ZOMG! - Video

The NHL has draft videos. How is it that I gave birth to Simon Despres but I don't remember the birth or even raising him? Why doesn't he eat the cookies I make him?

Oh.... just watch the videos...

SIMON DESPRES


CHARLES-OLIVIER ROUSSEL


PHILIPPE PARADIS



Oh yes. Hedman is there looking all big and dreamy, but he is not in the Q, therefor he is none of my business.

Maniacal laughter ensues

That's right little bitch. Tee Hee. Welcome to my young man-harem. Wait! It is not called a harem...what is that cluster of young men which I horde to myself for the purposes of mating called?

According to the Mooseheads website:

The Mooseheads announced today that Brent Andrews has committed to play for the Halifax Mooseheads next season. The Hunter River, PEI native was the Mooseheads 1st pick, 15th overall at the 2009 QMJHL Entry Draft held earlier this month in Moncton. The Mooseheads acquired the 15^th overall pick from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies in exchange for 19 yr old defenceman Gabriel O’Connor.

“I was impressed with the educational opportunities provided by the Mooseheads and the QMJHL” stated Andrews. “The Mooseheads offered a great mix of both hockey and education, and I’m very excited to be coming to Halifax”.

I am sure that part where I yelled at him, called him an NCAA blowhard, shook my fist in his general direction and then, just now, called him a little bitch, totally helped. Welcome to Halifax Brent. We are totally fun here. When we are not licking your balls we are kicking your balls. Me personally? I am more of a licker than a kicker.

So this is Brent Andrews:

Ahem. Those teenage years can be soooo awkward. Sure he is no Zach Sill in the looks department, but he does have some snazzy eyebrows. Jessyko Bernard had better be guarding his recently inherited "best team eyebrows" trophy. Andrews totally looks like the kinda guy who would steal it while Jessyko sleeps.

*Andrews photo from the Cornwall Thunder website

Draft day round One: Fuck my team!

Halifax traded Gabe O’Connor to Rouyn Noranda to get a pick a meager 4 spaces higher in the draft, so they get both a 19th and 15th pick. So much for our strong Gabe based blueline. Here we are bragging about the strength of our blueline with Gabe being our #1 guy and then we trade him. I am pouting. I am glad he got that goal with us, his very first goal in his very last game as a Moosehead. Gabe, you shall be sorely missed. kisses.

1. Val d’Or - Olivier Archambault

2. Shawinigan - Yannick Veilleux

3. Lewiston - Francis Beauviller

4. Val d’Or - Jean-Francois Leblanc

5. Moncton - Raphael Bussieres

6. Chicoutimi - Rock Regimbald

7. PEI - Jimmy Oligny

8. Shawinigan - Jonathan Racine

9. Victoriaville - Phillip Danault

10. Saint John - Pierre Durepos

11. Lewiston - Jean-Francois Plante

12. Gatineau - Benjamin Laliberte

13. Chicoutimi - Gabriel Vermette

14. Montreal - Xavier Ouellet

15. Halifax - Brent Andrews (a forward) an NCAA blowhard* (I only say that because I think the NCAA threats are bullshit…maybe its his parents or agent who is the actual blowhard). What a fucking crock of shit this is then. Why trade up to pick a guy that no one was going to pick because they thought he was going NCAA ? According to Wuest we don't even have a firm commitment from the kid. Couldn’t the Moose have gotten him with the 19^th pick? Why pick a forward and trade away your top defenceman when the aim this year was to build from the net out?

Remember this picture heading from the Metro: “Moosehead general manager Cam Russell cites Gabriel O’Connor as the type of player he wants to acquire.” Little Andrews dude better have some totally fantastic fucking eyebrows or I quit!

Worse yet is the fact that Gabe went to the draft to rep the team and the fuckers traded him. Apparently he was stunned. Like no Duh!!!! I guess we wanted an O’Connor but not THE O’Connor. Uhhhh wasn’t he supposed to be captain? Oh FUCK MY TEAM.

OK. I am a little upset, and by a little I mean…a lot upset. Why must girls always let emotion get in the way of the logical human-boy slave trade that is CHL hockey?

16. Moncton - Dillon Donelly

17. Chicoutimi - Robin Gusse

18. Saint John - Jonathan Huberdeau

*edit -admittedly the term blowhard is unnecessarily harsh. I am just excessively emotional right now and sometimes I take it out on the wrong people. It happens when you juggle lots of men. Sometimes one boy gets to feel the wrath of my anger that should be directed towards another boy. Don't worry kid. My calling you a blowhard hurts a lot less than being suddenly, shockingly and unwillingly uprooted from your home of 3 years and having to move away from your friends and girlfriend(s) at a moments notice. Don't blame me... blame the CHL for that one. If you come here and you are 'all balls' I might change my mind. It does happen - just ask Jessyko Bernard.

ohhhh snap PEI

From Willy Palov in the Chronicle Herald, in regards to the upcoming draft:

The Mooseheads’ highest picks are two second-rounders and two fourths. Russell said “we have to make those count because we have some holes in our roster."

He expects to target kids who can play right away versus players who need a year or two of seasoning before hitting their stride. Russell also said he is placing a new premium on character.

“We’re definitely looking for a certain type of player this year," Russell said.

“We want kids that work hard and are honest. We’re not looking to bring any kids here based on promises or anything like that. We want to build a certain kind of identity for our team. We want kids who are proud to wear our jersey and don’t have to be persuaded to come here. They should see it as a privilege to play in Halifax."

Yeah, hardworking players are fun and all, that is why I get crushes on them. I like their intensity and their frequent bouts of 'crazy eye'. Last year I suggested that we draft the kinda boys who really like to say "wooooooooo" because those boys will win just for the chance to shout "wooooooo".

