QMJHL: Charlottetown Islanders re-sign hockey operations staff
Jim Hulton is thrilled about the opportunity to continue leading the Charlottetown Islanders in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
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The Islanders announced Hulton, the team's general manager and head coach, has signed a 'multi-year contract extension' in a media release issued on May 21.
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Also, the Islanders announced that associate coach and assistant general manager Guy Girouard, assistant coach Kevin Henderson, athletic therapist Devin Atkin, and equipment manager Andrew (Spider) MacNeill have also signed new contracts.
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'We are really excited to be able to continue the work we have done,' Hulton told The Guardian in a phone interview. 'I think we've had disappointment the last couple of seasons, but we knew a few years ago when we embarked on an ambitious load-up that there was going to be some tougher years ahead.
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'It's easy to say, but it's nice ownership has supported us through that. We don't have to look around too many places to see the opposite reactions sometimes when things don't necessarily go according to plan.
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'I think there's a belief amongst our staff and ownership that we are heading in the right direction. It's exciting to be able to get to continue on that path.'
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After advancing to the 2022 QMJHL championship series, the Islanders have been going through a rebuilding process. The Islanders completed the 2024-25 regular season in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with a record of 30-29-4-1 (won-lost-overtime losses-shootout losses).
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The Islanders, who have been swept in the opening round of the playoffs the last three years, were eliminated this year by league-finalist and Memorial Cup-host Rimouski Oceanic.
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Now, the Islanders are optimistic the team is ready to take the next step in the upcoming season.
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'We have worked really hard as a staff to create a good chemistry,' said Hulton, who was recently inducted into his hometown Kingston District Hall of Fame as a hockey builder. 'We all get along really well, and everybody has their respective roles that they manage and look after.
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'A big part of me agreeing to come back was knowing we'd all be back together.'
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Toronto Star
15 hours ago
- Toronto Star
Where will Mitch Marner sign? Here's where the Maple Leafs star could end up, and how he'd fit in
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ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW New York Islanders Wouldn't that be a delicious turn of events for an Islanders fan base that saw their prized captain Tavares leave for Toronto seven years back? New GM Mathieu Darche, the former right-hand man of Tampa Bay GM Julien BriseBois, has plenty of cap space. The Islanders are a good but not great team that missed the playoffs this year. Marner, 28, fits in age-wise with players like Mathew Barzal and Bo Horvat. Los Angeles Kings The Kings have lost to the Edmonton Oilers in the first round in each of the last four seasons and might see Marner as a means to finally find a way to go deeper. New GM Ken Holland can set a new direction by adding Marner to a lineup rife with high-skilled veterans (Anze Kopitar, Kevin Fiala, Adrian Kempe) and burgeoning young talent (Quinton Byfield, Alex Laferriere). 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Calgary Herald
a day ago
- Calgary Herald
The Oilers' Skinner and Panthers' Bobrovsky have been solid, despite the scoreboard
