QMJHL Preview: Despite expected hangover, Halifax should still win the Maritimes division

With the QMJHL season starting Thursday, we will look at each division in the Q and make 14 fun facts and fearless forecasts for the upcoming 2013-14 season. This is the Maritimes Division. The West and East Divisions were posted Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Halifax Mooseheads had a season of dreams last year, winning the Memorial Cup and finishing at the top of the QMJHL in fine fashion. The CHL’s no. 1 team enjoyed a dominating season, playoff and capped it off with a Memorial Cup victory.

Other than that, the division was one of disappointments. The Moncton Wildcats, Acadie-Bathurst Titan and now-former P.E.I. Rocket made runs last season, only to be knocked out in the first round swiftly. The Cape Breton Screaming Eagles made barely a whimper, finishing in the league basement.

This season, expect a similar outcome for teams with completely different paths. It could be wide open, but it will be the worst division of the three in the QMJHL. It is a very real possibility that only one team will finish over .500 by season’s end.

1. The Mooseheads will not repeat their run from last season — While this is not ruling out that the Mooseheads could still contend for a playoff run, the Mooseheads will not finish first overall in the league again.

The Mooseheads will wake up from their dream season last year. Some players remain, but the team is a shell of its former self. Luckily, netminder Zachary Fucale remains to steal games the now-thin Mooseheads can’t finish off. Defencemen Brendan Duke, Austyn Hardie and Matt Murphy will anchor a largely unchanged blueline, and the forwards will be bolstered from the additions of Euros Nikolaj Ehlers and Timo Meier.

2. Bathurst will play with heavy hearts — The Acadie-Bathurst Titan suffered great tragedy on the first day of their training camp, when fourth-round pick Jordan Boyd collapsed and later died in an on-ice workout. Certainly, his death brings many questions of the handling of the young men who leave their homes at a young age in the care of a junior team, but rest assured that the Titan handled the situation as well as they could, and that all teams are at least in some way prepared for the unexpected.

Boyd, ultimately, was a teammate and friend. The players will play through this all year. It will make them tougher and help them grow together as a unit. Head coach Danny Dupont will have a full year with his players to start from scratch and play his game.

3. The Rocket won’t blast off anymore — The P.E.I. Rocket are no longer. The newly-christened Charlottetown Islanders will begin play this season with the same organization and coaching staff, under new owners. New GM Grant Sonier will work better with the locals than the Savards, and there will be no threat of moving, allowing head coach Gordie Dwyer to keep working away at pulling rabbits out of his hat.

The Rocket ran into the upstart Val-d’Or Foreurs in the first round, losing in seven on home ice. The Islanders will be considerably younger this season, but just as feisty, built in the mould of their coach, the former NHL enforcer. Will the fans, who haven’t seen a playoff series victory in franchise history, be able to wait that long?

4. No more Léo-Guy Morrissette in Bathurst — The venerable owner of the Titan for many, many years finally sold his shop this off-season, as Acadie-Bathurst was bought by local investors. The league loses a legend for his presence and his stories. Morrissette will retire to his home in Quebec.

This puts to end the questions of will-they, won’t-they for the Titan. The team has a stable, local ownership group now, finally. They can stay and market to their region and rebuild the trust between market and team.

The Titan were a one-line team the last two years, and now that line has graduated. Gone as well are two useful players and support scorers in Alec Jon Banville and Christophe Lalancette, though they did add Gatineau forwards Adam Chapman and Alexandros Soumakis. The team will have an interesting transition year this year.

4. The Wildcats will Rumble on — The pun is too easy. The Wildcats sent director of hockey operations Danny Flynn upstairs to better run the team, handing the keys to new head coach Darren Rumble. The former journeyman will run a team in transition this season, as they have lost in the first round the last three seasons, including an upset last year that saw the sixth-ranked Cats dispatched in five games by the Victoriaville Tigres.

Early reviews say the players like playing under Rumble, who is much more approachable and clear with his players. The team will be young and considerably more up-tempo than Flynn-coached teams, so while they may give up a lot of goals, they may score a lot too. They kept Russian forward Ivan Barbashev, who some predict could go in the top-ten in the NHL draft next year, but his linemate at the under-18s, Vladimir Tkachev, signed with Omsk in the KHL and isn’t coming stateside, making for a wasted Wildcats Euro pick.

5. Cape Breton got a good deal for Nicolas Roy — The Screaming Eagles had their hand forced and had to make the best deal available, sending the holdout Nicolas Roy to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens for three first round picks. The team will also receive a fifth-overall pick from the league as compensation for Roy’s no-show. The Sags beat out the Gatineau Olympiques, the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and the Shawinigan Cataractes for the services of Mr. Roy.

Now, Marc-André Dumont is in the midst of a second rebuild. His first, with the Val-d’Or Foreurs, culminated last season, but he was replaced by Mario Durocher in November. Now he gets to start fresh again with a plethora of picks and young prospects at his disposal. It will be another long winter in Sydney, N.S., but at least the direction will be clear.