Drafts are exciting but what is even more exciting is SNAPS. While it is supposedly a bad year for locals at the draft, one local is standing out to me, and it is NOT because he is the highest ranked Nova Scotian.

Cole Hawes is Nova Scotia's best Q prospect this season. He is the brother of former PEI Rocket/R-N Huskie, and current other kind of Huskie (SMU), Tyler Hawes. Hawes apparently likes Huskies the way that Maxime Tanguay likes Tigers.

Anyway, in an interview with local reporters Baby Hawes talks about learning from his brother's experience in the Q:

Another reason Hawes isn’t intimidated by the prospect of playing far from home is because his older brother Tyler has already done it. Tyler left home when he was 15 to play for the Subways before spending his entire five-year QMJHL career out of province. He spent three-and-a-half seasons with the P.E.I. Rocket before playing his final one-and-a-half major junior seasons in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., with the Huskies.

"I take his word for it that it’s a good experience. I definitely trust what my brother says," Cole said.

"He’s been telling me what the good teams are and some things about what it was like when he played. He liked playing for Rouyn and said it was a good experience to go up there."

Ohhhhh Snap PEI!!! I distinctly notice that big brother Hawes liked Rouyn-Noranda but there is no mention of PEI. He preferred a small french town in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere (A on the map) to PEI...which is also soooo in the middle of butt-fuck nowhere if that it was cast off into the sea (ok, I admit that doesn't make sense).

Anyway. The point of the story is - PEI really sucks.*

*No, really! Read this link - it really points out PEI's suckitude and then you learn all sorts of things about other teams...like that Rimouski have only 1 pick in the first 8 rounds of the draft. That is F'n crazy.

Just news links

Graham really did deserve his own post. At 6'3" and 217 lbs* he is big enough that I might squish him should I try to fit in other news around him. Thus, newslinks get their own, albeit much less sexy, post.

Matthew Wuest- Mooseheads GM in no mood to beg at Q draft
Willy Palov - Eagles will move pics for scoring
T.J. Colello - Eagles not afraid to trade first round pick
Telegraph Journal - Central Scouting's final list of QMJHL Prospects
Neil Hodge - What will cats do in trades?
Neil Hodge - Twin brothers won't let QMJHL separate them. More wonder twins? The Moose do not take orders from players anymore. I guess they won't be coming here.
Peter Assaff - Titan GM comfortable heading into Saturday's QMJHL draft.


Yes, I am still having an affair with the Sea Dogs:
Former Sea Dog and QMJHL smrt guy Payton Liske won the award for Outstanding Acheivement in the Field of Excellence... or something like that.

Simon Despres showed up at the combine about a week early and they wrote a story about it. Read it and then tell me - how can you not love Simon? Effort alone should count for at least 100 bonus points. I would suggest you give him cookies but it is getting hot and he needs to look fit for the draft, so give him a popsicle or something.

Bonus info EDIT:
Trade Rumours:
From the Times and Transcript

The Lewiston MAINEiacs have made three deals that will be announced when the league trade period opens on Friday morning.

They're sending defenceman Garrett Clarke to the Halifax Mooseheads and goaltender Peter Delmas to the Quebec Remparts. They're also acquiring forward Stephane Fournier from the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

Some other mid-season trades will be finalized this week.

The Saint John Sea Dogs will acquire the rights to 20-year-old forwards Mike Hoffman from the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Nicholas Petersen from the Shawinigan Cataractes.

The Chicoutimi Sagueneens are sending goaltender Francois Levesque to the Prince Edward Island Rocket. The Rimouski Oceanic are shipping forward Philippe Cornet to the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.

Rumour has the Montreal Juniors dealing forward Luke Adam to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

To throw in my own personal note - I like the Delmas to the Remparts deal. The boy needs a change of pace and St. Patrick and crew should be able to get the best out of him. I found it weird that no one was going after him at Christmas trade period last season. Just because he did not have the best season last year does not mean that the boy doesn't have skillz.

*D'oh. 117lbs is girl sized, 217 lbs is MAN sized. RAWR.

Ouch

The Stransky Ordeal:
So it has been well established by now - Jan Stransky is no longer a Moosehead. His billet parents know it, reporter Matthew Wuest knows it, coach/GM Cam Russel knows it through 12th hand sources, and strangers from the west coast who read my blog, yet know very little of the Mooseheads, now know it.

We the fans are feeling the sting because we have to live with the pain of knowing that the Moose gave up their 1st overall pick in the CHL import draft thinking that both Stransky and Knotek would be returning next season. We can be happy that Stransky didn't pull a 'Kana' on us and decide to leave after the draft. This way we still have a chance to replace him with another, albeit much lower drafted, Euro.

In today's issue of the Chronicle Herald Willy Palov discusses the situation and this time it is Stransky feeling the sting:

The Halifax Mooseheads forward has apparently signed a two-year contract with Plzen, but has not yet informed Halifax coach and general manager Cam Russell or his agent, Petr Svoboda. That type of bizarre manoeuvre does not reflect well on the 18-year-old sniper and it wouldn’t be an overstatement to say it will cost him a chance at the NHL.

A handful of teams have been in regular contact with Russell this spring and it was starting to look like Stransky was going to get a legitimate look at the draft in June. But now that he’s shown such a poor lack of professionalism and judgment, that ship has surely sailed. The draft is only seven rounds long nowadays, so NHL teams are certainly not going to waste a pick on a player with that kind of flaky personality.

Need I say SNAP?


Depth Chart:
Wuest also posted a very informative depth chart in one of his pieces and I am just going to cut and paste it here. Arts and crafts are fun. My ultimate goal is to be a crafty spinster. Please remember that X = possible overagers... and then there is the mysterious Y.

