Joseph appears poised to be top pick

Phénix du Collège Esther-Blondin

Less than 24 hours until the opening round of the 2025 QMJHL Entry Draft, all signs continue to point towards Alexis Joseph being the first overall selection.

The 6'4", 192 lbs forward was ranked No. 1 in QMJHL Central Scouting's final rankings. This week, Puck Preps also ranked Joseph as the No. 1 player available, which comes after previously having forward James Scantlebury ranked first.

"For the team that drafts Joseph, I think you’re getting one of the higher ceiling players to come out of the province in quite some time and a future superstar center for your franchise," writes Austin Robson of Puck Preps.

If everything we're hearing is right, Collège Esther-Blondin Phénix forward Alexis Joseph will be the first pick of the 2025 QMJHL Draft. Puck Preps Eastern Canadian scout Austin Robson believes that’s the right call for the @SJSeaDogs.

Full episode👇

🔗 https://t.co/1yRSlgLzj4 pic.twitter.com/fpzMns2GNm

— Puck Preps Eastern Canada (@PuckPrepsEastCa) June 3, 2025

The Saint John Sea Dogs will select first overall Friday night at Quebec City's Videotron Centre. The first-round will take place Friday beginning at 8 p.m. Atlantic while the remaining 11 rounds will be held Saturday morning.

Joseph told Le Journal de Montreal this week that the QMJHL has always been his No. 1 option, further solidifying him as the likely first overall selection. The big question about Joseph – and a lot of the players being picked this weekend – is how long do they plan to stay in the league?

One interesting note on Joseph is that one of his representatives is former Sea Dogs defenseman Charles-Olivier Roussel, who now works with the Wasserman agency. 

In a Journal de Quebec article, Roussel wouldn't confirm how long Joseph plans to stay in the league, citing he – and all players in the QMJHL – will look at their options on a year-to-year basis.

2025-26 schedule released

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

The Saint John Sea Dogs will begin the 2025-26 season on home ice.

The Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League released its full regular season schedule on Wednesday. The Sea Dogs will begin the campaign with a pair of home games against the Cape Breton Eagles Sept. 19-20.

Saint John's first road games will be the following weekend when they visit the Halifax Mooseheads for two matches Sept. 26-27.

The regular season ends March 21 with the Sea Dogs visiting the Eagles.

Here are a few other highlights:

• The Sea Dogs will play in the Moncton Wildcats' home opener on Friday, Oct. 4. That game will feature the Gilles-Courteau Trophy championship banner raising.
• The Chicoutimi Sagueneens will pay an early season visit to Saint John (Oct. 5) as their arena boards get replaced. Victoriaville and Baie-Comeau are also having the new boards installed.
• The Sea Dogs will host the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies on Thanksgiving Monday (Oct. 13) in a 3 p.m. start.
• The Sea Dogs will make their first trek to St. John's since the 2007-08 season Oct. 24-25 where they'll face the Regiment for the first time. They also travel to Newfoundland Feb. 11-12.
• Saint John will make their first of four trips into Quebec Nov. 6-9 (Rimouski, Drummondville and Victoriaville). They'll also make Quebec trips Dec. 10-13 (Baie-Comeau, Chicoutimi and Quebec); Jan. 14-17 (Rouyn-Noranda, Val-d'Or and Blainville-Boisbriand) and Feb. 19-22 (Shawinigan, Sherbrooke and Gatineau).
• As was announced Tuesday, the Sea Dogs will play three "home" games in Fredericton: Sunday, Nov. 30 vs Cape Breton; Thursday, Jan. 8 vs Gatineau; and Sunday, Feb. 1 vs Baie-Comeau.
• The Sea Dogs play their final games before the Christmas break Dec. 17-18, facing the Mooseheads in a home-and-home series. They resume play Dec. 28-29 with a home-and-home against the Charlottetown Islanders.
• The Regiment make their first visit to Saint John on New Year's Eve. That Wednesday game will start at 2 p.m.
• Saint John's Saturday, Feb. 14 game against the Shawinigan Cataractes will be a 3 p.m. start. The Sea Dogs will then host the Victoriaville Tigres on Family Day (Monday, Feb. 16) in a 3 p.m. start. That weekend has typically been the team's "One For All" festivities.
• The Sea Dogs play their final regular season home game on Saturday, March 14 with a 4 p.m. start against the Mooseheads. The team will close out the year with three straight road games: March 15 at Charlottetown, March 20 at Cape Breton and March 21 at Cape Breton.
• The Sea Dogs will play seven straight home games Nov. 15-30 (which includes an Aitken Centre game). Their longest stretch of road games is just four, which they'll do twice.

Saint John's full schedule can be found here. The pre-season schedule is also available.

Also of note, the first QMJHL Prospects Game will take place Tuesday, Oct. 21 in Sherbrooke and will feature the league's 40 best players eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft.

Notebook: Dwyer sticks with Regiment

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Former Saint John Sea Dogs head coach Gordie Dwyer will be moving to Newfoundland with the Acadie-Bathurst Titan organization.

The Newfoundland Regiment officially named Dwyer the club's head coach and general manager on Tuesday. The Dalhousie, NB native has been the head coach and GM of the Titan for the past three seasons following his firing from the Sea Dogs at the end of the 2022 playoffs.

Former Sea Dogs equipment manager Tyler Jay is also moving with the Titan to Newfoundland, as is director of hockey operations and video coach Matthew Smith.

“I’m honoured to lead the Newfoundland Regiment alongside Tyler and Matthew, building on the foundation we established in Bathurst,” said Dwyer in a news release. “The appetite for hockey in Newfoundland is electric. We are committed to building a team that is driven and competes in a way that honours the tremendous history of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment.”

