. That is exciting and will provide opportunities to our players and fans that are different. We aren’t quite ready to announce anything yet, but I think you are going to see some real change there."
  • MacKenzie discussed CHL TV, noting there has been an uptick in subscribers over the past three years.
  • The NHL will be switching to Fanatics branded jerseys next season and MacKenzie discussed the CHL's jersey future.


OTHER THINGS
  • In Scott Wheeler's final NHL Draft rankings over at The Athletic, Sea Dogs forward Eriks Mateiko is ranked 71st. FloHockey, meanwhile, has Mateiko ranked 74th.
  • The Columbus Blue Jackets blog Union and Blue recaps Tyler Peddle's season.
  • One of the strangest parts of Saint John's 2024-25 schedule was the fact that they'll play entirely on the road over the holidays. We now know why: TD Station will be hosting Cirque de Soleil shows Jan. 2-5.
  • Former Moncton Wildcats director of hockey operations Ritchie Thibeau has joined the Chicoutimi Sagueneens as an assistant general manager. The Sags, an up-and-coming team, swept the Wildcats in the first round of this year's playoffs. Thibeau is also a former Sea Dogs scout.
  • Legendary interview by Saginaw captain Braden Hache following Sunday night's Memorial Cup win.
  • Former Sea Dogs forward Oliver Cooper has a new home for the 2024-25 season.
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