FORWARDS:
x-Yuri Cheremetiev (20)
Tomas Knotek (19)
Alexis Piette (19)
Gerrad Grant (19)
Gabriel Desjardins (17)
Jessyko Bernard (18)
Travis Randell (18)
x-Linden Bahm (20)
x-Eric Louis-Seize (20)
Charles Bety (19)
Alex Lemieux (17)
x-Matt Boland (20)
Ned O’Brien (19)
Guillaume Pelletier (18)
William Cloutier (18)
Andrew Smith (17)

DEFENCEMEN:
Gabriel O’Connor (19)
Pascal Amyot (19)
Alex MacDonald (18)
xy-Alexandre Brunet (20)
x-Ben MacAskill (20)
Scott McDonald (19)
George Dunn (19)
Ryan Matheson (18)
Richard Greer (18)

GOALTENDERS:
Mathieu Corbeil (18)
Stefan Dumaresque (19)
Jeremie Forbes-Brisebois (19)
Kody Blois (18)

Yes "Y". Wuest has listed Alexandre Brunet, a defenceman from the Rimouski Oceanic as one of our 20 year olds. Brunet is a possible future from the Logan Mac Millan trade at X-mas. The acquisition of Brunet means that only two of Cheremetiev, Bahm, Boland, Louis-XVI and MacAskill get to stay.

While Boland seems nice and occasionally sports a fancy fauxhawk, he eats all the marshmallows after he plays chubbeh bunneh and he is a perpetual broken machine - so he has to go. Did you ever get the impression that management hates Cheremetiev, what with the way he is shuffled through the lineup? Despite the fact that the Moose will be low on goal scoring prowess, I can still see them giving up Cheremetiev... or at least I could until Stransky split.

I don't like to speculate. Let's just say that we all have no idea what will happen and then wait and see. While I hate the wait, it seems like the only logical thing to do. You can wait too. It's not like I showed you my titties and then split town - leaving you longing for more. We are all stuck here together... waiting... fully clothed.


Trades and the Draft:
The loss of Stransky was a definite blow to our offense, which was one of the worst in the league to begin with. The Moose had the second worst PP with only 16.3% efficiency and 193 goals in 68 games. Only the Titan and the MAINEiacs were worse in Goals per game - but even they made the playoffs.

Apparently Cam Russel was going to focus on defence for this draft*, but the loss of Stransky may have changed that.

Stransky’s departure may also alter Halifax’s strategy at the QMJHL draft. Russell initially wanted to focus on defence, but a scorer might pique his interest now.

“You’ve always got Plans A, B and C,” Russell said. “We’ll take that into consideration at the draft … Who we’re trying to bring in with the picks that we have. It also gives opportunities to some of our other guys to play on top lines.”

Other than that, there is still the possibility for a trade. While a rumored trade with Lewiston has been bandied about* (OK, only by me - and I know nothing, and my commenters may be fucking with me) for young defenceman Garrett Clarke, Russel has recently told reporters* that no trades are finalized though he is working on a deal:

Otherwise, Russell said he’s "very close" to finishing off a deal to acquire a solid 17-year-old player in exchange for one of his veterans and a late draft pick. It would be Russell’s first trade since taking over as GM in January.

"Nothing is finalized but it’s a trade we’ve worked hard on since the season ended," Russell said. "If it goes through, it’s something I think could really help us."

Yar (pirates are everywhere nowadays), speaking of commenters. You know you can do that right? You can write to tell me all of your secrets, to giggle about trade rumours, to whisper about boys, or to just insult me and call me a cum-guzzler. You wouldn't be the first one. I find this to be a hilarious insult because despite the fact that boys will use it to put you down, they all wish that their girlfriends (or boyfriends, if they swing that way) would do it.

Cam says

From an article in the Chronicle Herald today:

"Obviously we want kids that can play the game; kids with talent," Russell said. "But they all have to be good quality kids with a good work ethic. That’s the kind of player we want to build this team around."

As part of his hands-on venture into the scouting side of the team’s operations, Russell said he’s planning to shuffle his resources somewhat to target different geographical regions. He said he’s thinking about focusing less on the United States than the team has in the past, while beefing up the team’s presence in Newfoundland and Ontario.

....mmmmm Newfoundland

Russell said he’s also been busy working the phones with other GMs trying to make a few deals. He said nothing has been done yet but feels like he’s getting close on one trade that could see him acquire a good young player in exchange for some of his veteran talent.

"You never know if it’ll come together or not," Russell said. "Let’s just say we’re active. We’re looking to make improvements for the team and we’re open to any suggestions."

NHL Draft: Rounds 1 & 2

The televised first round of the NHL draft was so delightfully pleasant that I couldn't wait to fall asleep to dream about it. Yes...it was just that exciting. Luke Schenn's mom was dreamy. Even dreamier was Nikita Filatov (and his mom). I want to put Filatov in my mouth and roll him around on my tongue. He probably sparks like POP rocks.

...and yet, no QMJHL players were chosen in the first round. I must admit it is all my fault. The new favorite snack of children is fruit and I keep on insisting that my Q players eat cookies. So unhealthy. All things considered, I am still perplexed by how the NHL can resist the awesome power of Maxime Sauve's eyebrows.


Now it is Saturday morning and we are early in round 2 and ....motherfucker - Jake Allen goes second round at 34th overall. This is a kid who backstopped his team to a whopping 9 regular season wins - 9. WAKE UP PEOPLE of ST. LOUIS - you are taking a huge risk. Y'all better hope you are not getting another Antoine Lafleur.

