Saint John Sea Dogs' revamp sparks resurgence: CHL Hot & Cold

Winning times have returned to the Port City, with nary a trace of the regime that led to the Saint John Sea Dogs having an unprecendented three consecutive 50-win seasons ago not so long ago.

Saint John GM Derrell Young and coach Ross Yates brought back only eight regulars from last winter's 43-point team. The brain trust have restocked from far and wide in order to get back to respectability; leading goal scorer Adam Marsh, is a U.S. free agent, while the Sea Dogs also count seven Ontarians. The carefully orchestrated quick fix is bearing fruit; Saint John took both ends of a wild home-and-home with Cape Breton (6-5 and 5-4 in a shootout) and unexpectedly is perched atop the Maritimes Division.

Here is the weekly look at who is flowing and who is ebbing entering the week.

OHL

Hot: London Knights

Here they come again. London, ever immune to the regular junior hockey cycle, has scored 36 goals during a six-game win streak. The trio of Mitchell Marner (17 points during the win skein), Arizona Coyotes second-rounder Christian Dvorak (11) and Matt Rupert (eight) have been dialled in.Max Domi and Michael McCarron (15 apiece in the six games) also have their 'original Odd Couple' thing working.

London has scored first in its past nine games. It really looks like London was simply playing hit-the-logo when it went through the first 10 games without posting a single regulation win. The question is whether they regress back soon, heading into a stretch of five Western Conference games in a row.

Meantime, how about Marner?

Not: Niagara IceDogs

It feels like a pile-on to single out Niagara for the second time in three weeks, but the injury-riddled 'Dogs have lost six in a row to fall into a share of the OHL basement. Injuries to Arizona Coyotes first-rounder Brendan Perlini, New York Rangers-drafted D-man Ryan Mantha, captain Luke Mercer, wings Matt Gillard and Mitchell Fitzmorris have left Niagara (2-13-0-0) a shell of the team that was expected to take a big step forward in the Eastern Conference.

Centre Carter Verhaeghe, a Toronto Maple Leafs third-rounder, had strong efforts in narrow losses to Ottawa (4-1) and Mississsauga (2-1). All is not lost yet for the IceDogs, but they do have to face Connor McDavid and the Erie Otters in two of their next four games.

Canadian NHL team prospects

Darnell Nurse, Sault Ste. Marie (No. 9 by Edmonton in '13) and Michael McCarron, London (No. 25 by Montreal in '13) — Well, neither is on a roll. Nurse had a minus-4 night over the weekend as the Greyhounds had their first back-to-back losses of the season. McCarron also had a rare goose egg. But the two behemoths fought, and some people might enjoy that.

Hunter Smith, Oshawa (No. 54 by Calgary in '14) — The right wing has nine goals over his last eight games, and 12 in 17 games overall for the Eastern Conference-leading Generals. The 6-foot-6 (or -7 Smith) rang the crossbar in the only game where he was shut out.

Jimmy Lodge, Saginaw (No. 84 by Winnipeg in '14) — The Spirit are playing respectably in what's supposed to a rebuilding year. Lodge has a pair of two-goal efforts within the past three games.

Cole Cassels, Oshawa (No. 85 by Vancouver in '13) — The Generals centre is on a nine-game point streak after scoring a rebound goal during the return game of a sweep over the Belleville Bulls. Cassels is also fourth in OHL scoring.

Jordan Subban, Belleville (No. 115 by Vancouver in '13) — The offensive defenceman has points in eight consecutive games for the Bulls, who batted .500 in a three-game string vs. their conference's two best teams.

That shot will play well in Utica next season, eh?

QMJHL

Hot: Saint John Sea Dogs

The Sea Dogs (.735 point pct., first in the QMJHL) have somewhat come out of nowhere. The only real carryover from last season's bottoming out is starting goalie Sébastien Auger, but the Sea Dogs took 4-of-4 points from Cape Breton while he was convalescing with an illness. Saint John doesn't have a top-20 scorer, but with the Marsh-Nathan Noel-Spencer Spallman trio fronting a balanced team, it's scored enough to get by. The defence, which is likely to draw the most scouting attention between 16-year-old first overall pick Lucas Green and sophomore Jakub Zboril, who's keeping the open-ice check from becoming a lost art, has also been solid. The Sea Dogs might not be .700 hockey good; in fact, they probably aren't, but it's a nice turnaround that bears watching further.

