Import Draft takes place Wednesday

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

One more major event awaits the Saint John Sea Dogs before the junior hockey off-season truly begins.

The Canadian Hockey League will hold its 2025 Import Draft on Wednesday beginning at noon Atlantic time. For the first time, teams will be able to carry three import players, meaning the draft has been expanded to three rounds.

The Sea Dogs are currently scheduled to pick sixth, 67th and 128th. The two later picks could happen earlier in reality as some teams will opt to pass on their selections.

At the QMJHL Entry Draft in early June, Sea Dogs head coach and general manager Travis Crickard said the team plans on using all three of their picks. 

"Oh, we have a plan," Crickard said on the draft floor in Quebec City. "We have a plan. If the plan is executed, we're going to be really happy."

The reason Crickard was away from the team for an extended period late in the season was to ensure the Sea Dogs were ready for the increase in import players permitted on rosters.

The team ended last season with no imports in their lineup.

The Import Draft – as is said every year – is a very strange draft. It's much more about connections and who you know than where you're picking. But even the best plans can have a wrench or two thrown into them. You can only control what other teams do so much.

Like most teams, the Sea Dogs have had some home runs and big misses in the Import Draft. Saint John selected defenseman Florian Schenk with the seventh overall pick last year only to reassign him back to Switzerland halfway through the season. But not that long ago, in 2022, the Sea Dogs had one of their best showings in the draft, selecting forwards Pavel Simek and Eriks Mateiko.

The Memorial Cup host Kelowna Rockets will pick first overall after acquiring the pick from the Moose Jaw Warriors. The OHL's Brantford Bulldogs will pick second followed by the Victoriaville Tigres.

Sea Dogs past and present earn NHL development camp invites

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Former, current and perhaps future Saint John Sea Dogs have received invites to NHL development camps, most of which are taking placing this week.

The only current Sea Dog to earn an invite (so far, anyways) is forward Zachary Morin, who is heading to Vancouver Canucks camp. Morin was passed over in last weekend's NHL Draft.

The Athletic considers the Boston University commit to be the 12th best player not picked.

"I could see him pop next year and put it all together without the pressure of the draft, but there’s also risk he remains a mercurial, what-could-have-been prospect who doesn’t have the interest or willingness to change his style of play," writes Scott Wheeler.

Two of Saint John's overagers from last season – defensemen Nate Tivey and Matteo Mann – have both received camp invites. Tivey will attend Colorado Avalanche camp while Mann will join the Dallas Stars.

Tivey, who captained the Sea Dogs in the second half of last season, will take part in Avs camp before joining Quinnipiac University for the 2025-26 season.

Mann, meanwhile, is no stranger to NHL camps having been selected by the Philadelphia Flyers in the 2023 draft. The Sackville, NB native was not signed by the Flyers, making him a free agent and able to join Stars camp.

Eriks Mateiko, who captained the Sea Dogs in the first half of last season before being dealt to the Rimouski Oceanic, will attend Washington Capitals development camp as expected. Mateiko was a third-round pick of the Capitals in last year's NHL Draft and will likely play professionally within the organization this coming season.

Everett Baldwin was the only player with Sea Dogs connections to get drafted this weekend. The Rhode Island native was a fifth-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning after spending most of last season with St. George's School, a US prep school program. He'll attend Lightning development camp.

Baldwin was a second-round pick of Saint John in this year's QMJHL Entry Draft but he has yet to sign with the club. He's committed to Providence College for the 2026-27 season.

Jack Williams, a 2018 pick of the Sea Dogs who made his NHL debut last season, will attend Columbus Blue Jackets development camp.

We'll update this past if more players receive invites.

Notebook: Bezeau, Checkers fall in final

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Riley Bezeau and the Charlotte Checkers came up short in the Calder Cup final.

The Checkers fell in six games to the Abbotsford Canucks in a series that concluded on June 23. The Canucks took Game 6, 3-2, in Charlotte to win their first Calder Cup.

Bezeau appeared in just one game in the final. He finishes the playoffs with three goals in five games.

The 23-year-old completed his third season of professional hockey. He appeared in 24 regular season AHL games with the Checkers and five ECHL contests with the Savannah Ghost Pirates.

Bezeau spent parts of three seasons with the Sea Dogs, helping the team win the Memorial Cup in 2022.

JOSEPH INTERVIEW

First overall pick Alexis Joseph was a recent guest on the QMJHL's Around the Maritimes podcast. The interview begins at the 33-minute mark below.

The future Sea Dogs forward talks about his playing style, his time playing under-18 hockey, draft weekend, who he models his game after, his Canadiens fandom, goals for his rookie season, Atlantic Canada and more.

MACPHERSON MEDIA

A couple features on Jase MacPherson, the Kensington Wild goaltender who the Sea Dogs selected in the second-round of this year's QMJHL Entry Draft.

The Eastern Graphic has a story on MacPherson getting picked by Saint John.

“I think that’s probably the best team I could have gone to. I have a good opportunity to crack that squad next year,” MacPherson said.

