HUBERDEAU, DESPRES NAMED ALL-STARS

MONTREAL – He didn’t win any major awards, but Jonathan Huberdeau was recognized by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Wednesday at the annual Golden Puck Awards show.

Huberdeau was named to the first all-star team after an all-star caliber season. The 17-year became the first Sea Dog to reach the triple-digit plateau in points in one season as he recorded 105 in 67 games. He led the squad in goals with 43 and assists with 62.

Joining Huberdeau on the first all-star team was fellow Sea Dog Simon Despres. The ‘Big Horse’ was named the QMJHL’s Defenseman of the Year on Wednesday night as well.

Despres had a long stay at Pittsburgh Penguins training camp and then missed more time as he represented Team Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships. In 47 games with Saint John, he averaged just under a point-per-game with 13 goals and 28 assists.

Forwards Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Jonathan Audy-Marchessault of the Quebec Remparts, defenseman Ryan Kavanagh of the Shawinigan Cataractes, and goaltender Christopher Gibson were also named to the first all-star team.

The second all-star team and all-rookie team can be seen below:

2nd All-Star Team
G – Evan Mosher (PEI)
LD – Brandon Gormley (MON)
RD – Jean-Philippe Mathieu (DRU)
C – Philip-Michaël Devos (GAT-VIC)
LW – Étienne Brodeur (LEW)
RW – Guillaume Asselin (CHI)

All-Star Rookie Team
G – Domenic Graham (DRU)
LD – Daniel Milan (MON)
RD – Dominic Poulin (CHI)
C – Mirko Hoefflin (QUE)
LW – Charles Hudon (CHI)
RW – Zach O’Brien (BAT)

Photo Credit: Maxime Morin/RDS

FOUR SEA DOGS WIN AWARDS

MONTREAL – Four members of the Saint John Sea Dogs were honoured Wednesday in Montreal as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League held their annual awards night.
Defenseman Simon Despres, goaltender Jacob DeSerres, head coach Gerard Gallant, and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly were all awarded trophies for their accomplishments during the regular season.

Despres was named the league’s best defenseman, picking up the Émile “Butch” Bouchard Trophy. Along with representing Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championships this past holiday season, the ‘Big Horse’ enjoyed a solid regular season. In 47 games, Despres recorded 13 goals and 28 assists and was a plus-29.

DeSerres won the Jacques-Plante Trophy as the QMJHL goaltender with the best goals against average. Since arriving on the scene in Saint John in the fall, DeSerres registered a 2.22 GAA, a 0.916 save percentage, and had an impressive 27-3-0-0 record with the Dogs.

For the second year-in-a-row, Gallant was named the Coach of the Year, winning the Ron-Lapointe Trophy. ‘Turk’ led the Sea Dogs to an incredible 58-7-1-2 record in the regular season and guided the Dogs to a division and regular season title for the second straight season.

Gallant won this award and the Canadian Hockey League’s top coach honour last season.

Finally, associate coach and director of hockey operation Mike Kelly won the Maurice Filion Trophy as General Manager of the Year. Kelly made some solid moves this season to ensure the Sea Dogs would be a strong contender this year and next. His biggest moves this season saw the club pick up DeSerres, Alexandre Beauregard, and Eric Gelinas.

Sea Dogs leading scorer Jonathan Huberdeau was nominated for three awards but will come empty handed. Zack Phillips and Nathan Beaulieu were also nominated for awards but were beat out by fellow Quebec Leaguers.