• Forward Nick Deschamps of Chicoutimi has been drafted by Anaheim 35th overall.
• Dreamy defenceman Yann Sauve of the Saint John Sea Dog has been picked up by Vancouver with the 41st pick. Vancouver likes 'em handsome.

• Buffalo decided that sometimes big guys are worth it and selected Fog Devils/ Montreal Jr forward Luke Adam with the 44th overall pick.
• Boston was weak in the knees for Maxime Sauve's eyebrows, so they selected him 47th overall. Boston is also quite keen on picking up kids from the Q. Two players from this year's Mooseheads team have contracts with Boston (Bodnarchuk, Marchand)
• Holy hell in a handbasket. The NJ devils picked up a Q-boy! NJ gets Rimouski Centreman Patrice Cormier at 54. Patrice played 51 games this year with 18 G and 21 A.
  
• Defenseman Marco Scandella of the Val d'Or is bunkin' with Shep and the Wild at #55
• Lewiston goaltender Peter Delmas has been selected by Colorado with their 61st pick. Who'da thunkit that Colorado would be smarter than St. Louis. Wait? What? Owie my brain!

_____________________________________
Draft pic from TSN at http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/

NHL Draft: The QMJHL Skaters

Central Scouting has ranked 35 skaters from the QMJHL as projected picks in this years NHL draft. I have listed them here by round and ranking amoung North American Skaters. If I have found local news articles or other interesting items, these are included in links besides the players name.

Draft Picks by Name, Team and Position

Round one:

21 Nicolas Deschamps, CHICOUTIMI C
26 Maxime Sauve, VAL D'OR C
29 Yann Sauve, SAINT JOHN D - NHL, Telegraph Journal

Yann Sauve

Round two:

42 Luke Adam, ST. JOHN'S C - The Telegram
45 Danick Paquette, LEWISTON RW - NHL
46 Kelsey Tessier, QUEBEC C - Times and Transcript
55 Jacob Lagace, CHICOUTIMI LW
57 Mikhail Stefanovich, QUEBEC C
61 Patrice Cormier, RIMOUSKI C

Adam and Paquette

Round three:

69 Mathieu Brodeur, CAPE BRETON D - Cape Breton Post, Chronicle Herald
73 Joel Champagne, CHICOUTIMI C
76 Samuel Groulx, QUEBEC D
80 Philippe Cornet, RIMOUSKI LW
82 Marco Scandella, VAL D'OR D

Brodeur and Cornet

Round four:

107 Alexandre Neron, RIMOUSKI D
111 Mathieu Tousignant, PEI C
118 Antoine Roussel , CHICOUTIMI LW
120 Samuel Morneau, BAIE-COMEAU LW

Tousignant, a beer I drank, Morneau, and Neron

Round five:

122 Jordon Southorn, PEI D
125 Marc-Andre Bourdon, ROUYN-NORANDA D
130 Chris Doyle, PEI C - The Guardian
134 Mark Barberio, MONCTON D - Times and Transcript
137 Luc-Olivier Blain, CHICOUTIMI C

Southorn, Doyle and Barberio

Round six:

164 Pierre-A Vandall, SHAWINIGAN LW
N166 Jean-Sebastien Berube, ROUYN-NORANDA LW
169 Pascal Amyot, SAINT JOHN D
171 Steven Delisle, GATINEAU D
177 Mike Hoffman, DRUMMONDVILLE C/LW
179 Mike Thomas, SAINT JOHN W
180 Thomas Knotek, HALIFAX C - Chronicle Herald

Amyot, Delisle, Thomas and Knotek

Round seven:

182 Eric Louis-Seize (aka BigHits E.L.XVI), HALIFAX LW
197 Travis Stacey, GATINEAU LW
200 Jonathan Bonneau, VICTORIAVILLE LW
206 Ashton Bernard, SHAWINIGAN LW - Cape Breton Post

Louis-Seize and Bonneau

The 2008 NHL Draft Is Chock Full O' Defensemen.

I will be doing my Q update later, but I just had to come online to point out the following jailbait. Say meow to Yann Sauve (Saint John Sea Dogs), Zach Bogosian (Peterborough Petes), and Luke Schenn (Kelowna Rockets). QMJHL, OHL and WHL - it's little something for everyone. You can thank me later.

NHL draft. It's Like I Am Just Giving Away My Babies

The NHL draft is this weekend and I have compiled a list of all of the QMJHL players on the NHL draft list from Central Scouting Services, along with their expected draft position and round. I have been meaning to do this post now for about two weeks, but I have been too lazy to dig through my team photos to find pictures of all of the boys.

I will start of course with the goaltenders, because goalies make me feel all funny down there. Tomorrow I will cover the skaters. Do not expect me to cover skaters like I covered goalies; skaters and I aren't down like that.

In addition, TSN has posted a list of their top 60 prospects, some of our Q boys are on there, including one of today's subjects Jake Allen of the (oh fuck it) St John's Fog Devils and 2008 Canada under 18 team. Jake is ranked by TSN at #31. Peter Delmas of the Lewiston Maineiacs gets an honourable mention. Before I get to the list may I just say that I am still completely mesmerized by Zach Boychuk and Maxime Sauve's eyebrows. TSN's pics are an eyebrow fetishists dream come true. Zach Bogosain is the newest member in my club. Let's all give him a warm welcome.



