With their first selection in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft on Saturday morning, the Saint John Sea Dogs didn’t look too far.
With the last pick of the opening round, the regular season champion Sea Dogs took Saint John native Ryan Tesink.
The native son played with the Woodstock Slammers of the Maritime Junior ‘A’ Hockey League last season, scoring 10 goals and adding 19 assists in 44 games played. In the post-season, he added four goals and six assists in 14 playoff games.
"I'm excited and proud to be a member of the Sea Dogs,” said Tesink to the Sea Dogs’ official Twitter page after the selection.
Tesink was ranked by QMJHL Central Scouting as the 22nd best player available in the draft. Rumours had been flying all week that the Sea Dogs were going to select PEI native Darcy Ashley with their first round pick. But with both players still available when Saint John’s pick came around, the team chose Tesink.
With an entire season of junior ‘A’ hockey under his belt, Tesink will adjust to the major junior level much more quickly than most rookies would.
Tesink describes himself as a 'strong skater that doesn't back down from anyone.'
The left winger played with Sea Dogs forward Aiden Kelly and Team Atlantic at the 2010 World Under-17 Hockey Championships in Timmons, Ontario this past winter, helping the squad to a seventh place finish.
Tesink, who is listed at 5’11” and weighs 160, is the brother of former QMJHL first round draft pick Brad Tesink.
The elder of the two had a difficult career however, spending time with three different clubs. In 233 career QMJHL games, the defenseman scored 19 goals and recorded 34 assists. He was released by Cape Breton this past season as an overager and fell into the junior ‘A’ ranks.
Also of note, this is the first time is franchsie history in which the Sea Dogs have not taken a defenseman with their first pick in the draft.
Tesink joins the club below as players who have been taken in the first round by the Dogs:
2005 – Alex Grant 2006 – Yann Sauve 2007 – Simon Despres ans Steven Anthony 2009 – Pierre Durepos and Jonathan Huberdeau
DRUMMONDVILLE - The first round drama started early at the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry draft at the Marcel Dionne Centre in Drummondville, Que.
The Lewiston Maineiacs, Acadie-Bathurst Titan, and Baie-Comeau Drakkar completed a complex trade that, in the end, gave the Maine squad the first overall pick in the draft. Olivier Roy, acquired by Lewiston in a trade on Friday, was sent packing to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.
With the first overall pick, the Maineiacs selected eighth-ranked defenseman Dillon Fournier of the Lac St. Louis Lions. Fournier’s brother, Stefan, already plays with the Maineiacs.
As expected, the Halifax Mooseheads drafted Luca Ciampini who was ranked second by QMJHL Central Scouting. The skilled forward will hopefully provide some much needed goal scoring for the rebuilt Moose.
“He’s a goal-scorer — he scores from everywhere,” Central Scouting director Patrick Charbonneau told Metro. “Every time there’s a rebound, it goes on his stick. He’s always in the right place to score goals and he’s not afraid to go to the net in traffic to score.
“When he gets the puck, close to the net, the puck goes in. He’s going to score goals in this league.”
With the third overall pick, the Chicoutimi Sagueneens selected Dominic Poulin, a defenseman who played with Sém. Saint-François last season.
The top goaltender available at the draft, Francois Trembaly, was taken by the Val-d’Or Foreurs with the fourth pick. Tremblay was ranked ninth by Central Scouting.
After completing the massive transaction, Baie-Comeau selected Frederick Gamel, a player that the Titan were very interested in.
Sixth overall went to Chicoutimi who selected Charles Hudon. The small forward was ranked 13th entering the draft.
Taylor Burke of Nova Scotia was the first Atlantic boy drafted on the day, going seventh overall to the Gatineau Olympiques.
The Shawinigan Cataractes came up next, selecting New Brunswick born defenseman Justin Hache with the eighth pick of the draft.
"It's an honour for me to be here to represent the whole province,'' Hache said to the Telegraph-Journal yesterday. "There are a lot of good hockey players in New Brunswick and being the only Acadian and the only New Brunswicker (projected to be drafted in the first round) is an honour.''
