Evan Mosher and Travis McIsaac are connected more than just playing their final season in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
Mosher, 20, and McIsaac, 20, are also teammates on the P.E.I. Rocket after a trade last Christmas (and made official at the 2010 QMJHL entry draft) brought McIsaac, a Uigg native, back to P.E.I.
Mosher, who's played his entire major junior career as a Rocket goaltender, might be more at home than McIsaac when P.E.I.’s 2010 training camp begins today in Pownal.
With several old hands like Jean-Philippe Mathieu, Jordon Southorn and Benjamin Casavant gone from the organization, Mosher will be looked on as a team leader.
“(We’re starting over) in a good way. Start from where we ended last year,” Mosher said Tuesday from Pownal where players gathered for a meet-and-greet. “I think we brought in some skilled guys.”
Practice sessions go at 9 and 10:15 a.m. today followed by an inter-squad game at 3 p.m. All are open to the public.
Trades remade a Rocket team that had hopes of challenging for the Atlantic Division title last year.
It didn’t happen because of juggernaut squads in Saint John and Moncton (the Wildcats beat the Sea Dogs in the league final).
But with new players, the Rocket went 35-25-2-6 and held its ground (20-19 after the trades) and became a more cohesive group, despite a lower talent level.
That’s changed this year.
A few of those skilled players new to the Rocket in 2010-11 are Philippe Paradis, a rugged forward and first-round draft pick of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2009 (trades since sent him to Toronto and Chicago), and forwards Andrej Nestrasil, a point-a-game man last year, despite a nagging leg injury, and McIsaac, who enjoyed a breakout year last season (57 points, 68 games) as Victoriaville reached the President’s Cup semifinals.
A mid-season trade last Christmas sent Joël Champagne and Charlottetown’s Chris Doyle to Victoriaville in exchange for Jonathan Bonneau, prospect Michael Ortika, draft picks, and Nestrasil and McIssac, who would join the Rocket this year.
But McIsaac isn’t fazed by the attention he’s likely to receive finishing his career in his home province.
“It’s exciting. I had three good years in Victo and I looked forward to going back. But they were rebuilding,” said McIsaac, who played his minor hockey in the Pownal system. “I was kind of anonymous out there (Victoriaville), but the limelight in Uigg is pretty dim. We’re just hockey players. We’re not trying to cure cancer.”
The Rocket added Ontario natives Adam Valadeo, a forward, and Kristoff Lyons, a goalie, to its camp roster.
Greg Jansz, a centre prospect drafted in the seventh round at the QMJHL draft in June, injured his knee and won’t attend camp.