Of the 30 goalies listed by Central Scouting Services, 7 play in the QMJHL. I have included links (click name) to their game-by-game stats. The goalies are are listed by

Rank, Name, Team, Games played, GAA, Minutes, Save %:

3 Peter Delmas, LEWISTON, 34, 2.84, 1987, 0.903
7 Kevin Poulin, VICTORIAVILLE 52, 3.69, 2733, 0.887
8 Jake Allen, ST. JOHN'S 30, 3.14, 1507, 0.901
14 Robert Mayer, SAINT JOHN 32, 3.77, 1669, 0.877
20 Marco Cousineau, BAIE-COMEAU 58, 2.81, 3226, 0.903
22 Mathieu Leclair, BAIE-COMEAU 22, 2.92, 1005, 0.896
26 Nicolas Champion, BATHURST 38, 2.96, 2130, 0.857

Delmas, Poulin, Allen, Mayer, Champion

Delmas is definitely the dude to hold the top spot amoung Q- goalies, and deservedly so. He has been rockin' it consistently for two years, so we have a pretty good idea of what this kid can do. Like his mentor Bernier, his biggest asset is positioning. You can't really take away from his skill by saying he does what he does only because he plays for a team with a good defensive system. If I had to choose between Delmas and Allen, I would go with Delmas. Delmas makes me feel safe, warm, loved. He has only been usurped by Allen recently because of Allen's stellar performance at the World Under 18s, in which Canada walked away with the gold and Allen won MVP of the tournament.
*edit - Wuest has a new article on Delmas in the Metro. There is a picture - he is adorable like a snappy lobster.

It is not that I don't like Jake Allen, but he has lost more than he has won and he has been outplayed by a number of goalies who are far lower on this list than him. Furthermore, I just have not seen enough of him, and neither have all of these people who are projecting him to go in the second round. Ya know what though, that little MF is gonna go high. I feel it in my bones, I feel it in my sitemeter. Jake is a good puck handing goaltender and he has that same sexy little cross crease wiggle that I have seen Travis Fullerton do. I do not know what is in the water in new Brunswick to make these boys move and puck handle like they do, but it is a sight to behold. That wiggle ain't right. No really it ain't right, I think it may be technically incorrect and lazy, but it works for these boys somehow... and it looks damn sexy.
* edit - An interview with Jake can be downloaded at the pipeline show

What I can tell you is that Jake Allen definitely deserves to be ahead of Kevin Poulin in the Central Scouting report. Kevin Poulin is a temperamental ragdoll. I think that Victoriaville probably rode this kid into the ground when there was absolutely no need to do so. They had perfectly cromulent goaltender in Blanchard during the first half, and overplayed Poulin in the second half behind a weaker team. According to an older report from in La Nouvelle L'union, written about the time of the Combine, Poulin was expected to have talks with the Hurricanes and about 11 other NHL franchises.

Swiss import Robert Mayer had mad skillz half of the time, the other half the time he was just standing around dreaming of lollipops and ponies with sparkles in their flowing manes. Either that or he was all distracted by his sexy teammates. I mean honestly, who wouldn't be. He, like many of us (me) will have one less distraction with Travis Fullerton having outgrown the Q. Robert can do stretchy moves like its no-ones business where or how he learned those stretchy moves. Furthermore, he does those stretchy moves with little cost to his own wellbeing. He needs to work more on his attentiveness (it is not all about impressing me with stretchy moves), positioning and rebound control. Either that or he needs to join a circus.

Champion only joined the Q at the Christmas trading period, and he did not get much icetime until late January when his goaltending counterpart Antoine Tardif, a boy who was apparently not long for scouting lists since he has fallen completely off the map, got injured. The Titan rode Champion like I would ride a goalie - long and hard. He plays flashy in the net, but if I recall correctly he is not big on adventurous puckhandling. Anyway, the kid was worn out by playoffs, no doubt. He had absolute moments of brilliance, but by the end of the season it was pretty much guaranteed that if you got those shots on net, some of them were going to slip by.

I cannot tell you much about LeClair or Cousineau, except to say that they played on a defensively minded team. The Moose faced these guys only twice all season, once at home, once on the road, and both times Cousineau was in nets. What I can tell you is that we shut them out: 4-0 the first try, and we were about 30 seconds from shutting them out 4-0 on our second go.

Lobsters could design a better website.

According to the Mooseheads fan focus committee the only problem with our website is that the scores of games are not posted quickly. In fact a few "FFC members indicated that the website was very good". The FFC must be made up of the kind of people who believe the internet to be a series of tubes.

The Mooseheads FFC members have clearly never gotten in their pod and tubed their way over to the wildcats website. The Cats have a player history record stemming back to their inaugural year which includes stats, team pictures, game pictures, bios and sometimes video. Hey look - it's Johnny Oduya. The Wildcats have set up a Youtube video page where they have posted some interviews with their shiny new draftees. I will be stalking on the Wildcats webpage all next year to find info on my unrequited love Tyler Noseworthy (mmmm video) and my new cuddling partner Louis Boileau-Domingue. When watching the Noseworthy video I learned that the boy is actually a Newf...ahhhhh the mysterious lure of the Newfoundlander. I thought it was awfully strange for me to be so drawn to a forward from Dartmouth, but now I know why I am under his thrall.

Next up is the Sea Dogs website. The Sea Dogs do not have a good player history record, but they do have a Youtube page and they post picture stories every few weeks. The Sea Dogs rock my socks not only because of their focus on defense, but also because like a few of the other teams in the league (eg, Lewiston, Moncton, Rouyn-Noranda) they have a professional photographer. Thus game day photos are available for all the world to see and squee. The Sea Dogs have posted pictures and a video from draft day. Hey, there is Captain Alex and Kirky. Awwww Kirky is so 'Kirky'. Michael Kirkpatrick has just inspired me to coin a new adjective, and for that he gets a cookie.

