Sea Dogs announce training camp roster

The Saint John Sea Dogs released their 2021-22 training camp roster on Friday.

The most notable addition was 18-year-old defenseman Vincent Despont, who the Sea Dogs announced the signing of earlier in the day. A Swiss and Canadian citizen, the 6'2", 190 lbs d-man spent last season with Kloten U20 in Switzerland where he registered three goals and seven assists along with 164 penalty minutes in 45 games.

Despont also took part in the IIHF World Under-18 Championship with Team Switzerland a few months ago.

“Vincent plays a gritty, hard-nosed brand of hockey,” said Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie. “He has great character, competes hard, and leaves everything on the ice. He understands his identity as a player, which is key. We think that his style of play will be something that Saint John fans really enjoy.”

Despont has already arrived in Saint John and will hit the ice when the team opens training camp next week.

Here's a breakdown of Saint John's training camp roster, which includes 22 forwards, 13 defensemen and five goaltenders.

We're back next week with the launch of Training Camp 2021! Check out the projected camp roster 👇 pic.twitter.com/2GC3iV3FsX

— Saint John Sea Dogs (@SJSeaDogs) August 13, 2021

Returning (15): Riley Bezeau, Brady Burns, Ryan Francis, Josh Lawrence, Cam MacDonald, Peter Reynolds, Charles Savoie, Brendan Casey, Charlie DesRoches, Nathan Drapeau, Hunter Gartley, Christopher Inniss, Jeremie Poirier, William Villeneuve, and Noah Patenaude.

Acquired via trade (3): William Dufour, Jonathan Lemieux, and Ventsislav Shingarov.

The Titan appear to be in trouble

Even with pandemic restrictions continuing to loosen, there is going to be financial pain felt across junior hockey this season.

The mess of last season and the lost 2020 playoffs will expedite a lot of money problems for many teams. In the QMJHL, it's hard not to immediately think of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan when this topic comes up.

The Northern Light (paywall) reported Monday that the owners of the Titan will decide the team's future following the first half. The club has lost more than $500,000 in each of the past two seasons.

From The Northern Light:

"We probably have to make a decision by Christmastime on the future of the team," said Titan president Serge Thériault. "Because, you don't move a team or sell a team in a few weeks, that's a process.

"It's a short period of time, but at the end of the day, we've been at it for eight years also and we haven't seen the improvement at the gate."

L'Acadie Nouvelle has also been reporting on the Titan's troubles over the past couple months.

Thériault said the team needs around 2,500 fans per game to be sustainable. HockeyDB numbers show that the Titan have not reached that average since 2002-03 and have not surpassed the 2,000 fans per game mark since 2007-08.

Reaching the 2,500 fans per game average is possible... but it's hard to feel overly optimistic given the team's attendance numbers over the past decade. While new owners could keep the team in Bathurst, it's hard to picture it given the size of the region and its economic state. The CHL continues to outgrow small markets like Bathurst, which is sad to see.

There are a couple things working in the Titan's favour at least. Demand for live events could be up given last season's situation plus the team should be quite good, headlined by Hendrix Lapierre, Riley Kidney, Cole Huckins and others.

The Titan were sold to a local ownership group in 2013 after many years of relocation rumours and speculation. The team announced last October that the organization had "reduced the number of shareholders to 12 from the previous number of 28."

Notebook: Dixon joins Cougars staff

Former Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Josh Dixon is back in the Canadian Hockey League.

The Western Hockey League's Prince George Cougars announced Friday that Dixon has joined the team's staff as an associate coach. 

“Josh has the criteria we were looking for in our search. He has head coaching experience and checks off a lot of boxes,” said Cougars general manager and head coach Mark Lamb in a news release. “We have worked together in the past and I know he’ll be a great fit for our organization.”

Dixon has WHL experience. He was an assistant coach with the Regina Pats for three seasons before joining Lamb's Swift Current Broncos, where he acted as an associate coach, for the 2014-15 season.

“It’s an honour to join the Prince George Cougars and have the opportunity to work with Mark again,” said Dixon. “I look forward to working with a young, talented team that’s on the rise and helping them compete for a championship.”

The Cougars have not made a playoff appearance since 2017 and have not advanced past the first round since 2007.

Dixon was head coach of the Sea Dogs for two-and-a-half seasons, posting a record of 39-108-12-6 in 165 regular season games. He was fired on Dec. 2, 2019.

PEI CONNECTIONS

Just like Gerard Gallant, Gordie Dwyer started his coaching career with the MHL's Summerside Western Capitals.

“I talked to Turk quite a bit and his experience coaching here with how he and Mike (Kelly) did things,” Dwyer told The Guardian this past week. “Turk had some good things to say about it.”

Dwyer spent two seasons with the Capitals as head coach and director of player personnel, winning an MHL title in 2011. He went on to coach the PEI Rocket the following season.

Dwyer named Sea Dogs head coach

Gordie Dwyer is the new head coach of the Saint John Sea Dogs.

