A pair of rookies
from New Brunswickers — Taylor MacDougall and Nick
Layton — combined for five goals as the St. John’s
Fog Devils earned their first win of the 2006-07
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League exhibition
season, defeating the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles
7-5 Saturday afternoon in Gander.
Layton, from Wheaton Settlement, N.B., had three
goals, while MacDougall, who is from Fredericton,
added two as the Fog Devils earned some measure of
revenge for an 8-3 loss at the hands of the
Screaming Eagles Friday night in Gander.
The
two games were the first of the pre-season for the
Devils.
Second-year players Jean-Simon Allard and Paul
Roebothan, the latter into an empty net, had the
other goal for St. John’s.
Nick
MacNeill, with two, Chris Culligan, Dean Ouellet
and Jean-Christophe Gauthier replied for Cape
Breton.
The
Fog Devils utilized the same two goalies that had
been tasked for duty Friday, only this time it was
Bradley Dyke —who gave up just one goal — getting
the start and Jordan Fischer coming on in relief.
St.
John’s AAA Maple Leaf product Kyle Downer started
between the pipes for the Screaming Eagles, giving
up four goals before giving way to David
Davenport.
The
Fog Devils departed Gander Sunday and will resume
training camp in Mount Pearl this week. However,
there will be quite a few less bodies on the ice
at the Smallwood Arena when workouts start up
again
“About 23 to 25 guys,” answered head coach and
general manager Real Paiement when asked how many
could be expected to remain on the training camp
roster after today.
That
would mean about a dozen players will get bad news
this afternoon.
Paiement wouldn’t describe Friday and Saturday’s
games as make-or-break affairs, instead saying
they only served to corroborate what the coaching
staff had suspected.
“In
most cases, going in, where we believed a player
was capable of doing some things, that player was
able to do those things in a game situation,” said
Paiement. “And in most cases where we didn’t think
a player was able to do something, he wasn’t able
to do it in the game.
“That’s not the say he won’t ever be able to do
it, just that he is not able to do it yet, so he
may be better off honing his skills somewhere
else.
“So
for us it was mostly confirmation, good and bad.”
Still one would think that Layton, who led the
N.B.-P.E.I. AAA midget league in scoring last
season, didn’t hurt himself with his performance
Saturday, which also saw him pick up an assist.
“He’s had a good camp, but he kind of disappeared
in (Friday’s) game,” Paiement said of the
right-winger. “However, he stepped it up today, so
that’s a good sign.”
The St. John’s Fog
Devils lost their first game of the 2006-07 Quebec
Major Junior Hockey League exhibition season
Friday night, falling 8-3 to the Cape Breton
Screaming Eagles before a packed house at the
Gander Community Centre.
Paul
McIlveen scored twice for Cape Breton, which also
got goals from Shaun O’Donnell, Cam Fergus, Mark
Barberio, Chris Culligan, Matthew Stoddard and
Francois Gauthier.
The
Fog Devils’ goals came from first-round draft pick
Luke Adam, on a power play; American tryout Justin
Stewart, with a shorthanded effort; and Marc
Potvin.
The
teams were tied 2-2 after the opening period, with
the Screaming Eagles holding a 4-2 lead after 40
minutes.
Bradley Dyke started in net for St. John’s. Both
he and Jordan Fischer, who came on in relief
midway through the contest, surrendered four
goals.
Fraser Bailey. the Eagles’ starting netminder,
gave up the Devils’ two-first period markers.
Former St. John’s AAA Maple Leaf Kyle Downer took
over in the second and allowed just the one goal.
Cape Breton outshot St. John’s 39-36.
The
two teams meet again 7 p.m. in Gander. As of
Friday evening, there were still tickets remaining
at $10 each.
For
the Fog Devils, the unofficial start of their
2006-07 campaign began against the last team they
faced in 2005-06. Cape Breton ended St. John’s
inaugural QMJHL season with a 4-1 win in a
best-of-seven first-round playoff series last
spring.
After a week of training camp in Mount Pearl, the
Devils brought 30 players to Gander.
The
eight players left behind mostly included a number
who are sure bets to make the team, including
defencemen Luke Gallant and Zach Firlotte, both
overagers; European import forward Mario Kempe;
and goaltender Ilia Ejov.
Also
not making the trip were returning players Olivier
Guilbault and Matt Boland, both out with shoulder
injuries, and Mount Pearl forward Kenny Pennell,
who has been sidelined since being elbowed in the
head by Pier-Alexandre Poulin early in training
camp.
Goaltender Devin O’Brien also did not travel to
Gander.
The
Fog Devils will play a total of five exhibition
games before beginning their 2006-07 regular
season Sept. 15 at Mile One Stadium against the
P.E.I. Rocket.
The
other three pre-season games will played early
next month in the Maritimes.
The St. John’s Fog
Devils made their first training camp cuts Monday
and Devils’ head coach/general manager Real
Paiement says another significant lopping will
likely take place before the QMJHL team plays two
exhibition games in Gander this weekend.
“I’m
going to get pretty down to my numbers before we
go to Gander” said Paiement, who figures to start
the season with around 23 players.
“I’m
not saying 23 (with the next cut), but anywhere
from 25 to 28 is possible.”
There are 39 players left on St. John’s training
roster after nine players were released Monday and
defenceman Sebastien Bernier was dealt to the
Chicoutimi Sagueneens.