Article content 'I was pushed (by Mattias Ekholm). I think the goalie kicked out my heel that made me fall,' said Bennett, who didn't have his hand on a bible as he took the stand, though. Article content The real heel in Oiler Nation is clearly Bennett, but we digress. Article content Maybe Kevin Bieksa put it best after the first 20 minutes. Article content 'There's an awful lot going on out there and not around the puck,' he said. Article content Like when Bennett casually kicked Ekholm's fallen stick away just as the Oiler defenceman was bending down to grab the twig, with Florida scoring on a power play in the first frame. Article content Article content Tracking a prospect Article content While the Oilers have rolled into the Cup final, London Knights' right-shot centre Sam O'Reilly, their first-round 2024 pick after they traded up with Philadelphia to take him at No. 32, was dynamite for the London Knights in their recent Memorial Cup victory. He had 71 points in 62 league games, 22 in 17 OHL playoff games and five points in five Memorial Cup games as the Knights won it all. He was fifth in Memorial Cup points. Article content Article content 'I really like Sam. He plays hard and he's smart. I think after one more year in junior, he could be ready (NHL),' said Craig Button, TSN's draft guru, who didn't dispute the idea that Sam O'Reilly plays a similar style to Ryan O'Reilly. The Oiler draft pick has third-line NHL centre written all over him. Article content Article content Florida's Gustav Forsling, Sweden's best D man heading into the Olympics, had a tremendous Game 2 with his skating and his terrific stick on Oiler rush chances, on top of his dives to block shots. Article content 'He's one of the elite skating defencemen in our league, and most of those elite guys have a completely offensive bent,' said Maurice. 'If you skate that well as a young man, you're put into offensive situations, like being a power play guy but he's taken that skill and applied it to the defensive side of the game.' Article content 'To fully appreciate it, you have to be down at ice-level to see how fast Connor McDavid is and Leon Draisaitl. The Oilers have a really fast team overall, and he (Forsling) excels at that game,' said Maurice. Article content Article content This 'n that: For all of Bennett's villainous behaviour, he's a heckuva player, and a surefire Canadian Olympian next February in Italy, unless he gets hurt. He leads the playoffs with 13 goals, 12 on the road in the Panthers' 12 away games. That's an NHL record for road goals in a playoff season. Thoughts of him getting, say, $9 million AAV for seven or eight years as a free-agent July 1 are probably misguided, though, because he's a No. 2 C, not a No. 1. 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He's a big body and the Oilers are likely trying to re-sign him before he hits free-agency July 1, but there aren't a lot of thumping hits… Reinhart, who took an open-ice hit from Carolina's Sebastian Aho in round 3, has been a shadow of his usual dangerous self through the first two games with no points and -3. He missed the net cleanly on an OT breakaway in Game 2, unlike him. It looked like he hurt his left hip or leg on the Aho smack. Florida captain Sasha Barkov, Reinhart's linemate, hasn't arrived in the series yet, either, but he's not hurt. He has zip for points and is -4… Sad news that former Oilers first-round pick winger Scott Metcalfe passed suddenly on Friday at 58. Metcalfe was the 20th overall pick in the '85 draft, but he had little chance of cracking the powerhouse Oilers in those days, and he only got into two Oiler games before they traded him to Buffalo for defenceman Steve Dykstra in 1988. Metcalfe played just 19 NHL games (17 for the Sabres), over 500 AHL games, and several years in Europe… Aaron Ekblad, who took a shot off the back of his left hand by Nurse in OT and looked in major distress as he tried to get off, is fine according to Maurice, but of course, we don't force coaches to take lie detector tests in the playoffs. The Panthers could have been called for too many men on the play because Ekblad was five feet from the bench when the defender jumped on for him and got in the way of Arvidsson along the boards, but the zebras took a pass on calling it… The Oilers signed Euro free-agent forward Viljami Marjala, who became a free agent June 1 when the Buffalo Sabres chose not to sign the drafted player in the two-year window after taking him from Quebec (junior) Remparts in 2023. He played junior for Patrick Roy with the Blues' Zach Bolduc as a teammate. He's small (176 pounds), but the LW/C did have 52 points for TPS Turku, 12th in scoring, no mean feat for a 22-year-old, who was going to play for Karpat in the Liiga until the Oilers came calling. He's a passer (44 assists, eight goals)… Oiler farmhand Drake Caggiula won't be back. Word is he is looking at Switzerland… Oilers didn't see enough upside in their draft D Luca Munzenberger over four years of college (Vermont), and he's likely signing in his home country, Germany.
