Moncton Wildcats 2024-25 Season Preview

Jacob Titus

Sep 9, 2024, 16:00

Jacob Titus

Sep 9, 2024, 16:00

Photo: Daniel St. Louis, Moncton Wildcats - Moncton Wildcats 2024-25 Season Preview

The fresh-faced Moncton Wildcats, whose front-office is ran by the prestigious MacDougall family, is going all-in.

Coach Gardiner MacDougall is one of the most prestigious coaches to have never held an NHL job, thanks to his unparalleled success coaching the University of New Brunswick for 24 years. In that time, he was a three time USports coach of the year and led his team to seven USports National championships.

This will be the second time 'GMac' has coached a QMJHL team, but only his first season as he was hired after the Memorial Cup hosting Saint John Sea Dogs were eliminated from the playoffs.

After his hiring, the team would pull off the upset and win the Memorial Cup, making MacDougall the only head coach to have won a Memorial Cup before a regular season game.

General Manager Taylor MacDougall, Gardiner's son, alredy has an impressive resume at 34. He won two championships with his father as a player for the Reds, playing professional hockey in the ECHL and in Scotland before moving on to a career in Law.

Now, he's returned to hockey and is at the helm of arguably one of the most stacked teams in the QMJHL.

The team had an incredible foundation.

They have a strong tandem in overage goaltender Jacob Steinman (.900 over 49) off of a career season and 18-year old Keegan Warren (.899 over 23), who had an impressive rookie campaign.

Defensively, the team was well equipped with Calgary Flames second rounder Etienne Morin (49 in 58), Natan Grenier (36 in 67) and Adam Fortier-Gendron (28 in 63).

Arguably, the team was most promising offensively, with the likely returns of undrafted forwards Yoan Loshing (70 in 59), center Preston Lounsbury (57 in 68), left winger Julius Sumpf (55 in 60), and right wingers Vincent Collard (57 in 66) and Alex Mercier (44 in 61).

The forward core also featured an NHL prospect in Utah's recent fourth rounder, centerman Gabe Smith (24 in 66).

To top it all off is potential 2025 NHL first round pick, centerman Caleb Desnoyers (56 in 60), who is coming off of a strong Hlinka-Gretzky tournament where he won gold with Team Canada.

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Already a stacked team, the MacDougalls wanted more.

They acquired St. Louis Blues third rounder, and the first overall pick of the 2023 CHL Import draft in Juraj Pekarcik, after a 59-point (9+50) USHL season over just 43 games.

They drafted and signed Boston Bruins prospect defenseman Loke Johansson, who is coming off of a playing 19 games pro in Allsvenskan, scoring 1 point.

They traded for Predators prospect defenseman Dylan MacKinnon (16 in 64) and QMJHL star left winger Markus Vidicek (88 in 64) from the Halifax Mooseheads.

They've also added depth pieces like left winger Pier-Etienne Cloutier (21 in 58) from the Quebec Remparts.

With all these new adds, it's clear that the Wildcats are not playing around.

The last thing they want is to repeat last season's first round exit, and the additions of the MacDougalls and several established QMJHLers and NHL prospects should help bolster a team that was already poised to improve.

There is a small handful of teams I'd classify as true contenders, and the Moncton Wildcats are at the top of that list.