The Dalhousie, NB native was introduced as the team's new bench boss at a press conference Wednesday morning at TD Station. Dwyer, a former QMJHL and NHL player, has major junior coaching experience with the PEI Rocket/Charlottetown Islanders and Shawinigan Cataractes.

Reports began surfacing last week that Greg Gilbert would not return to Saint John's head coaching role for the 2021-22 season. While those reports were new, the decision to bring in a fresh head coach came through an evaluation of the organization throughout the off-season.

While the Sea Dogs never publicly said they were looking for a new head coach, there was plenty of interest in the position according to team president and general manager Trevor Georgie.

What made Dwyer stand out among other candidates? Georgie repeatedly noted that Dwyer's communications skills along with his intensity and engagement levels made him the ideal fit for the role. His familiarity with the QMJHL and the Maritimes didn't hurt either.

"He's someone that seems to really, when's he's into something, really throws everything he has into it," said Georgie.

"You need people that are all in. I got the sense that he's beyond all in if he's taking this role. I like that."

With training camp and pre-season just a couple weeks away, Dwyer will quickly be pushed into his new role. Georgie said he wants Dwyer to take time to properly assess the team, adding that previous roles players were used in won't matter with a new bench boss coming in.

Sea Dogs to name head coach Wednesday

KHL

The Saint John Sea Dogs will officially name their new head coach at a press conference Wednesday morning.

Mikael Lalancette reports that Dalhousie, NB native Gordie Dwyer is expected to fill the position.

#LHJMQ: Il faut s'attendre à ce que Gordie Dwyer soit nommé entraîneur-chef des Sea Dogs.

Une belle feuille de route dans le hockey : 108 matchs comme joueur dans la LNH, entraîneur chef du Rocket et des Islanders à l'ÎPÉ, des Cataractes, en Suisse, dans la KHL + Hockey Canada.

— Mikaël Lalancette (@MikLalancette) August 3, 2021

The Sea Dogs, oddly, have not formerly announced that Greg Gilbert, who coached the Sea Dogs last season, will not return to the club. He's not listed on the team's website and Lalancette reported last week that Gilbert will no longer be the team's head coach.

Dwyer, 43, began his coaching career with the MHL's Summerside Western Capitals - a team the Sea Dogs have certainly had good luck with when it comes to coaching alumni. Dwyer was head coach of the PEI Rocket/Charlottetown Islanders for four seasons and most recently worked with the Shawinigan Cataractes.

Dwyer has also served as a head coach in the KHL for a few seasons and has coached several Hockey Canada teams.

As a player, Dwyer spent four seasons in the QMJHL before turning pro. He appeared in 108 career NHL games with the Tampa Bay Lightning, New York Rangers and Montreal Canadiens. He spent his last pro season in Sweden in 2008-09.

The move further solidifies Saint John's intentions for the upcoming season: they are all in. The Sea Dogs' playing style didn't change a ton under Gilbert, so it'll be interesting to see if this hire is the spark this group needs.

Notebook: QMJHL will require vaccination

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

CBC New Brunswick reported last week that the QMJHL "will require all its players and staff who are in contact with players to get both their shots before the puck drops."

Karl Jahnke, chief marketing officer for the league, confirmed that players who are not fully vaccinated will not be allowed to be play.

The move follows similar guidelines set by the OHL.

"So far we've had one player that won't be able to meet those guidelines," Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie told CBC.

"We have one billet family that won't be able to meet the guidelines, and we have one staff member that may not be able to meet those guidelines. We have a few challenges, a few hurdles, but that's to be expected any time the league is mandating something like that."

Georgie noted an issue that's likely to impact a few teams - Belarusian forward Evgeny Sapelnikov, the team's second-round pick in this year's CHL Import Draft, does not have easy access to vaccines that are approved by the league (which are presumably the same vaccines approved by Health Canada).

BURBIDGE TO RHODE ISLAND

Forward Cole Burbidge, a second-round pick of the Sea Dogs in this year's QMJHL Entry Draft, will reportedly be joining the Mount Saint Charles Academy program in Rhode Island for the 2021-22 season.

Another good player from Maritimes heading to Mount St. Charles. 6-foot-1 F Cole Burbidge joining U16s. 2nd round pick of @SJSeaDogs in this year's Q draft

— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) August 1, 2021

Burbidge, a Windsor, NS native spent last season with the Mount Academy Saints program in PEI.

Joining Mount Saint Charles certainly increases the odds of Burbidge taking the NCAA route - but we'll see what happens this year and next. If he were to make the Sea Dogs this season he'd likely be near the bottom of Saint John's forward depth chart.

Simon Hughes attended Mount Saint Charles last season before joining the Sea Dogs.

REYNOLDS ONE OF THE BEST LEFT

Sea Dogs forward Peter Reynolds was listed as one of FCHockey's top undrafted players for the 2021 NHL Draft.

“I really believed that Peter Reynolds would get selected, and probably in the top 100,” FCHockey scout Viktor Bergman said in the article. “That surprised me the most."

Reynolds has since received a free agent invite to Columbus Blue Jackets camp.