Le Titan have no videos, but draft day pictures abound. Like the goalie hungry MFs they are, they not only acquired rights to Paul Dorsey, but they also drafted two new goalies Frederic Piche and Guillaume Nadeau. Piche is a ginge - huh, a red-headed French guy - that is crazy talk. Where can I acquire the rights to 10 goalies? I am am looking for a squad of goalies aged 20-36 (Brodeur aged). Please e-mail this info to QMJHLgirl@gmail.com

Even PEI are getting in on the awesome fun of draft video action. They have also taken team photos and created bios for all of their draftees which are now posted on their website.

Cape Breton, being the unfortunately poor island nation they are, stuck with their motto "Think Cape Breton First" and drafted hometown boy Logan Shaw. As a homer he won't think that Sydney is the most depressing place to play in the whole Q. Even the Eagles have a video of Logan's ceremonious walk to the podium to bathe in the pixie dust that James Sheppard sprinkles everywhere he goes. The Eagles also have their own Youtube account. Their Youtube page has video interviews with OUR PLAYERS.

Then the Mooseheads give us this.

I haven't even included the teams from the other divisions. I am pretty sure that Victoriaville have a good online record of their player history. Draft photos are up already - which is good because it allows me to prepare an eyebrow club invitation in advance to their 7th round pick Vincent Tessier. If Vincent makes the team he is automatically accepted into the club. Now we can peep at high res pictures of new puppy Brandon Hynes (who looks stoned) and Antoine Tardif's brother Alexandre.

Draft day aftermath – Making more sense of the draft madness

There is so much news coming out of draft day that I cannot keep track of it all or even hope to put all the links on here. Your best bet is to check out the Cape Breton Post for news since Cape Breton hosted the draft. Their live blog was better than Wuest’s, which had some errors that I then copied onto my blog. For example - Wuest missed in reporting that Baby Beaulieu went to daddy’s team, so I had to update that after the fact. I thought you could only draft your own kid if you owned the team (eg. P. Roy, B. Smith). I am also sorry if I made any spelling mistakes on the boys names.

The best source for a complete draft list is, of course, the QMJHL website. All trades are listed here as well, but I will put them here re-ordered by the team who has made the acquisitions - because that makes the most sense. The crazy part is that apparently the Remparts made a total of 18 trades. Roy does have many bedfellows indeed.

The 1, 2, 3 picture is already available. If one thing is guaranteed for all of eternity, it is that as long as there are sports drafts we will get the 1,2,3 picture on draft day. There is an article on first overall pick Brandon Gormley from Charlottetown's 'the guardian' newspaper, and good coverage of the Saint John picks are available at the Sea Dogs website.

There is an article on Mooseheads draft picks here. Our team is weird – did we not interview Desjardins thoroughly before drafting him? He says “I was very surprised they picked me because they had not talked to me at any time (before the draft)”

The Sprigginest boy selected in the first round was Victoriaville 3rd overall pick Brandon Hynes by a long shot. He is just a wee thing, but he is three kinds of puppy - possibly more. Dear Brandon Hynes, isn’t it great to be so darn cute (pinches cheeks). Sure, he is no Simon Despres (pinches Simon's cheeks and feeds him a cookie, a huge glass of milk, and another cookie) but we will live. Luckily for me, Moncton also drafted an absolutely adorable goalie – my favorite kind. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until training camp to see what the Mooseheads draft picks look like and what they can do.

I have added a sidebar with our picks in order, along with our 19 year old acquisition Bahm. Hopefully I can get some player links up soon:

· Gabriel Desjardins (F)
· Alex Lemieux (F)
· Jessyko Bernard (W)
· Ryan Matheson (D)
· Alex MacDonald (D)
· Kody Blois (G)
· Andrew O'Leary (W)
· Andrew Morrison (D)
· William Cloutier (D)

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Non-Draft News:
Apparently Cape Breton Alum Dean Ouellett will be with U de M, and not the UNB-Moncton Varsity Reds as previously reported.

Same Boy, New Jersey Part II
This is a supplement to my previous trades post.

Bathurst:
Paul Dorsey (from Val d’Or via Victoriaville) - Dorsey has had a hard old go of it, being shuttled between 4 teams in a year. Bathurst LOVES to collect goalie rights.

Baie-Comeau:
Marek Benda (Cape Breton)
Michael Trudel (Drummondville)

Montreal:
Benjamin Rubin (Gatineau)
Neil Sherren (Cape Breton)
Angelo Esposito (Quebec)
Vincent Bourgeois (Quebec)
Martin Baca (Shawinigan)
Will Johnson (Shawinigan)

Halifax:
Linden Baum (Shawinigan)

Victoriaville:
Alexi Pianosi (Moncton)

PEI:
Bobby Nadeau (Chicoutimi)
Maxime Provencher (Chicoutimi)

Shawinigan:
Timo Pielmeier (Montreal)

Cape Breton:
Michael Stinziani (Gatineau)

Quebec:
Jean-Simon Allard (Montreal)

Rouyn-Noranda:
Benjamin Lecomte (Quebec)
Benoit Gervais (Rimouski)

Rimouski:
Sebastien Piche (Rouyn-Noranda)
Maxim Gougeon (Rouyn-Noranda)

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1,2,3 picture from the QMJHL website.
Brandon Hynes Picture from www.hockeyscene.com

Draft Day Part 3 - A Love Lost Before It Began

God Dammit - “The Moncton Wildcats take Dartmouth native and Pictou County Weeks Crushers junior A forward Tyler Noseworthy with the 93rd overall selection. Noseworthy is a hard-hitting forward who was believed to be of some interest to the Mooseheads.”