Ottawa Citizen
a day ago
- Ottawa Citizen
The Oilers' Skinner and Panthers' Bobrovsky have been solid, despite the scoreboard
Article content 'I was pushed (by Mattias Ekholm). I think the goalie kicked out my heel that made me fall,' said Bennett, who didn't have his hand on a bible as he took the stand, though. Article content The real heel in Oiler Nation is clearly Bennett, but we digress. Article content Maybe Kevin Bieksa put it best after the first 20 minutes. Article content 'There's an awful lot going on out there and not around the puck,' he said. Article content Like when Bennett casually kicked Ekholm's fallen stick away just as the Oiler defenceman was bending down to grab the twig, with Florida scoring on a power play in the first frame. Article content Tracking a prospect Article content While the Oilers have rolled into the Cup final, London Knights' right-shot centre Sam O'Reilly, their first-round 2024 pick after they traded up with Philadelphia to take him at No. 32, was dynamite for the London Knights in their recent Memorial Cup victory. He had 71 points in 62 league games, 22 in 17 OHL playoff games and five points in five Memorial Cup games as the Knights won it all. He was fifth in Memorial Cup points. Article content Article content 'I really like Sam. He plays hard and he's smart. I think after one more year in junior, he could be ready (NHL),' said Craig Button, TSN's draft guru, who didn't dispute the idea that Sam O'Reilly plays a similar style to Ryan O'Reilly. The Oiler draft pick has third-line NHL centre written all over him. Article content Article content Get on your horse, Gus Article content Florida's Gustav Forsling, Sweden's best D man heading into the Olympics, had a tremendous Game 2 with his skating and his terrific stick on Oiler rush chances, on top of his dives to block shots. Article content 'He's one of the elite skating defencemen in our league, and most of those elite guys have a completely offensive bent,' said Maurice. 'If you skate that well as a young man, you're put into offensive situations, like being a power play guy but he's taken that skill and applied it to the defensive side of the game.' Article content 'To fully appreciate it, you have to be down at ice-level to see how fast Connor McDavid is and Leon Draisaitl. The Oilers have a really fast team overall, and he (Forsling) excels at that game,' said Maurice. Article content Article content This 'n that: For all of Bennett's villainous behaviour, he's a heckuva player, and a surefire Canadian Olympian next February in Italy, unless he gets hurt. He leads the playoffs with 13 goals, 12 on the road in the Panthers' 12 away games. That's an NHL record for road goals in a playoff season. Thoughts of him getting, say, $9 million AAV for seven or eight years as a free-agent July 1 are probably misguided, though, because he's a No. 2 C, not a No. 1. The Panthers are most likely not paying him more than Sam Reinhart's $8.63m AAV… That Darnell Nurse-Brett Kulak second D pairing isn't working through the first two games, and they need a shake-up. Best idea: move lefty Jake Walman (plus 11), the Oilers second-best defenceman behind Bouchard, alongside Nurse and have the lefty-righty with Kulak and John Klingberg in the third pair, but off Sunday's practic,e Paul Coffey isn't listening. He threw all the pairs in a blender. Nurse with Bouchard, Walman with Kulak, Ekholm and Klingberg. On game day? Likely TBD… Connor Brown doesn't seem as energetic on the third line as he was before he took that hard hit from Alex Petrovic in the Dallas series and possibly suffered some concussion-type issues… Is it just me, or are we all waiting for Trent Frederic to show more, and wondering if that high ankle sprain is still compromising his play? One goal and four points and only 19 shots in 18 playoff games. He's a big body and the Oilers are likely trying to re-sign him before he hits free-agency July 1, but there aren't a lot of thumping hits… Reinhart, who took an open-ice hit from Carolina's Sebastian Aho in round 3, has been a shadow of his usual dangerous self through the first two games with no points and -3. He missed the net cleanly on an OT breakaway in Game 2, unlike him. It looked like he hurt his left hip or leg on the Aho smack. Florida captain Sasha Barkov, Reinhart's linemate, hasn't arrived in the series yet, either, but he's not hurt. He has zip for points and is -4… Sad news that former Oilers first-round pick winger Scott Metcalfe passed suddenly on Friday at 58. Metcalfe was the 20th overall pick in the '85 draft, but he had little chance of cracking the powerhouse Oilers in those days, and he only got into two Oiler games before they traded him to Buffalo for defenceman Steve Dykstra in 1988. Metcalfe played just 19 NHL games (17 for the Sabres), over 500 AHL games, and several years in Europe… Aaron Ekblad, who took a shot off the back of his left hand by Nurse in OT and looked in major distress as he tried to get off, is fine according to Maurice, but of course, we don't force coaches to take lie detector tests in the playoffs. The Panthers could have been called for too many men on the play because Ekblad was five feet from the bench when the defender jumped on for him and got in the way of Arvidsson along the boards, but the zebras took a pass on calling it… The Oilers signed Euro free-agent forward Viljami Marjala, who became a free agent June 1 when the Buffalo Sabres chose not to sign the drafted player in the two-year window after taking him from Quebec (junior) Remparts in 2023. He played junior for Patrick Roy with the Blues' Zach Bolduc as a teammate. He's small (176 pounds), but the LW/C did have 52 points for TPS Turku, 12th in scoring, no mean feat for a 22-year-old, who was going to play for Karpat in the Liiga until the Oilers came calling. He's a passer (44 assists, eight goals)… Oiler farmhand Drake Caggiula won't be back. Word is he is looking at Switzerland… Oilers didn't see enough upside in their draft D Luca Munzenberger over four years of college (Vermont), and he's likely signing in his home country, Germany.