The 16-year-old was also selected by the Summerside Western Capitals in the recent MHL Draft. Justin Harrison, Summerside's director of scouting, provided his thoughts on MacPherson to the Journal Pioneer. 

"He’s a great goalie. He’s a big kid. He’s going to have a really good shot at the Quebec league," said Harrison. "We fully expect him to go and be very successful with the Sea Dogs. With the new rules opening up with the NCAA, there are so many moving parts with the Quebec league now, so if he’s not there it’s great to have a guy who is close to home and we know is a fantastic goalie. If he plays for Summerside, that’s going to be awesome.”

More free agents added to Dogs roster

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

A few other players have been added to the Saint John Sea Dogs' online pre-season roster.

Forwards Max Donatelli and Bryce Cunningham along with defenseman Louis Métivier have all been added. They join an already healthy group of free agents that were previously added to Saint John's roster.

Donatelli, an 18-year-old forward from Rhode Island, spent last season at St. George's School – the same US prep program that Sea Dogs draft pick Everett Baldwin played at last year. Listed at just 5'9" and 154 lbs, Donatelli recorded 13 goals and 27 assists in 30 games.

Cunningham, a 16-year-old forward, was the first player to receive an invitation to Sea Dogs training camp after being named the MVP of the inaugural Dog Bowl back in February, helping Sussex High School win the tournament. Cunningham played 34 games with the Saint John Vito's in 2023-24, recording a goal and an assist.

Métivier, a 17-year-old defenseman from Matane, QC, registered two goals and four assists in 19 games with the under-18 Collège Notre-Dame Albatros last season. He also posted two goals and four assists with the under-17 Bas St-Laurent Albatros. He's listed at 6'2" and 170 lbs.

Sea Dogs training camp will presumably start the weekend of Aug. 16 ahead of the team's first pre-season game on Aug. 19. Saint John will play five pre-season games with three of them taking place between Aug. 19-22 – all of which will be against the Moncton Wildcats.

The Sea Dogs will hold a development camp this weekend in Quispamsis but the roster does not include any free agents.

Coyle, Veleno traded in NHL

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Two former Saint John Sea Dogs were recently traded in the NHL.

On Friday, Charlie Coyle was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets by the Colorado Avalanche. Miles Wood was also included in the transaction. In return, the Avs received Gavin Brindley, a third-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft and a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft.

The Boston Bruins deakt Coyle to the Avalanche at the trade deadline. The 33-year-old posted two goals and 11 assists in 19 games with Colorado and added another goal in seven playoff contests.

Coyle, who spent the second half and playoffs with the Sea Dogs in 2012, has appeared in 950 career NHL games over 14 seasons, recording 485 points. He's also appeared in an impressive 126 Stanley Cup playoff games.

This will be Coyle's fourth NHL team after stops in Minnesota, Boston and Colorado.

Joe Veleno, meanwhile, was traded by the Chicago Blackhawks to the Seattle Kraken on June 21. The Blackhawks received forward Andre Burakovsky in return.

The former Sea Dogs captain was traded to Chicago at this year's trade deadline after spending parts of five seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, the team that drafted him with the 30th overall pick in the 2018 NHL Draft.

Veleno recorded three goals and four assists in 18 games with the rebuilding Blackhawks.

The 25-year-old has appeared in 306 career NHL games. He has yet to play in a playoff game.

Baldwin picked by Lightning

St. George's School

No current Saint John Sea Dogs had their names called at the 2025 NHL Draft.

The lone player with connections to the Sea Dogs to get drafted this weekend was defenseman Everett Baldwin, who was picked in the fifth-round, 151st overall by the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Baldwin, a second-round selection of the Sea Dogs in this year's QMJHL Entry Draft, recorded 20 points in 22 games with St. George's School last season. He also spent time with the USNTDP program and the USHL's Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. The Rhode Island native is a Providence College commit.

While Baldwin has yet to sign with Saint John for the coming season, it certainly feels like there is a good chance he will. But we'll see how things play out in the coming weeks.

Tampa Bay Lightning pick Rumford, R.I.'s Everett Baldwin in 5th round.

St. George's School D, committed to Providence College, has elite wheels

Signs point to him playing in Saint John in 25-26

— Mark Divver (@MarkDivver) June 28, 2025

Sea Dogs forwards Zachary Morin and Olivier Groulx along with the recently signed Alexander Donovan were all listed in NHL Central Scouting's final rankings of North American players. All three will likely get invites to development and/or rookie camps.

It hasn't been a great run for the Sea Dogs at the NHL Draft. Eriks Mateiko (third-round pick in 2024 to the Washington Capitals) and Cameron MacDonald (fifth-round pick in 2021 to the Lightning) are the only Sea Dogs to get picked in the last five NHL Drafts. In fairness, it hasn't been a great few years for the QMJHL as a whole, either.

19 players from the QMJHL got drafted this weekend, the highest total since 2021. That includes three picks in Friday's first-round, which was highlighted by Caleb Desnoyers going fourth overall to the Utah Mammoth.