The hockey Gods giveth (Nadeau in the East) and they taketh away (Noseworthy to the Wildcats). It is our own damn fault for not getting him with our 4^th round pick. *Shanks Patenaude*

Dear Tyler
It was over before it began. I am sad that we couldn’t make it work out between us. I am sure next year I will see you in the Moncton lineup and you will be “BIG HITTIN” all over the place, while the guy we took in the 4^th round will not report to the team. I can see it now – Halifax vs Moncton, and our own BigHits-E.L.XVI will be skating around with the puck, just whistling while he works, and along you will come - BAM. Just don’t hit Mighty Whitey, he has concussion problems.

Kisses to keep you warm on your travels
Q

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Mooseheads picks (from Wuest):

The Mooseheads gave up their 123rd overall pick and a 2009 selection for the 101st pick. They use the pick on defenceman Ryan Matheson from the Central Ice Pack in Newfoundland. He's a 5-foot-10, 157-pound centre.

Uhhhh What is that Wuest? confusing! Is he a Centre or a defenseman? Why are we picking so many little guys? Well if I can’t have another Quebecois or Noseworthy at least they are getting me a new Newf.

Alex MacDonald from the Moncton Flyers midget AAA team. He's a 6-foot-3, 182-pound defenceman who was ranked 73rd overall by Central Scouting. - Finally a big kid!!!

Oh my – A GOALIE
The Mooseheads grab Cole Harbour McCain goaltender Kody Blois. He's a 5-foot-10, 170-pounder who helped the squad to an Atlantic major midget title.
Ohhhhhhh HE IS SPRIGGIN – LOOK AT HIS LITTLE NOSE

Andrew O'Leary, a 6-foot, 180-pound winger who plays for Shattuck St. Mary's, a U.S. prep school. He is from Minnesota.

Andrew Morrison is a 5-foot-10, 172-pound defenceman from South Shore major midgets taken with the 15th pick of the 11th round.

William Cloutier, a 5-foot-11 defenceman from Quebec.

We should now officially change our team name to the Halifax Andrews. We now have at least 3 Andrews, 2 Alexes, and 2 Gabriels. Lord only knows how many more Andrews I will find if I dig into our protected list (Yes, I remember you Andrew Bodnarchuk) .

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Trades:

Former Dartmouth Subways captain and Halifax native Alexi Pianosi was just traded from the Moncton Wildcats to the Victoriaville Tigres for second- and fifth-round picks in 2010.

The Halifax Mooseheads have acquired 19-year-old right-winger Linden Bahm from the Victoriaville Tigres for a sixth-round pick in 2009. Bahm, a 6-foot, 188-pounder, had nine goals and nine assists in 67 games last season.

Cape Breton deals European goaltender Marek Benda to the Baie-Comeau Drakkar for draft picks. - WEIRD!!! BC have two very good, young, NHL draft eligible goalies. What do they want Benda for?

SeaDogs:
140. Nicholas Spear (a goalie)
158. Nicolas Larocque-Marcoux.
171. Raphaël Girard (a goalie)
12th round . Stephen Walker

Eagles:
102. Goaltender Alex Newman. He will probably move to CB to back up Roy and become awesome – like all of their goalies.
138. Olivier Bibeau
143. Neil Coombs
156. Jean-Sebastien Fournier
173. Steven Brazil

Draft Day Part 2 - A crazy girl gets crazier. Rounds 2-5.

Exciting things abound. There really are hockey Gods. Bobby Nadeau has been traded to the East, more specifically, to the PEI rocket. PEI also gets defenseman Maxime Provencher from the Sags. Mmmmmmm 4 home dates with Bobby Nadeau this year. It is just what I wanted. But what does this mean for Antoine LaFleur? PEI now have two 20 year old, and one 19 year old goalie.

Timarzipan Pielmeier has been traded to Shawinigan, which reminds me that Riki are DUMB in going for the Gouge over delicious German Timo.

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"The Halifax Mooseheads take 5-foot-11, 172-pound forward Alex Lemieux from Charles-Lemoyne in the Quebec AAA ranks with the 39th overall pick." Another French kid and another forward, but they say he is a good two-way guy. Still no Ds. Ruh-roh, does this mean we are going for Ds in the 4^th round…but my Noseworthy puppy is projected 4^th round. You promised us both (me and Nose) that we would be together – Make it happen Moose.

Trade - Mathieu Gagnon going to Gatineau and Martin Lefebvre going to the Quebec Remparts.

"The Halifax Mooseheads select Jessyko Bernard at 69th overall. Bernard is a 6-foot-2, 190-pound winger from Cushing Acadmey prep school. He is from Dieppe, N.B. Bernard was ranked in the first five rounds last year but was passed over."

Bernard was projected to go 7^th round and he is one of those NCAA kids, which means we should have taken him with one of our two 7^th round picks and used our fourth round pick on, ummmm a fourth round kinda guy who wants to be here, like, ummmm NOSEWORTHY. Hey – that is not Noseworthy. Calm down, no one has Noseworthy yet!!! But we do not get another pick until the 7^th round. UGH, also, three forwards Moose?– apparently we learned nothing last year about the importance of defense. Not that we would actually know what to do with a defenseman if we got one. It is just like how I would not know what to do with a 20 year old goalie if I actually got my hands on one. I’m all talk – no action!

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The 5^th round is done and no one has picked up Noseworthy yet. It is funny how you can make a shallow assessment of a guy, decide you want him for your team based on his size, some quotes and his eyebrows, then become obsessed with getting him. It is like wanting to win a lottery - Noseworthy has become a fun game for me. I always need something to obsess over, and without my crazy obsessive nature I would not be me. Also, it would be nice to have a 17 year old that we can add to our roster right away.

