Roy, Drover producing early for new teams

 Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Joshua Roy made an immediate impact with his new club.

The former Saint John Sea Dogs forward scored in his first game with the Sherbrooke Phoenix on Saturday. Roy also added an assist and recorded six shots in a 6-3 loss to the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

1st goal with the @PhoenixSherbroo for Joshua Roy, 10th of the season. Great pass from Justin Gill (I like what I saw from him today! Great acquisition too)#LHJMQ #QMJHL #2021NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/fXAtsdttrR

— Benoit Belanger (@BenoitGBelanger) January 30, 2021

It was Roy's first game since Nov. 18. He now has 10 goals and nine assists in 16 games this season. He's been held pointless in just two of those games.

The Sea Dogs traded Roy, the first overall pick in the 2019 QMJHL Entry Draft, to the Phoenix in exchange for three first-round draft picks and second rounder. The 17-year-old requested a trade from the team.

The Roy deal was one of a few trades that saw Sea Dogs regulars dealt to new teams. One of the others saw Alex Drover traded to the Rimouski Oceanic, where the forward has recorded two goals and two assists in three games with his new club.

Drover made his Oceanic debut last weekend. He now has six goals and five assists in 17 games this year.

Dawson Stairs, meanwhile, has yet to play for the Cape Breton Eagles due to quarantine. According to the Eagles radio broadcast on Saturday, Stairs' isolation period ends on Feb. 1. Cape Breton's next game is on Saturday in Charlottetown.

Stairs, who has three goals and five assists in 13 games, was traded to the Eagles in the Ryan Francis deal.

In the Maritime Junior Hockey League, defenseman Benjamin Roode made his debut with the Yarmouth Mariners on Friday, recording an assist in a 5-3 victory in Truro. Roode appeared in two games with the Sea Dogs in the first half before being reassigned to the MHL.

All New Brunswick zones to stay orange

A few hours before Quebec Major Junior Hockey League games returned in the Maritimes, teams in New Brunswick received some potentially bad news.

At a news conference Friday afternoon, New Brunswick health officials announced that no region of the province will move past the orange phase for "many weeks." The news comes as new variants of COVID-19 begin to spread quickly across the globe.

From CBC New Brunswick:

To help "manage the risk," she said, the yellow zone will be reassessed and no zone in the province will be allowed to progress to anything less restrictive than a newly modified orange phase for at least several weeks.

Currently, the Fredericton, Campbellton, Bathurst, Miramichi and Saint John regions are in orange, with the Moncton region in the more restrictive red phase and the Edmundston region in the most restrictive full lockdown phase.

QMJHL teams can practice in the orange phase but are not able to play games. Of course, some kind of exemption could be made for the Saint John Sea Dogs, Moncton Wildcats and Acadie-Bathurst Titan to resume playing games - and today's announcements reinforced that the province is willing to adjust its current rules/guidelines. We'll see what happens.

While games are resuming - without fans - in the Halifax, Cape Breton and Charlottetown markets, the 12 Quebec based clubs will begin another round of "protected environments" on Saturday in Rimouski, Chicoutimi and Drummondville. The league also announced Friday a fourth round of bubbles will take place in Quebec City, Victoriaville and Shawinigan from Feb. 12-18.

In an interview with CHSJ News on Wednesday, Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie noted the financial challenges of holding a bubble event in the Maritimes. The Quebec clubs have all received government funding.

Jones rejoins Oceanic

Photo: Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

In a move rarely seen in junior hockey, Creed Jones his joining his old club.

Jones became a free agent after passing through waivers. The Rimouski Oceanic, who traded Jones to the Saint John Sea Dogs in September in exchange for three draft picks, signed the overage goaltender on Thursday.

The Sea Dogs, in an expected move, announced on Wednesday that they had released Jones from their roster. The team acquired 20-year-old goaltender Zachary Emond from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies during the trading period, which essentially put an end to Jones' time in Saint John.

The Oceanic stated in a news release that the club has until Feb. 25 to decide on their overage situation.

« Il y a une belle compétition au sein de notre équipe et ce sera la même chose avec nos quatre 20 ans », Serge Beausoleil#LHJMQ

— X- L'Océanic de Rimouski (@oceanicrimouski) January 28, 2021

Players rarely return to their former clubs in the QMJHL due to league rules that make it difficult. Presumably the Oceanic have done their homework on this one - and there's probably not many teams that will put up a fuss about this situation. Rimouski is in rebuild mode, sitting second-to-last in points percentage.

Jones appeared in 12 games with the loaded Oceanic last season, recording a 9-2 record to go along with a 1.42 goals against average and a .934 save percentage. For whatever reason, the netminder could never find his game in Saint John. He went 1-4 with a 4.36 GAA and a .872 SV%.

The major downside to this story is that, according the Oceanic, Jones will have to quarantine for 14 days. In the first half of the season, the Peterborough native spent 42 days in quarantine over a three-month period.