The full list of award winners can be found after the jump:

Jacques-Plante Trophy - Best Goals-Against-Average: Jacob DeSerres - Saint John Sea Dogs

Ron-Lapointe Trophy - Coach of the Year: Gérard Gallant - Saint John Sea Dogs

Émile "Butch" Bouchard Trophy - Defenseman of the Year: Simon Després - Saint John Sea Dogs

Maurice Filion Trophy - General Manager of the Year: Mike Kelly - Saint John Sea Dogs

RDS Cup - Rookie of the Year: Charles Hudon - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Jean-Béliveau Trophy - Top scorer: Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres

Marcel-Robert Trophy - TELUS Scholastic player of the Year: Nicolas Therrien - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Humanitarian Player Award: Gabriel Lemieux - Shawinigan Cataractes

Frank-J.-Selke Trophy - Most sportsmanlike player: Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres

Michael-Bossy Trophy - Best professional prospect: Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs

Paul-Dumont Trophy - Personality of the Year: Louis Leblanc - Montreal Juniors

Michel-Brière Trophy - Most Valuable Player: Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs

Photo Credit: QMJHL

GOLDEN PUCK PREDICTIONS

The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League will host their annual Golden Puck Awards Gala this evening at some hotel in downtown Montreal.

After an unreal regular season, the Saint John Sea Dogs will have plenty of chances to take home some hardware tonight. Jonathan Huberdeau is nominated for three awards while Simon Despres, Zack Phillips, and Nathan Beaulieu are all in contention as well. Head coach Gerard Gallant and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly are also included in the long list of nominees.

Goaltender Jacob DeSerres will be awarded Jaques Plante Trophy for the league’s best goals against average.

Saint John did quite well at the awards show last year with Mike Hoffman being named the league’s Most Valuable Player and Gallant winning Coach of the Year.

Like in the past, the coverage of the event will likely be poor. But in a shocking turn of events, the QMJHL Twitter page is expected to post updates and pictures.

Mikaël Lalancette of Metro Montreal posted his predictions for the awards in a post on Sunday. Telegraph-Journal columnist Peter McGuire also made some predictions yesterday.

So without further to do, here are SN’s predictions for this evening’s trophy festival.

Michel-Brière Trophy - Most Valuable Player Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Philip-Michaël Devos (Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres), and Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs)

Prediction: Jonathan Huberdeau - led the top-ranked team in Canada in scoring basically all season long. He led the team in assists. He led the team in goals. He was a league best plus-59. He did all this at age 17 under the pressure of playing in front of dozens of scouts each game. He is the QMJHL’s MVP.

RDS Cup - Rookie of the Year Martin Frk (Halifax Mooseheads), Charles Hudon (Chicoutimi Saguenéens), Zach O’Brien (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), Domenic Graham (Drummondville Voltigeurs), David Honzik (Victoriaville Tigres), and Dominic Poulin (Chicoutimi Saguenéens)

Prediction: Charles Hudon - had an unreal rookie campaign with the Chicoutimi Sagueneens. He had 23 goals and 37 assists and finished second in rookie scoring. He did this on an average Chicoutimi team that scored only scored 197 goals, one of only five teams to not score over 200 markers.

Émile "Butch" Bouchard Trophy - Best Defenseman Brandon Gormley (Moncton Wildcats), Simon Després (Saint John Sea Dogs), and Ryan Kavanagh (Shawinigan Cataractes / Rimouski Océanic)

Prediction: Simon Despres - has been shut-down city all year long. He played solid with Team Canada at the World Juniors and had a long look at Pittsburgh Penguins training camp.

Frank-J.-Selke Trophy - Sportsman of the Year Philip-Michaël Devos (Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres), Zach O’Brien (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), and Zack Phillips (Saint John Sea Dogs)

Prediction: Zach O’Brien – played in 58 games as a “rookie” and didn’t record a single penalty minute.

Michael-Bossy Trophy - Top Professional Prospect Nathan Beaulieu (Saint John Sea Dogs), Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs)

Prediction: Sean Couturier – despite all the talk about Jonathan Huberdeau possibly overtaking Couturier as the top prospect from the QMJHL, there are still plenty of agencies that have Couturier going ahead of the Sea Dogs forward. 96 points in just 58 games isn’t too shabby either.

Marcel-Robert Trophy - TELUS Scholastic Player of the Year Pascal Amyot (Halifax Mooseheads), Michaël Bournival (Shawinigan Cataractes), Guillaume Goulet (Victoriaville Tigres), Jean-Philippe Mathieu (Drummondville Voltigeurs), and Nicolas Therrien - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Prediction: Pascal Amyot - difficult to predict this one but we’ll take Amyot because his education is talked about in the media as much as his hockey playing abilities are.

