The Halifax Mooseheads: From grody to glory
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — “You do everything the right way and take good pride in doing the right thing because the little details are going to make you a better player,” Elliot Desnoyers, captain of the Halifax Mooseheads, said. The Halifax Mooseheads are rebuilding their team after a shutdown season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Halifax Mooseheads are one of the best Canadian ice hockey teams representing Halifax in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). Mooseheads began to play in the 1994-95 season in the Dilio division. They won QMJHL’s Presidents Cup in 2013 for the first time, although they reached the finals four times (2003, 2005, 2013 and 2019).
The Mooseheads then won the 2013 Memorial Cup finals held in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, where they defeated the Portland Winterhawks 6–4. After winning the Memorial Cup, Halifax Mooseheads embarked on their journey towards many other championship titles.
The fans of Mooseheads are not only spanned in Canada but scattered all over the world.
Jonathan Drouin and Zachary Fucale were the most talented players of the 2013 season. With their departure in 2014, the Mooseheads were in a rebuilding time and added some new young talents to the team. The following season did not witness any major achievements. Andre Tourigny, a former assistant coach in the NHL, took over the position of head coach.
The Mooseheads made history in 2016-17 by having the first and second overall picks for the first time. During this time, the Mooseheads reached second in the division, but they couldn’t maintain the position for long and faltered back to fifth place.
In 2018-19, they secured the first position in the division with 49 wins over 68 seasonal games. During the 2020-21 season, they fell back into the fourth position.
The Halifax Mooseheads always maintain a lot of great talent on their roster, however, the top young players may leave the club for other international leagues, especially for NHL. In the 2018-19 season, two former Mooseheads were among the NHL’s list of top seven scorers.
The Mooseheads are now in a rebuilding time. They lost 3-2 in their recent match against the Gatineau Olympiques in the first period QMJHL action.
“It was a good game, for sure,” Mooseheads’ defenseman Cameron Whynot said. “We had a lot of good chances to tie it up late but we just couldn’t capitalize. I thought our team played well, it’s just when it came down to it they wanted it a little bit more than us. So I think we’re going to try and bottle up a little bit of this energy and try not to focus too much on the loss, then get a little anger to use for the next game because Sunday we’ve got a big challenge against Saint John.”
Bobby Smith, the majority owner of Mooseheads, together with players, is ready to shine in their future journey. The Halifax Mooseheads’ present roster consists of experienced and determined hockey players. Some of the team members include Desnoyers, Whynot, Markus Vidicek, Jordan Dumais, Dylan MacKinnon, Mathieu Cataford, Logan Crosby, Brady James, Zachary L’Heureux and Attilio Biasca.
Sylvain Favreau has taken over the position of the Mooseheads’ head coach for 2021, and Liam Heelis has become the assistant coach. Favreau is a 43-year-old who worked as a head coach at the junior A level in Ontario for six years. Later on, he joined Mooseheads in 2017.
“I’m a firm but fair coach, and I have a tough time with the grey area,” Sylvain said. “I’m black and white when it comes to decision-making and what I want.”
Favreau worked as a coach with Hockey Canada on various occasions, including a head coach of Canada White at the 2019 World U17 Hockey Challenge, where he led his team to a fourth-place finish.
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