Those let go include goaltenders Harry Bartlett
and T. J. Keeping; defencemen Rodi Short, Lee
Davidson, Murray Bavis and Brett Provost; and
forwards Steve Bailey, Alex Ducharme and Nicolas
Biniek.
The
departures of Short and Keeping may be the most
noteworthy. Short, a 19-year-old from Goulds,
played 33 games for the Fog Devils last season,
while Keeping, a 2006 draft pick, was expected to
challenge for the job as backup to Ilia Ejov.
Short, who is being put on waivers, was, in part,
a victim of his age — QMJHL teams usually make
roster decisions on 19-year-olds earlier than
other players as they try to project if they can
be seen a potential overagers or will instead be
using roster spots that could be used to develop
players with a longer-term future.
That
thinking also applies to Bernier, who was dealt to
Chicoutimi for a 2008 fifth-round draft pick. He
had 27 points in 69 games for St. John’s last
season, but he’s also 19, and like Short, became
early victims of a crowded competition for jobs on
the Fog Devils’ blueline.
Besides Keeping, who was a sixth-round selection,
other 2006 draft picks let go Monday were Biniek
(eighth round) and Ducharme (11th round). All
three are 17.
Your finger doesn’t
have to move far down last season’s stat sheets to
find the holes that have to be filled on the St.
John’s Fog Devils. Oscar Sundh and captain Scott
Brophy, the team’s two leading point-getters are
gone. So is Marty Doyle, the QMJHL’s
penalty-minute leader last season, and former No.
1 netminder Brandon Verge. Add in leading
goal-scorer Nicolas Bachand, out for who knows how
long after a car accident earlier this month, and
you have a long row of big skates looking for new
feet.
Of
course, as we’re learning in these parts, this is
all part of the seasonal cycle of major junior
hockey and those sorts of vacancies create the
fervent pre-season competition that every coaching
staff craves.
Still, the most intense battle for jobs at the Fog
Devils’ training camp, underway in Mount Pearl,
comes at a position that was undamaged by
off-season turnover. All the defencemen who
finished the ’06-07 campaign with the Devils —
Luke Gallant, Zack Firlotte, Pat O’Keefe,
Sebastien Bernier, Kyle Stanley, Rodi Short and
Matt Boland — are back. So, for that matter, is
Josh McKinnon, who played defence most of last
season, but is being moved to forward.
That
100 per cent return rate, coupled with the
infusion of considerable new talent, is makings
for a crowded backline.
Fresh faces include Finn Joonas Salmi, one of the
two new European imports on the team; William
Beaudoin, the 15th overall pick in the June QMJHL
entry draft; second-round pick Mitch Flynn; and
Americans T.J. Brennan and Keith Bombaugh.
Training camp — at the least the on-ice portion of
it — is only three days old, but it’s these
newcomers, along with another half-dozen or so
hopefuls, have made it obvious that none of the
rearguard returnees should take anything for
granted.
“I
don’t think any of the veteran guys can think they
are absolutely safe, even older guys like myself
and Firlotte (the two overagers in camp),” said
Gallant, who had 23 goals and 56 points for the
expansion Fog Devils last season.
“When you talk about competition, that’s the word
right there. There’s a lot of competition, because
there are so many good D here.
“And
that competition won’t be finished with training
camp.You know with this group, that throughout the
year, guys are going to be competing for playing
time. I don’t think you can ever relax, no matter
when it is, how old you are or what you did last
year.”
These will become a little clearer when a number
of things happen today:
•
Head coach/general manager Real Paiement is
planning to make around 10 total cuts from the 48
players in camp.
•
The QMJHL August trading period ends this
afternoon, and Paiement says the Devils may make a
move.
• In
case of players who are 19-year-old Quebec
natives, like Bernier, decisions will be made
throughout the league today about whether or not
they will be placed on waivers, to give them time
to make CEGEP (educational) arrangements in there
home province should they have to relocate.
But
no matter how much happens, Paiement knows he’s
still facing some tough choices.
“I’ll tell you, on defence, we’re going to
struggle in deciding who the eight or nine guys
we’re going to keep will be. We’ve got a lot of
good young talent here,” said Paiement after an
intrasquad game at the Smallwood Arena Sunday.
As
if to emphasize the point, Paiement offered the
name of yet another young rearguard when asked to
name a player he felt had been an eye-opener in
the early going.
“(Francis) Grise-Leclair,” he said. “Great skater
... very smart. He’s doing a a very good job.”
But
perhaps the most impressive newcomer on the
blueline is the youngest player in camp. Ask those
who have been watching the goings-on in Mount
Pearl the last few days and they are apt to
suggest that after dazzling Swedish forward Mario
Kempe, the player creating the most buzz is
Beaudoin, who doesn’t turn 16 until December
How
long that buzz last remains to be seen, however.
Paiement doesn’t sound like he’s holding out much
hope Beaudoin will be in camp past this week. His
parents have made it understood their preference,
at this point at least, is for their son to return
to Quebec for one more year of midget hockey.
“It’s pretty finalized with the family that he’s
not going to stay, although we still have a week
to work on that,” said Paiement.
“It’s a family decision, but it won’t be a bad
decision one way or the other.
“Obviously, what he’s shown in the first three
days is that he would be an asset, that he would
be ready to step in, but for him to back to midget
and continue developing, wouldn’t be a bad thing.”