Ron-Lapointe Trophy - Coach of the Year Mario Duhamel (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Gérard Gallant (Saint John Sea Dogs), and Patrick Roy (Québec Remparts)

Prediction: Gerard Gallant – ‘Turk’ won the award last year as well and is just as deserving this season. Sure he has ultra-talented players to work with, but he is faced with the task of keeping a handful of high NHL draft eligible players focused on playing a team game and not as individuals. Gallant has certainly done that.

Maurice-Filion Trophy - General Manager of the Year Sylvain Couturier (Acadie-Bathurst Titan), Mike Kelly (Saint John Sea Dogs), Pascal Vincent (Montreal Juniors), and Jacques Beaulieu

Prediction: Mike Kelly – made some good trades at the deadline, most noticeably Eric Gelinas and Alexandre Beauregard. He also picked up Jacob DeSerres from the WHL. Kelly has helped make this team a contender last year, this year, and next year.

Paul-Dumont Trophy – Personality of the year Sean Couturier (Drummondville Voltigeurs), Jonathan Huberdeau (Saint John Sea Dogs), and Louis Leblanc (Montreal Junior)

Prediction: Jonathan Huberdeau – we don’t even understand this award so we’ll go the homer route and take Huberdeau.

Humanitarian Award Alex Émond (Rimouski Océanic), Kirill Kabanov (Lewiston MAINEiacs), and Gabriel Lemieux( Shawinigan Cataractes)

Prediction: Kirill Kabanov – another award that is difficult to predict. We’ll take Kabanov simply because he is a unique human being.

Photo Credits: QMJHL, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, Marc Henwood/Station Nation, QMJHL

THE NOMINEES ARE...

SAINT JOHN – With team success comes personal success – and the Saint John Sea Dogs found that to be true this afternoon as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League unveiled the nominees for the annual Golden Puck Awards Gala.

An insane five players and two members of the coaching staff are nominated. Jonathan Huberdeau is nominated for three awards while Simon Despres, Zack Phillips, Nathan Beaulieu, and Michael Kirkpatrick are all in contention as well. Head coach Gerard Gallant and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly are also included in the long list of nominees.

That’s a lot of people nominated for a lot of awards. But it can’t be all that surprising given that the Sea Dogs have sat atop the QMJHL standings nearly all year and were ranked No. 1 in the entire Canadian Hockey League for much of the season.

Along with all of the individual honours, Saint John also won the Jean Rougeau Trophy as regular season champions for the second straight year, the and Luc Robitaille Trophy as the best offensive team for the second straight season, and also claimed the Robert Lebel Trophy for the first time in club history as the team with the best goals-against-average. These three awards will be presented this Friday at Harbour Station as part of a pre-game presentation prior to Game One of the President’s Cup Playoffs opening round against the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles.

The Golden Puck Awards will be held April 6 in downtown Montreal, the day before the 2012 MasterCard Memorial Cup host is announced.

Now, to the nominees:

Let’s start with the big one – the Michel Brière Trophy for the league’s Most Valuable Player. For the second straight year, a Sea Dogs forward as been nominated in rising star Jonathan Huberdeau. The 17-year old finished the year with 105 points which placed him third in league scoring. Mike Hoffman won the award last year as a 20-year old.

Other nominees include QMJHL scoring champion Philip-Michael Devos of the Gatineau Olympiques and Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

Huberdeau was also nominated for the Michael Bossy Trophy as the league’s top prospect for the upcoming National Hockey League Entry Draft. Also nominated was teammate Nathan Beaulieu who finished the year seventh in team scoring with 45 points was a plus-44 on the year. The offensive defenseman remains a projected first round pick this June.

The third nominee was none other than Couturier.

Lastly, Huberdeau was nominated for the Paul Dumont Trophy which is awarded to the “personality of the year.” Also nominated was, not surprisingly, Couturier along with his Team Canada teammate Louis Leblanc from the Montreal Juniors.