Sea Dogs have picked up:
52. Cole Harbour McCain forward Stephen MacAulay
69. Daddy's boy - Nathan Beaulieu.
79. Cheticamp forward (?) Kyle Dilosa

Cape Breton acquisitions and trades:
CB traded their 30th and 40th overall picks and eighth-rounder in 2009 to Gatineau for forward Michael Stinziani and the 85th overall pick. Stinziani is a fancy pick-up for CB.

49. Cape Breton trades Neil Sherren to Montreal - they use that pick on Morgan Ellis.
70. Forward Maximilien Le Sieur
85. Spencer MacDonald

Draft Day Round 1

1.Moncton – Brandon Gormley

2. Drummondville – Sean Couturier

3. Victoriaville – Brandon Hynes – he is a tiny basket of puppies but there may be a Labrador retriever, a huskie, and I definitely see a Newfoundland puppy in there. Mmmmm newf

4. Val d’Or – Cedrick Henley – big puppy.

5. PEI - Ben Duffy

Trade – the Gouge and Piche from Rouyn–Noranda to Rimouski for Benoit Gervais – DUMB Riki. No Whitey for you.

The camera has been focusing in on the trade table. Roy has been making sexy faces at Vincent. Are they bedfellows? The Montreal Junior get Angelo Esposito in a trade which sees Jean-Simon Allard going to the Quebec Remparts.

I’m confused. This announcer sucks.

6. Lewiston – Garrett Clark – will he report

7. Shawinigan – Michael Bournival – oh he looks daft but also spriggin and French. I like the new Shawinigan jersey.

8. Montreal – Guillaume Asselin – boy can’t work a hat. Knows one word - "incredible", but he says it with a French accent which makes it cute.

9. Lewiston – Michael Chaput, brother of Stephan Chaput from Lewiston

10. Quebec – Samuel Carrier – he is all worlds of French.

You just know that Patrick Roy loves the Sydney skanks. He looks so smug - there is no possible way he hasn’t been up to something shifty and sexy while he is in Sydney. Imagine how much tail he picks up at Smooth Hermans. Yeah, he has been known to frequent the bars when he is in town. Then all of our skanky Cape Breton friends make cell phone calls to Halifax and squee into our ears about St Patrick being at the bar, and then they run off and do their thing. A skanks gotta do what a skanks gotta do.

Trade - Bathurst and Shawinigan do a trade for picks

11. Bathurst - Vincent Arseneau

12. Cape Breton – Deano, Fergus and Sheppard are there - Shep is adorable and scruffy. The older boys are exciting me, when it should be the young boys getting me excited today. Culligan is announced as the new captain of the Eagles, and they let Cully announce their pick. They take local boy Logan Shaw, which is way off the draft predictions.

Now Eastlink is interviewing James Sheppard. He has great skin, but seriously greasy hockey hair. Ahhh the NHL has taught him how to look like a greasy hockey player. That’s why he gets the big bucks now. The new draft picks are fluffy, the NHL players greasy. Is it a gradual change or a sudden one? Kerplunk. I am glad that Pier remained fluffy, except for a strange period around draft time. He entered the draft in a fluffy haired state but by ‘meet the draftees’ day his hair was all slicked down. Luckily it was only a phase; unfortunately so was having his rights held by an NHL team. I cry daily because nobody wants my sweet Pier. Won’t somebody please take my sweet P-O and pay him to stand there while someone belts frozen pucks at him. It would make us both very happy.

Trade - The Moncton Wildcats are making a trade with Rouyn-Noranda

13. Moncton – Louis Boileau-Domingue – a goalie – a pouty, toothy, tall, slim, cute French goalie. Hooray for me - a new baby goalie to watch. Apparently his sister dates current Moncton Wildcats goalie Nicola Riopel.

14. Lewiston – Etienne Brodeur.

15. Val d’Or –Alex Noel - has EXTREME eyebrow power, Maxime Sauve levels of eyebrow power. What is more exciting than making it into the Q is getting into my eyebrow club.

16. Gatineau – Yoan Pinette ranked # 90 but went at #16. That is way off the board.

The Cape Breton fans are thanking the Olympiques for beating my team. Hey, I love and appreciate your Eagles, why can’t we all just get along. Gatineau’s new jersey is rocking the Orange, Yoan is rocking the gold tie– it is a colour match made in hell.

17. Bathurst - Stefan Fournier

18. Drummondville – Jerome LeDuc – he looks like a baby…because he is.

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I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT HALIFAX’s PICKS NOW!!! Whaaaaa

Actually since we did not get a high first round pick I do not think we will be moving anybody for a second round pick, and when I say anybody I mean Whitey. Also, since picks have been way off the board, many first round guys have moved down and are available in the second, so Halifax might not be panicking. I wish the draft would air on TV for longer

Ugh now Wuest is reporting this –

“The Mooseheads made a pitch to acquire an earlier pick to grab defenceman Garrett Clarke, but the Lewiston Maineiacs won those sweepstakes and drafted him at No. 6. Clarke was ranked fifth by Central Scouting.”

Fuck off Moose – you would trade White or Logan only to get a guy who may not report and whose rights you could not trade for later because he could change his mind again and go NCAA. When I saw that Lewiston drafted him at 6^th overall I thought – that seems like some dumb ass thing Halifax would do – well fuck me with the butt end of a goalie stick – you are way too fucking predictable Mr. Patenaude.

From Wuest:

“The Halifax Mooseheads make their first pick of the draft at 24th overall. They select from Montreal midget AAA Gabriel Desjardins, a 5-foot-11, 187-pound forward.”

Yeah – they gots me a French kid. Thanks Santa Patenaude. He plays on the same team as our baby goalie MCT. How he is at playing hockey - I have no idea, but he better damn well be worth the pick.

I will report back later with a full list of our picks and I will be keeping an eye on Wuest’s live blog. FUN.