Not: Rimouski Océanic

Wait, what — Rimouski is first overall. An 0-3 road trip, though, has left the Océanic tied for fourth in in the Quebec League with a .667 point percentage. Their front-loaded schedule caught up to them to late, plus they faced a gauntlet of seasoned goalies on the trip in Drummodnville's Louis-Philip Guindon, Shawinigan's Marvin Cüpper and Victoriavlle's Chase Marchand. That loss to the Tigres was the nadir; Toronto Maple Leafs first-rounder Frédérik Gauthier was credited with being just 5-for-21 on faceoffs, the quality that supposedly earned him a spot on Team Canada last season. The good news for Rimouski is that is only has two-game weeks straight through to December. It will bounce back.

Canadian NHL team prospects

Nikolaj Ehlers, Halifax (No. 9 by Winnipeg in '14) — Nik the Quick had consecutive multi-point games for the first time since returning to junior, counting six points over three games.

Mason McDonald, Charlottetown (No. 34 by Calgary in '14) — McDonald fared well in his two outings vs. Ehlers. In between, he got a mercy pull after three goals on eight shots vs. Moncton. The 18-year-old still has a 2.92 average and .912 save percentage on an 8-9-1-1 team.

Zachary Fucale, Halifax (No. 36 by Halifax in '13) — A 20-save shutout on Sunday got Fucale's stats down into the respectable range with a 3.13 average and .896 save percentage.

WHL

Hot: Red Deer Rebels

Red Deer (.531 point pct., third in the Central Division) is unbeaten since GM-coach Brent Sutter swung a trade with Everett two weeks ago for right wing Tyler Sandhu. Correlation does not imply causation, of course, but the 18-year-old scored a critical goal during the 2-1 win over Spokane that allowed Red Deer to maintain a five-game win streak. Backup goalie Taz Burman also stopped 38 shots in that contest.

Red Deer's also maintained the Dub's fourth-best penalty kill, with veteran Scott Feser being one of seven WHLers with multiple short-handed goals. Between 18-year-old leaders Connor Bleackley up front and Haydn Fleury at the back, Red Deer's maturing nucleus is starting to show why the franchise was awarded next season's Memorial Cup host berth.

Not: Edmonton Oil Kings

The Oil Kings (.588 point pct., second in the Central) have managed only six goals across four losses on their current southern swing. So, briefly and superficially, sending Curtis Lazar off to the Ottawa Senators might have finally caught up to coach Steve Hamilton's charges. Nineteen-year-old left wing Mads Eller is just getting back into rhythm after missing six games due to an injury, so at the moment the Oil Kings have been unable to be more than the sum of their parts offensively.

"Offence doesn’t come easily for us. We needed a couple tonight and couldn’t find the handle on some pucks,” Hamilton told the Edmonton Journal after Sunday's 3-1 loss to Portland. “I have to believe we’re going to turn the corner a little bit offensively."

A lot of eyes should be on Tuesday's potential goaltending matchup between the Oil Kings' Tristan Jarry and Tri-City Americans' Eric Comrie. It's the only meeting between the Dub's two best bets for Team Canada's net. Edmonton still has two more road games beyond the Tri-City tilt before returning home.

Canadian NHL team prospects

Josh Morrissey, Prince Albert (No. 13 by Winnipeg Jets in '13) — The defenceman is coming to life for a Raiders team that just had a change over from Cory Clouston to Marc Habscheid behind the bench. Morrissey scored in 3-of-4 Raiders games and had six points on the week.

Chase De Leo, Portland (No. 99 by Winnipeg in '14) — The 19-year-old is seventh in scoring with 22 poitns over 17 games. De Leo's been consistent, with only two goose eggs so far.

Austin Carroll, Victoria (No. 184 by Calgary in '14) — Carroll had four points over three games and is now the Dub's fifth-leading point-getter (23 over 16 games).

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.