Speaking of Canada’s World Junior team, Simon Despres was nominated for the Émile ‘Butch’ Bouchard Trophy as the league’s top defenseman. The ‘Big Horse’ only played in 47 games this year after missing a lengthy amount of time at Pittsburgh Penguins training camp and at the World Junior Hockey Championships. Despres still had a great and dominating season in Saint John, though, scoring 13 goals and 41 points.

Other nominess for top defenseman include Moncton Wildcat Brandon Gormley and the Shawinigan Cataractes’ offensive beast Ryan Kavanagh.

Michael Kirkpatrick was nominated for the Guy Carbonneau Trophy as the top defensive forward. The Sea Dogs’ all-time leading scorer had 82 points and a plus-47 rating this season. Other players nominated were Victoriaville’s Philip Danault and Quebec’s Frederick Roy.

This award could be presented Friday apparently. From a QMJHL press release:

Please note that the following trophies will be awarded at a special pre-game ceremony on Friday, March 25th or Tuesday, March 29th: Michel-Bergeron (offensive rookie of the year), Raymond-Lagacé (defensive rookie of the year), Guy-Carbonneau (best defensive forward), Kevin-Lowe (best defensive defenseman), Robert-Lebel (best goals-against-average - team), Jean-Rougeau (regular season champions) and Luc-Robitaille (best offensive team).

The fifth Saint John player nominated was Zack Phillips. The Fredericton native was nominated for the Frank J. Selke Trophy as sportsman of the year. Phillips had a tremendous season, registering 95 points and only 16 penalty minutes in 67 games.

Also nominate was Devos and Acadie-Bathurst Titan rookie Zach O’Brien. In 58 games, O’Brien did not record a single penalty minute.

Behind the bench, head coach Gerard Gallant was nominated for the Ron Lapointe Trophy as coach of the year. Gallant led the young Sea Dogs to a second straight regular season crown and deserves a ton of credit for keeping this team focused on winning and not on draft rankings.

‘Turk’ won the award last season as well in his first year behind a Quebec League bench. Gallant was later awarded CHL Coach of the Year honours.

The other nominees are Mario Duhamel from the Voltigeurs and Patrick Roy from the Quebec Remparts.

Finally, Sea Dogs associate coach and director of hockey operations Mike Kelly was nominated for the Maurice Filion Trophy as General Manager of the Year. Kelly was able to put his own stamp on this team this season and did so in fine fashion. Kelly made a few key acquisitions at the deadline that included picking up defensemen Eric Gelinas and Jason Seed along with forward Alexandre Beauregard and goaltender Mathieu Corbeil.

The other nominees are Sylvain Couturier of the Titan and Pascal Vincent of the Juniors.

Here is a full list of nominees from the QMJHL release:

Michel-Brière Trophy - Most Valuable Player
Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres
Jonathan Huberdeau - Saint John Sea Dogs

RDS Cup - Rookie of the Year
Martin Frk - Halifax Mooseheads
Charles Hudon - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Zach O’Brien - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Domenic Graham - Drummondville Voltigeurs
David Honzik - Victoriaville Tigres
Dominic Poulin - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Émile 'Butch' Bouchard Trophy - Best Defenseman
Brandon Gormley - Moncton Wildcats
Simon Després - Saint John Sea Dogs
Ryan Kavanagh - Shawinigan Cataractes / Rimouski Océanic

Frank-J.-Selke Trophy - Sportsman of the Year
Philip-Michaël Devos - Gatineau Olympiques / Victoriaville Tigres
Zach O’Brien - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Zack Phillips - Saint John Sea Dogs

Michael-Bossy Trophy - Top Professional Prospect
Nathan Beaulieu - Saint John Sea Dogs
Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Jonathan Huberdeau - Saint John Sea Dogs