The Regiment will play their first regular season game on Thursday, Sept. 18, hosting the Moncton Wildcats.

DRAFT SOON

When exactly is this weekend's QMJHL Entry Draft?

The Remparts shared some event details on social media earlier this week. The first-round will begin at 8 p.m. Atlantic on Friday night. The Sea Dogs currently own three picks in the opening round – including the first overall selection.

The remaining 11 rounds will begin on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. Atlantic. 

Quebec City's Videotron Centre also hosted the draft back in 2019 when the Sea Dogs selected Joshua Roy with the first overall pick.

Sea Dogs finalize two trades

Vincent Éthier / CHL

The first Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League trade period of draft week opened on Tuesday and the Saint John Sea Dogs completed two deals.

The biggest transaction involved the Sea Dogs receiving a 2025 first-round pick (originally Moncton's) and a 2027 first-round pick (Rimouski) from the Rimouski Oceanic in exchange for two 2026 third-round picks (Rimouski and Sherbrooke), two 2026 fourth-round picks (Saint John and Rimouski) and a 2026 fifth-round pick (Rimouski).

This deal completes the Eriks Mateiko trade, which happened during the holiday trade period. According to the Sea Dogs, this is the largest return for an import player in league history.

Saint John's other Tuesday transaction saw them swap 2025 second-round picks with the Moncton Wildcats, which completes the Connor Trenholm deal. The Sea Dogs traded their own second-round pick to Moncton in exchange for Blainville-Boisbriand's.

With these deal finalized, here's an updated look at where Saint John is currently scheduled to pick at this year's QMJHL Entry Draft.

Round 1, 1st overall 

Round 1, 10th overall (via Cape Breton) 

Round 1, 18th overall (via Moncton)

Round 2, 29th overall (via Blainville-Boisbriand)

Round 6, 94th overall 

Round 6, 109th overall (via Rimouski) 

Round 7, 112th overall 

Round 9, 148th overall 

Round 11, 184th overall 

Round 12, 202nd overall

If things stay as they are, this would be the second straight year that the Sea Dogs pick three times in the first-round.

The first-round of the 2025 QMJHL Entry Draft takes place Friday night at Quebec City's Videotron Centre. The remaining rounds will be held Saturday morning.

Sea Dogs to play three "home" games in Fredericton

Three Saint John Sea Dogs "home" games will be played in Fredericton this season.

The QMJHL and the team made the announcement Tuesday afternoon – one day prior to the league's full schedule being released. The games have been labelled the "Capital City Series."

The following three games will be played at UNB Fredericton's Aitken Centre.

Sunday, Nov. 30 at 3 p.m. vs Cape Breton

Thursday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. vs Gatineau

Sunday, Feb. 1 at 3 p.m. vs Baie-Comeau

“There is a tradition and connection between the Sea Dogs and the City of Fredericton,” said Sea Dogs president Trevor Georgie in a news release. “We have had many great players from Fredericton and have deep connections to UNB. There are also many fans from the area who regularly make the drive down Highway 7 to TD Station to support the Sea Dogs. They obviously have a strong hockey history with the Reds men’s and women’s programs, but also dating all the way back to the AHL’s Fredericton Express and Canadiens.”

According to the news release, the "Sea Dogs will pay tribute to one of those historic Fredericton franchises with a special theme jersey to be revealed later this year."

No regular season QMJHL game has ever been played at the Aitken Centre. The Moncton Wildcats did, however, host a playoff game in the building during the 2015 post-season due to a scheduling conflict at the Moncton Coliseum. 

The Sea Dogs and UNB have gotten closer and closer over the past few years. Along with sending a number of players to the Reds program, the Sea Dogs have regularly played pre-season games at the Aitken Centre plus there's what happened with Gardiner MacDougall temporarily joining the team for the 2022 Memorial Cup.

Mann, Peddle not signed by NHL clubs

Michael Hawkins/Saint John Sea Dogs

Matteo Mann and Tyler Peddle are officially free agents.

Neither were signed by their respective NHL club by the June 1 deadline, meaning their rights have been relinquished. Both were selected in the seventh-round of the 2023 NHL Draft: Mann was picked 199th overall by the Philadelphia Flyers while Peddle was taken 224th overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Mann appeared in one game with the ECHL's Reading Royals at the end of the 2023-24 season. Peddle, meanwhile, joined the AHL's Cleveland Monsters at the end of this year's regular season but did not appear in any games.

Mann just completed his overage season of junior hockey, recording six goals and eight assists in 56 games with the Saint John Sea Dog. The 6'6", 234 lbs defenseman will presumably play some form of pro or university hockey this coming season.

#LetsGoFlyers prospects Carter Sotheran, Matteo Mann and Brian Zanetti are officially free agents as of June 1, 2025.

— Dylan H. Robillard (@HendrixHockey_) June 1, 2025

His father, Trent Mann, is currently a player development and scouting advisor for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Peddle has one season of junior eligibility remaining – and not signing with Columbus just about guarantees he'll be back in the QMJHL for his overage season. In 54 games with Saint John this year, the Antigonish native recorded 15 goals and 14 assists.

It’s out there already. But confirming #CBJ did not sign Tyler Peddle or Martin Rysavy before today’s deadline thus relinquishing their rights.

— Mark Scheig (@mark_scheig) June 1, 2025

It doesn't come as a big shock that neither were signed. It was reported a few weeks ago by Columbus media that Peddle would not be signed by the Blue Jackets.