6. Saint John will surprise — The Sea Dogs nearly missed the playoffs last season, finally crashing to earth after a three-season run of three QMJHL finals, two Memorial Cup tournaments and one Memorial Cup. They retain much of their young core this season, and also keep the services of goaltender Sébastien Auger. High-flying rookie Juraj Siska will make an impact, and the team will be gritty.

If they don’t start off well, they have pieces they can sell. Forwards Jason Cameron and Stephen Anderson have Memorial Cup experience, and Auger could fetch a pretty penny for a team short on a good starting goalie. The road begins again for Mike Kelly’s crew, but he built the last one, too.

7. The Wildcats will be popular south of the border — The Wildcats made noise at the QMJHL entry draft in June by drafting eight Americans. The team dressed five on Thursday against Halifax: forwards Conor Garland and Will Smith, blueliners Tucker White and Cameron Yarwood and netminder Graham Hunt. To combat the lack of high-profile picks in last year’s draft, the Wildcats went hard after Americans to make up for the talent difference.

As well, the team added four players born outside of the league’s region: two from Ontario, one from Manitoba and one from Alberta. When you have money, and owner Robert Irving does, you can do that.

8. Saint John will try hard to get the Memorial Cup in 2015 — The Sea Dogs and their fans thought they were slighted when the 2012 Memorial Cup was awarded to the Shawinigan Cataractes, and their new arena, the then-named Centre Bionest. The city can rejoice now, as there is no other team with a new arena or a new anything ahead of Saint John’s 2015 bid. Quebec City is also expected to bid, although it hosted recently in 2003.

It’s been assumed for years that they would make a pitch for 2015, and now at the end of the month, they can. Harbour Station has been renovated with an HD scoreboard and a new coat of paint, and is ready to accommodate the best in the CHL.

9. Barbashev might be the most talented forward in the division — With no Nathan MacKinnon or Jonathan Drouin, or Ben Duffy or Josh Currie, or Dmitrij Jaskin, or Zach O’Brien in the division this year, the forward with the most talent in the division may be the Wildcats’ Ivan Barbashev. He scored at nearly a point-a-game pace last season playing second-line minutes, and could make a big leap forward this season in his draft year. The Wildcats have significantly less talent up front this year as well, so the attention falls to Barbashev, Conor Garland and Chris Lalonde to take the lion’s share this season.

10. Scoring will be hard to come by — Every team in the division has a good, proven starting goaltender. The Mooseheads have Fucale, the Sea Dogs Auger, the Wildcats Alex Dubeau, the Titan Jacob Brennan, the Islanders Antoine Bibeau and the Screaming Eagles Maxime Lagacé. Every netminder was a starter in the league last year and all but Lagacé was with their respective teams last year as well. Each goalie is capable of stealing a game or two, putting scoring at a premium.

11. The Islanders will be heavy hitters — Charlottetown boasts the two heaviest players in the division: Alexis Pépin and Ryan Graves. Graves, a blueliner, comes in at 227 pounds according to the league’s website, and Pépin, a forward, tips the scales at 238 pounds. Only Jonathan Diaby with Victoriaville, at 240 pounds, is heavier. Along with heavyweights Jack Nevins and Deverick Ottereyes, the Islanders could be a force along the boards.

Just think back (or forward) to 17-year-old you, and think that at that age, Pépin is 6-foot-2 and 238 pounds, and Beau Rusk of the Rimouski Oceanic, is 6-5 and 230 pounds. Yikes. Pass the puppy chow.

12. Cape Breton will continue to deal — Dumont has made 17 trades since taking over in Cape Breton. He has two great chips at his disposal to make some more progress with: defenceman Justin Haché and netminder Maxime Lagacé.

Lagacé has already been mentioned as an adequate-to-good no. 1 goaltender, but he’s 20, so he’ll be hard to move. Haché will be the big prize; 19 years old, a Memorial Cup winner and a minute eater for a lousy Cape Breton team.

13. Homestands at the finish will benefit Titan, Eagles, Isles; hurt Cats, Dogs — Both Bathurst and Cape Breton have very favourable schedules to end the 2013-14 season. The Titan finish with eight of their last 14 at home, while Cape Breton has eight of their last 13 on home ice. Charlottetown finishes up with six of their last nine at home.

The Wildcats play eight of their last 12 on the road, while the Sea Dogs take a four-game trip to finish off their season.

14 . The Mooseheads will raise the banner and open the season Thursday – The QMJHL season begins Thursday with Moncton visiting Halifax. The Mooseheads will celebrate their record-breaking 2012-13 season: a 58-6-3-1 record, 16-1 record in the playoffs, and a Memorial Cup win. The Wildcats will begin to avenge their first round loss to the Tigres from last season.

All 18 QMJHL teams are in action Friday, including the Mooseheads visiting Charlottetown, the Dogs taking on the Cats in Moncton, and the Screaming Eagles visiting Bathurst.