Marcel-Robert Trophy - TELUS Scholastic Player of the Year
Pascal Amyot - Halifax Mooseheads
Michaël Bournival - Shawinigan Cataractes
Guillaume Goulet - Victoriaville Tigres
Jean-Philippe Mathieu - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Nicolas Therrien - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Ron-Lapointe Trophy - Coach of the Year
Mario Duhamel - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Gérard Gallant - Saint John Sea Dogs
Patrick Roy - Québec Remparts

Maurice-Filion Trophy - General Manager of the Year
Sylvain Couturier - Acadie-Bathurst Titan
Mike Kelly - Saint John Sea Dogs
Pascal Vincent - Montreal Juniors

Paul-Dumont Trophy – Personality of the year
Sean Couturier - Drummondville Voltigeurs
Jonathan Huberdeau - Saint John Sea Dogs
Louis Leblanc - Montreal Junior

Humanitarian Award
Alex Émond - Rimouski Océanic
Kirill Kabanov - Lewiston MAINEiacs
Gabriel Lemieux - Shawinigan Cataractes

Michel-Bergeron Trophy - Offensive Rookie of the Year
Martin Frk - Halifax Mooseheads
Charles Hudon - Chicoutimi Saguenéens
Zach O’Brien - Acadie-Bathurst Titan

Raymond-Lagacé Trophy - Defensive rookie of the year
Domenic Graham - Drummondville Voltigeurs
David Honzik - Victoriaville Tigres
Dominic Poulin - Chicoutimi Saguenéens

Guy-Carbonneau Trophy - Best defensive forward
Michael Kirkpatrick - Saint John Sea Dogs
Phillip Danault - Victoriaville Tigres
Frédérick Roy - Québec Remparts

Kevin-Lowe Trophy - Best defensive defenseman
Samuel Finn - Lewiston MAINEiacs
Charles Landry - Montreal Junior
Andrew Randazzo - Drummondville Voltigeurs

The John Horman (Executive of the Year) and Jean Sawyer (Marketing Director of the Year) trophies will be awarded at the Annual Entry Draft. The finalists will be revealed at a later date.

SEA DOGS NOTEBOOK

MORE ON DESPRES
TSN’s Bob McKenzie sent out another tweet this afternoon about Sea Dogs defenseman Simon Despres’ performance so far at Team Canada’s selection camp.

Tyson Barrie played well last night, Simon Despres has struggled. Would have thought Despres would have been top 6 but he needs to step up.

Final cuts come tomorrow.

DeSERRES INTERVIEW
Sea Dogs goaltender Jacob DeSerres had a nice interview with Brandon Wheat Kings voice Bruce Luebke. In the interview, the former Wheat King talks about how it likes the Sea Dogs organization and the team’s chances at winning it all this year.

The interview can be heard HERE.

DeSerres was also featured in the Brandon Sun today. If you just so happen to subscribe to the Brandon Sun online, you can check that out.

TESINK PICKS UP AWARD
Sea Dogs rookie Ryan Tesink was named the team’s mid-season top rookie last week. The award, presented by RDS, puts Tesink in some pretty high company with the likes of Martin Frk and Dillon Fournier picking up the Mooseheads’ and Maineiacs’ award, respectively.

Tesink has been solid this season, playing on a line with just about every Sea Dog at some point this season. In 28 games, the Saint John native has six goals and 12 assists.

HIGH PRAISE
Way, way back on November 26, the Red Line Report – via USA Today – had a small feature on the Sea Dogs and their cupboard full of draft eligible talent.

We’ve been to our share of Saint John Sea Dogs games already this season and can’t help but be impressed by their wealth of talent.

The Sea Dogs have no fewer than six legitimate candidates for this year’s draft and two others who are making a case to push that number to eight. We’ve loved Tomas Jurco for some time already and came away highly impressed with Nathan Beaulieu in recent viewings. We’ve already detailed our opinion on Jonathan Huberdeau and Zack Phillips as solid prospects, and it wasn’t long ago we mentioned how Ryan Tesink and Gabriel Bourret caught our eye as nice mid-round sleepers. But lately we’ve also had to put Guillaume Cloutier and Scott Oke into the conversation as potential dark horses.