The Shawinigan Cataractes took 25th ranked Alex Dubeau with the ninth overall selection, making him the first “off the board” selection of the day.
Rimouski selected Halifax native Liam O’Brien with the 10th overall pick, making him the second Nova Scotian drafted in the opening round.
“Liam is a gritty, physical Scott Hartnell type forward (without the hair),” said player agent Allan Walsh on Twitter.
Victor Provencher was taken by the PEI Rocket in the 11 slot, becoming the first 1993 born player to be selected in the draft. He was ranked 17th by Central Scouting.
With their third selection in the opening round, Austyn Hardie went 11th overall to Chicoutimi. The pick was also a bit off the board as Hardie was ranked 35th overall by CSR which would have made him a late second round pick.
Reports say that the Mooseheads were looking to take Hardie.
The Acadie-Bathurst Titan selected 13th overall, snagging yet another Halifax native in Brent Turnbull, who plays with Pictou County Weeks.
Patrick Roy and the Quebec Remparts came up next to select in the 14 position. Hearts stopped for a moment as he called out “Lac St. Louis Lions,” the site of top ranked prospect and NCAA bound Michael Matheson. Instead, the Remparts selected Patrick Walsh, who was 24th ranked.
The Rocket came up again at number-15, taking Louik Marcotte from College Charles-Lemoyne. In the 16th spot, the Drakkar selected unranked Alexandre Larouche. He is a big lad, listed at 6’4”, 211 pounds.
Charles-David Beaudoin went to his hometown Drummondville Voltigeurs with the 17th overall selection.
Finally, Saint John closed out the first round my taking hometown forward Ryan Tesink with the 18th overall selection.
NOTES: The QMJHL website crashed just after the first few selections were made. It crashes every season on draft day… a fairly large deal went down in the first round involving the Cataractes and Junior. The transaction saw Charles-Olivier Roussel traded to Montreal for Dillon Donnelly, Loik Poudrier, the Junior’s first pick in the draft, and a fourth round pick in the 2011 draft… several QMJHL related topics were trending on Twitter during the opening round.
DRUMMONDVILLE - In their five year franchise history, the Saint John Sea Dogs know all about the first round of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry draft.
The Sea Dogs have drafted five times in the first round and only once have not owned a pick in the opening session. That was made up a year ago by the team holding two picks in round one.
Saint John has selected first overall three times – selecting Alex Grant in 2005, Yann Sauve in 2006, and Simon Despres in 2007. Also in 2007, the Dogs took Steven Anthony 10th overall by trading their 2008 top pick to the Quebec Remparts.
In the 2009 QMJHL Entry Draft in Cape Breton, Pierre Durepos was selected with the 10th overall selection and Jonathan Huberdeau was taken 18th overall, a pick that was acquired from the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
Saint John will look to retake the magic that happened a year ago this morning as they will pick their player with the final selection of the first round (18th overall).
Here is a list of Saint John’s selections – pending any trades:
As seen above, the Port City squad has a healthy mix of top draft choices that will be used today. Teams are permitted to trade throughout the draft, meaning that Saint John could easily trade up or trade down if need be.
The Sea Dogs showed last year that talented players can be found with a late first round pick. Huberdeau was a stud with team last year, making an impact all season and quickly moving up the Sea Dogs’ depth charts.
QMJHL Central Scouting currently has goaltender Jacob Brennan, currently playing inHalifax, slated to go in the number 18 position. But the net minder told the Chronicle Heraldthat he will likely not play in the league if drafted.
"I thought about (major junior) compared to NCAA and I’ve decided to go NCAA," Brennan said. "I’d say there could be some teams that would be able to convince me but right now I’m not planning on that."
Saint John certainly needs to make some of decision on their goaltending today. Karel St. Laurent is a solid backup, but no team really wants to waste a overage slot on a man who sits on the bench. Although he could take over next season, he has not proven that he can carry a team.
The Sea Dogs have a few net minders in their system, but none are dominating their respective leagues.
