After back-to-back Jean-Rougeau trophies, the Wildcats have underwent major surgery on their roster.
While the initial golden generation of Moncton Wildcats might be mostly aging out, that hasn't stopped GM Taylor MacDougall from pushing to acquire more and more talent from many different pathways.
The 2025-26 campaign was a strong one for Moncton, keeping key players like Caleb Desnoyers and Gabe Smith around while adding key pieces like Tommy Bleyl, Teddy Mutryn and Niko Tournas.
That led to a second straight trip to the QMJHL final, where they fell just short of a Memorial Cup return as they fell to the Chicoutimi Saguenéens.
The Moncton Wildcats will look to keep their level high as they rebuild a large portion of the team. (Photo: Vincent Éthier)But, now with the majority of those key names above, as well as others such as Rudy Guimond, Preston Lounsbury, Alex Mercier, Simon Binkley, Kuzma Voronin, Evan Depatie and Gavin Cornforth departing, it's been a big job to fill out the rest of the roster with talent in its own right.
Of course, there are still some high-level returners including Tournas and Rian Chudzinski, but a good portion of the 2026-27 Wildcats team will be new faces.
A good amount of those names are Americans, including trade acquisition Jake Boguniecki, as well as Will Manchuso, Chris Baird-Gajdos, Shayne Gould and Myles Brosnan. The Wildcats have had a ton of success going down this route in the past, and are hoping to strike more gold.
There's also import goaltender Yegor Rybkin, and trade acquisitions Liam Kilfoil from Halifax and Charlie Benigno from Rouyn-Noranda rounding out the fresh faces with this group.
The additions have even forced out a couple of younger hopefuls via trade, with Cameron Holyoke being sent to Charlottetown and Camden Jackson shipped to Blainville-Boisbriand.
The Wildcats organization also dealt with the death of owner and president Robert K. Irving from cancer this summer, who will be preceded by his son RJ in the president role to keep the family tradition alive.
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