Jones joins former Sea Dogs forward Alex Drover on the Oceanic.

Sea Dogs make several roster moves

Photo: Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Following the completion of the winter trading period, the Saint John Sea Dogs announced a number of roster moves on Wednesday.

The team has added three players to its roster for the second half, claiming defenseman Brandon Casey off waivers from the Rimouski Oceanic; signing free agent forward Zach Alchorn; and recalling forward Carter McCluskey.

Casey, 18, has appeared in nine games with the Oceanic this season and has been held pointless. The Newfoundlander registered three assists in 33 games last season. He was a fifth-round pick of Rimouski in 2018 after playing two seasons at Newbridge Academy.

Alchorn, 19, appeared in seven games with the Moncton Wildcats 2018-19. He has spent most of the past two seasons with the St. Stephen Aces/Fredericton Red Wings organization. In 13 MHL games this season, Alchorn - a former Saint John Vito - has six goals and five assists. 

McCluskey, 17, was a 14th-round draft pick of the Sea Dogs in the 2019 QMJHL Entry Draft and appeared in three pre-season games this year. Also a former Vito, McCluskey has recorded nine goals and eight assists in 12 games with the Grand Falls Rapids, placing him ninth in MHL scoring and second amongst rookies.

Overage goaltender Creed Jones, meanwhile, has been released by the team. The move doesn't come as a surprise after the Dogs acquired 20-year-old netminder Zachary Emond from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies last week.

Notebook: Roy trade aftermath

Photo: Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Why did Joshua Roy want a trade? We may never know the answer.

The Saint John Sea Dogs traded the 17-year-old forward to the Sherbrooke Phoenix on Monday in exchange for three first-round picks and a second-rounder. The move came after several weeks of media reports that Roy asked for a trade.

The reasons for Roy's ask have not been made public and the whole situation sounds very similar to the recent trade between the Winnipeg Jets and Columbus Blue Jackets involving Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Je viens de m'entretenir avec Joshua Roy du @PhoenixSherbroo il ne souhaite pas dévoiler les raisons de sa demande de transaction avec les #SeaDogs - il est très heureux du dénouement et se dit prêt à jouer et aller de l'avant - Entrevue dans "SUR LA GLACE" #Balado et à Sports30

— Stephane Leroux (@StephRDSJunior) January 25, 2021

Au cours des dernières semaines Joshua Roy avoue que sa situation ressemblait à celle de Pierre-Luc Dubois avec les #BlueJackets - Comme dans le cas de Dubois, Roy a été "class" avec les #SeaDogs en les remerciant de l'avoir repêché au 1er rang en 2019 #LHJMQ

— Stephane Leroux (@StephRDSJunior) January 25, 2021

“Josh wanted the opportunity to play in a different market,” said Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie in a news release sent out several hours following the deal. “We wish him good luck in Sherbrooke. We brought in a significant return for the player. Given the uncertain times, these selections give us lots of flexibility and the ability to add players in the future.”

The Sea Dogs are calling the return for Roy "the second largest return for a single-player in franchise history, behind Joe Veleno in 2017 that brought in three firsts and two second round selections."

La Tribune reports that the Sea Dogs and Phoenix solidified the deal late Sunday night.

Patrick Roy told le Journal de Quebec that the Remparts inquired about Roy, but the Sea Dogs' price was too high. Like Saint John, Quebec is expected to make a strong push for the President Cup next season.

LOTS OF PICKS

The Sea Dogs have plenty of picks to work with over the next three drafts.

Following Monday's deal, Saint John now has six first-round picks over the next three years. That includes a yet-to-be-acquired first-round selection from the Halifax Mooseheads to finalize the Ostap Safin deal.

Nova Scotia, PEI to resume QMJHL games

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League is set to make its returns in the Maritimes - but not quite yet in New Brunswick.

The league announced on Monday that games will return in both PEI and Nova Scotia this weekend, beginning with a Friday night contest in Sydney between the Eagles and Islanders.

Here's part of the league's news release:

Public Health Officials of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island have approved the league’s plans to continue the 2020-2021 regular season after Jan 25.

However, with the actual epidemiological status in New Brunswick, the Government and its Public Health Officials have delayed their return to regular activities until the situation has improved.

The schedule released Monday extends all the way until Feb. 28. The league noted that the schedule will be updated if/when any of the three New Brunswick teams receive approval to play.

Both the Mooseheads and Eagles have confirmed that they will play without fans in attendance until at least Feb. 8. The Islanders, at the time of this writing, had not released any details regarding their return.

“While this is certainly not something we hoped for as an organization, it was the only way we would be able to resume play in the short-term,” said Eagles president Gerard Shaw in a news release. “We are very optimistic that this will only be for limited games and we will be back to playing in front of our loyal fans soon.”