With Gerard Gallant and Mike Kelly teaching these kids the finer points of the game, who knows how many of them will wind up hearing their named called in June.

JURCO ARTICLE
Telegraph-Journal reporter Scott Briggs had a feature on the QMJHL website last week on Sea Dogs forward Tomas Jurco.

"I cannot say I was happy," Jurco said about his Central Scouting draft ranking. "My goal this year is to make the first round (of the NHL Entry Draft). I know why I was (sixth). I know I had a bad month."

DESPRES JERSEY SIGHTINGS
Before each Penguins home game, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Penguins blog, Empty Netters, posts some photos of jersey wearing fans around the rink. Over the past few weeks, there have been two Simon Despres jersey sightings.

WHAT CHUCKIE SCHEMBRI IS UP TO
The Amherst Daily News provides us with an update on former Sea Dog Chuckie Schembri, who is currently playing as a 20-year old with the Maritime Hockey League’s Amherst Ramblers. He was recently traded to the Ramblers from the Summerside Western Capitals.

“He brings a wealth of experience playing junior hockey,” Ramblers coach Jeff Lewis said. “He’s played in deep playoff runs, so we hope that experience will help with our group.”

GAUTHIER Q&A
Sports Junior had a question and answer session with Sea Dogs forward Danick Gauthier last week. A lot of “different” questions are asked, many of them about the life of playing in Saint John.

DeSERRES NOMINATED
This slipped under the radar a bit, but Sea Dogs goaltender Jacob DeSerres was nominated for the Canadian Hockey League goaltender of the week last week.

Red Deer Rebels netminder Darcy Kuemper won the award.

DESPRES REPORT
Hockey’s Future recently had a report on Pittsburgh Penguins junior prospects, including a feature on Simon Despres.

“Signed to an entry-level deal in 2009, Despres will join the Penguins organization when his QMJHL season is completed,” writes Ian Altenbaugh. “Considering the extensive term and dollar the Penguins have committed to their current group of NHL defenseman, expect Despres to be given as much time as he needs to blossom at the AHL level before being called upon to contribute in the NHL.”

Hockey’s Future currently has Despres listed as the No. 2 prospect in the Pens' system behind forward Eric Tangradi, who is currently in the American Hockey League.

PHILLIPS ON HOT LOST
Zach Phillips made The Hockey News’ prospect "Hot List" this week.

“Scouts have been fascinated with Phillips’ growth as the season progresses and the right winger’s bag of tricks seems to be expanding,” writes Ryan Kennedy. “Now tied for sixth in ‘Q’ scoring, Phillips hasn’t been held off the scoresheet since Nov. 14. Since then, he has 24 points in 10 games and his plus-minus for the season is up to plus-25.”

HUSSEY ON DESPRES
Sea Dogs assistant coach Marc Hussey had a question and answer session with InsidePittsburghSports.com yesterday. Among the things asked were his thoughts on Despres making the national junior team.

JURCO LEAVING
If this NHL.com article is still accurate, Tomas Jurco will be unavailable for Saint John this weekend in Cape Breton due to his duties with the Slovakian junior team that will participate in the World Junior Hockey Championships.

The remaining players and the coaching staff, including coach Stefan Mikes, will fly to the U.S. and join eight Slovakian players currently starring in the Canadian Hockey League to play a pre-tournament schedule in Jamestown, N.Y., starting Dec. 16. Slovakia will play exhibition games against Russia, Norway and the United States, and then will finalize its roster.

GALIEV AND THE RUSSIANS
We have no idea what’s going on with Stanislav Galiev. Two Russian websites have him listed on the Russian world junior camp roster but apparently nothing is official as of yet.

Emily B. from Japers’ Rink came through in the clutch again, sending us this article that states Galiev and the rest of the Canadian Hockey League Russians will join the team when they arrive in North America this Sunday, December 19.

Photo Credits: Marc Henwood, Empty Netters, Empty Netters, Marc Henwood, Marc Henwood