Steve Turcotte of the Shawinigan newspaper La Nouvelliste posted on his blog yesterday that the Sea Dogs have been in talks with the Victoriaville Tigres about goaltender Antonio Mastropietro.
Turcotte is very reliable, always posting a ton of rumors and reports during the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League holiday trading period – which opens today. Neil Hodge of the Times & Transcript also included the St. Leonard, Quebec native on his list of players who could be on the move over the next couple of weeks.
This could be an interesting move by the Sea Dogs. By acquiring the 19-year old goaltender, he would help fix some of Saint John’s goaltending concerns for next season when the team makes a run for the 2012 Memorial Cup.
Or, perhaps the Sea Dogs plan on bringing in another overage player. If so, goaltender Jacob DeSerres could be on his way out, and with Saint John having no real solid goaltending prospects, Mastropietro may be the man to go after.
So far this season with the Tigres, he is 12-7-1-1 to go along with a 2.94 goals against average and a 0.902 save percentage. Mastropietro has been Victoriaville’s No. 1 netminder this season and made 32 saves earlier this year in a 4-2 loss to the Sea Dogs at Harbour Station.
Last season, Mastropietro was the backup to New York Islanders prospect Kevin Poulin. In the semi-final playoff series against Saint John, Mastropietro saw just 23 seconds of ice time.
The Sea Dogs begin their 10-day break today and return to action on December 28 in Prince Edward Island. The trading period closes on January 6.
For some reason, there are a ton of videos of Mastropietro practicing his skills on YouTube. Here is one of them:
Photo Credit: Telegraph-Journal
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