It will be interesting to see what kind of moves the Dogs make today. Coming off a regular season title, Saint John will be no pushover once again next season. But with the thoughts of hosting the 2012 Memorial Cup creeping in, will the Dogs put their focus on next year opposed to this year?
The draft begins at 11:00am ADT at Drummondville’s Marcel Dionne Centre.
Justin Pelletier from the Sun Journal broke it on our airwaves this morning. The Lewiston Maineiacs have acquired the #1 overall pick in the #QMJHL draft in a 3 team deal. Details to come.
Baie-Comeau was to select first overall but was rumoured to be trading the pick if they could not guarantee that top prospect Michael Matheson would play junior next season.
TOP OF HIS CLASS Defenseman Justin Hache could be the first New Brunswicker drafted today, and he isn’t concerned about which team drafts him.
"I just need to play,'' Hache said Friday after the Top Prospects presentation to the Telegraph-Journal. "My first objective is to play at 16 years old. I don't care where I play or for who I play.''
ROY COULD STILL GO The reported deal that Olivier Roy was headed to the Lewiston Maineiacs from the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles did go down yesterday. But what didn’t go down was the rumoured deal of Roy then heading to Bathurst.
"Hopefully something will come up,'' Titan general manager Sylvain Couturier said to the Telegraph-Journal. "Obviously, it takes two to tango.''
“Not really, I knew long ago,” said Roy to the Cape Breton Post, when asked if Friday’s announcement was a shock. He said he knew for about two or three months he was being moved to the Maineiacs. “It’s part of hockey, so I wasn’t really afraid.”
“I talked to (Lewiston) a few months ago, I didn’t talk to them in the last month. I’m going to wait and see what they do with me or before I contact them. If I get traded, then I’ll contact my new team.”
HEADING TO HALIFAX Top prospects Luca Ciampini and Dominic Poulin didn’t appear to be draft dodgers when asked about the possibility of playing with the Halifax Mooseheads.
“I’d love to play in Halifax," said Ciampini to the Chronicle Herald. “I visited the city and it’s a beautiful place, a beautiful arena. I went down about a month ago and it was great there. I’d love it if they picked me."
“It’s really exciting but I’m not waiting for anything specif¬ic to happen," said Poulin, a bilingual francophone. “But it would be really good to go to Halifax. It would be fun to go to an English environment and I know the schools are great there. It would be a nice thing for me if they picked me."
The Mooseheads have the second overall pick in the draft.
TOP PROSPECTS PRESS RELEASE DRUMMONDVILLE- The 2010 TELUS Top Prospects were presented Friday to the public and members of the media assembled at the Cegep in Drummondville.
In Alphabetical order: Taylor Burke, Luca Ciampini, Dillon Fournier, Jérémie Fraser, Frédérick Gamelin, Justin Haché, Charles Hudon, Julien Leduc, Louick Marcotte, Liam O'Brien, Dominic Poulin, Victor Provencher, Andrew Ryan, François Tremblay and Brent Turnbull.
LEAGUE ADDRESS PRESS RELEASE DRUMMONDVILLE – Commissioner Gilles Courteau held his annual Press Conference in Drummondville on Friday.
Among the topics covered, M. Courteau paid tribute to hockey legend Charles Henry and talked about the excellent hockey and academic programs at the QMJHL.
WHAT TO LOOF FOR Neate Sager of Buzzing the Netasks five burning questions going into today’s draft:
1. Who goes first? Actually, who picks first? 2. Now, who goes first? 3. How early will someone draft Matheson? 4. Chicoutimi is gonna do something, and you know it's gonna be good: 5. Who grabs Matteau?
SCREW OFF, MONCTON At the league’s annual press conference on Friday afternoon in Drummondville, QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau voiced his displeasure about the Moncton Coliseum.
“Moncton is the No. 1 worst building in our league for ice availability and this is something we have to get (corrected),” said the league commissioner to Metro Halifax.
Courteau said that having the league final at an alternative venue other than the Coliseum or Harbour Station “would have been a disaster.”
HEADS OR TAILS In his press conference, Courteau also stated that the coin toss for the first overall selection in the entry draft is here to stay. Currently, the coin toss features the two worst teams in the regular season having an equal shot at grabbing the top pick.
