CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The Charlottetown Islanders are taking a different approach to training camp this season.
The Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) team has two phases to camp with the first essentially being a rookie camp for about a week starting Friday before the returnees join the mix.
“Quite simply, it’s far too long of a training camp, in my opinion,” head coach and general manager Jim Hulton said Sunday. “We have eight exhibition games and that’s too many.”
Half of those exhibition games will be played in August, as mandated by the league, with the first being Sunday against the Saint John Sea Dogs in Quispamsis, N.B.
QMJHL teams are forced to make roster decisions early in order for Quebec students to get enrolled in CEGEP. The four August games allow the Isles to guarantee some hopefuls four games to show they can compete for a roster spot.
“There’s not a ton of spots open on this year’s team, but we expect a pretty healthy competition for the few spots that are open,” Hulton said.
Players report Thursday with some guys taking part in The Guardian Gold Cup and Saucer parade the following day. Friday also includes fitness testing and the first on-ice session at the APM Centre in Cornwall at 6 p.m. There will be two intrasquad games Saturday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the APM Centre.
Hulton anticipates the returning players to start filtering in this week but sees them concentrating on building strength off the ice.
“We prefer them to continue to work out hard in the gym and then hit the ice later in the month.”
The rookie camp roster has 21 forwards, 12 defencemen and four goalies.
The list includes 13 of the Islanders’ 14 2019 draft picks, including second-rounders Jacob Goobie and Justin Gill, plus Swiss import Gaetan Jobin. Forward Ryan Greene, a fourth-rounder from Newfoundland and Labrador, had previously told the team he is heading back to Selects Academy prep school this season.
None of the Islanders’ American draft picks from the past three drafts are attending.
The training camp roster does include a pair of recent trade acquisition in 19-year-old defenceman Jack Tucker, who split time last year between Moncton and Acadie-Bathurst, and 16-year-old rookie Oscar Plandowski.
The Isles sent a fifth-round pick in 2021 to Acadie-Bathurst for Tucker while using a first in 2020 and a second in 2022 to land Plandowski, who was considering the NCAA route and slipped to Chicoutimi with the last pick of the first round.
The only returnee coming to the first leg of camp is 18-year-old goalie Isaak Pelletier, who went 2-1 with a 3.25 goals-against average while backing up Matthew Welsh during the second half of the 2018-19 season.
The roster includes nine free agent invites, including Islanders Landon Clow, a forward, and Lucas MacAulay, a defenceman. It also includes a pair of Goobie’s Halifax Macs teammates in forwards Cameron Brown and Justin Hardie. They along with forward Kurtis Lang and defenceman Malcolm Genge each bring size to the table, an area the Isles wanted to address in the off-season.
“Our philosophy has always been there’s no harm in looking, as long as these players were willing to play exhibition games,” Hulton said. “The invites are a chance for your area scouts to play a hunch on somebody they really like who may have slipped through the cracks.”
Roster
A look at the first wave of the Charlottetown Islanders’ training camp roster:
Player Size Birth year 2018-19 team
Forwards
F Luke Akerman 5’8”, 140 2001 Tri-Pen Osprey (NL midget)
LW Sam Archibald 5’7”, 146 2003 Pictou County Weeks (NS midget)
C Ben Boyd 6’2”, 190 2003 Cole Harbour Wolfpack (NS midget)
C Cameron Brown 6’2”, 190 2001 Halifax Macs (NS midget)
RW Samuel Chabot 6’0”, 162 2003 Saint-Eustache Vikings (Quebec midget)
C Max Chisholm 6’0”, 168 2003 Charlottetown Pride (NB-PEI midget)
C Landon Clow 5’9”, 165 2002 Kensington Wild (NB-PEI midget)
LW Keiran Gallant 5’8”, 143 2002 Kensington Wild (NB-PEI midget)
C Massimo Gentile 5’7”, 151 2003 Lac St-Louis Lions (Quebec midget)
C Justin Gill 6’0”, 174 2003 Saint-Eustache Vikings (Quebec midget)
C Alex Graham 5’10”, 175 2003 Charlottetown Pride (NB-PEI midget)
LW Justin Hardie 6’5”, 200 2002 Halifax Macs (NS midget)
C Michael Horth 5’10”, 145 2003 College Charles-Lemoyne Riverains (Quebec midget)
C Gaetan Jobin 5’11”, 152 2001 Switzerland Gotteron (Swiss)
RW Nathan Kelly 5’10”, 167 2002 East Coast Blizzard (NL midget)
RW Daniel Kline 5’11”, 165 2003 Halifax Macs (NS midget)
RW Kurtis Lang 6’4”, 193 2001 Newbridge Academy (prep school)
LW Patrick LeBlanc 5’11”, 147 2002 Moncton Flyers (NB-PEI midget)
RW Charles-Olivier Nadeau 5’9”, 168 2001 Châteauguay Grenadiers (Quebec midget)
C Alex Power 6’0”, 176 2002 St. Andrew’s College (prep school)
C Charles-Edward Tardif 5’9”, 175 2003 OHA Mavericks (prep)
Defence
Zachary Arsenault 5’10”, 167 2001 Kensington Wild (NB-PEI midget)
Nicholas Bourque 5’11”, 161 2001 Moncton Flyers (NB-PEI midget)
Malcolm Genge 6’2”, 225 2001 Pictou County Crushers (Maritime junior A)
Anthony Hamel 5’10”, 174 2002 Gatineau L'Intrépide (Quebec midget)
Lucas MacAulay 5’10”, 160 2000 Grand Falls Rapids (Maritime junior A)
Nathan Martel 5’10”, 150 2001 Granby Inouk (Quebec junior A)
Matt McQuaid 6’, 143 2003 Kensington Wild (NB-PEI midget)
Oscar Plandowski 6’1”, 175 2003 Selects Academy (prep.)
William Trudeau 5’11”, 174 2002 Saint-Hyacinthe Gaulouis (Quebec midget)
Jack Tucker 6’2”, 172 2000 Acadie-Bathurst Titan (QMJHL)
Luke Vardy 5’11”, 172 2003 Dartmouth Steele Subaru (NS midget)
Dell Welton 6’, 174 2002 Cape Breton West Islanders (NS midget)
Goalies
Chad Arsenault 5’6”, 160 2002 Kensington Wild (NB-PEI midget)
Nolan Boyd 5’10”, 180 2001 Grand Falls Rapids (Maritime junior A)
Jacob Goobie 5’9”, 167 2003 Halifax Macs (NS midget)
Isaak Pelletier 6’2”, 177 2001 Charlottetown Islanders (QMJHL)