Courteau said the coin toss is better alternative than the NHL style draft lottery.
“Maybe this is something we should think of doing in the future but right now the system we have in place has been working pretty well for the last couple of years and right now we don’t plan to make any changes,” said Courteau to Metro Halifax. “But we are always open to new ideas to improve the quality (of our league)."
With the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League entry draft just hours away, it’s time to get you set for what is sure to be a dramatic day.
Station Nation will be providing all day coverage with the happenings at the draft – especially with what the Sea Dogs do. We have also taken the time to beef up our side bar for easy access to critical links.
Here are a few things to note going into the draft.
TWITTER IS KEY For a number of reasons, Twitter will be crucial today.
Yes, all the major news, draft selections, and trades will be posted on the QMJHL website – but there is nothing like living the moment of witnessing a shocking trade or pick.
Twitter promises to provide that tomorrow with a number of reporters sending news out straight from the draft floor.
Q SITE = FAIL The QMJHL website us all but guaranteed to break down tomorrow due to an irregular amount of page hits.
It has become an annual event, so be prepared for some waits.
LIVE CHATS AND RADIO SHOWS With the knowledge of knowing they have an entire summer to recover, most publications pull out all of the stops on QMJHL Draft Day.
With that comes a number a radio shows and live chats from the fine media folks from around the league.
Willy Palov, the beat reporter for the Halifax Mooesheads, will be hosting a live chat at ChronicleHerald.ca today during the first round of the draft.
On the radio side, the good people at the Central Maine Sports Blog will be on Big Jab FM in Portland, ME tomorrow. Here is what is on the schedule:
Saturday: Alot of Maineiacs, as it is QMJHL draft day. Justin Pelletier from the Sun Journal in-studio, Maineiacs GM Roger Shannon will break that down.
GOT INFO? We’d be lying if we said we’ve actually seen many of the players set to be drafted today. If you have any scouting info or scoops on players that Saint John selects, e-mail us at stationnation@yahoo.ca.
Four members of the Saint John Sea Dogs hockey club have been invited to the National Hockey League’s Research and Development Camp.
Only 35-40 of the best 2011 draft eligible players were invited to the unique camp which takes place this August in Toronto, Ont.
Forwards Jonathan Huberdeau, Tomas Jurco, Zach Phillips, and defenseman Nathan Beaulieu were all given an invitation.
The news of this new initiative was released a few days ago. Players will be “guinea pigs” as they go through several sessions of trying new rules that could one day be part of the game.
“We'll test potential new ideas. Some may never see the light of day," said Brendan Shanahan to NHL.com about the camp he is in charge of. "But it's just putting into play some game-situation rules, some game-situation equipment and some potential innovation into the game of hockey."
Shanahan and the NHL's entire Hockey Operations Department will preside in late August over a research and development camp at the Maple Leafs' practice facility in Toronto. Two on-ice sessions per day on Aug. 18-19 will allow Hockey Ops and many of the league's general managers and coaches to watch 35-40 of the top-rated prospects eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft put potential rules changes and strategic innovations to the ultimate test -- real game action.
"The idea is just to create a camp that gives us information about the game -- not because we think the game is broken and needs fixing, but to allow our hockey people to think and act progressively," Shanahan said Friday at the United Center, after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the camp during his annual pre-Stanley Cup finals address to the media.
The session will be used to hopefully advance the NHL game to become safer for players and more entertaining for fans.
"Invitations have just gone out and we're starting to get replies from the players," Shanahan said of skaters chosen based on the year-out projections for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft by the league's Central Scouting Service. "The overwhelming response from the agents and commissioners of their leagues that I've contacted has been really positive. In fact, they're trying to get more of their clients and players invited."
Shanahan did point out that the camp will not be primarily used for scouting because of the strange environment that the players may go through.
The Hockey News recently ranked Drummondville Voltigeurs forward Sean Couturier the best player available for the 2011 NHL draft.
With their first selection in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Entry Draft on Saturday morning, the Saint John Sea Dogs didn’t look too far.
