CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The Charlottetown Islanders’ roster is nearly complete.
“It’s 99 per cent set,” head coach and general manager Jim Hulton said Monday.
He said there could be a tweak here or there, but the team has its two goalies and seven defencemen locked in. It has 11 forwards in camp plus Brendan McCarthy is joining them Tuesday on a tryout as the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League continues to work with the federal government to get approval for players selected in the Canadian Hockey League import draft to enter the country.
“We thought rather than make our team younger, we’d take a look at an older guy,” Hulton said. “We’ve had some success in the past with bringing in some veteran guys.”
McCarthy, 19, is a left-shot winger who played bantam hockey with Isles’ centre Brett Budgell in St. John’s, N.L. McCarthy, who was a seventh-round pick of Shawinigan in 2017, played two seasons with Stanstead College in Quebec and last year with the Hawkesbury Hawks junior A squad in Ontario, where he had 22 points in 60 games.
The Islanders will look very familiar to those who saw the team a year ago. The lone new faces at this point are draft day acquisition Colten Ellis in goal, defencemen Felix Tremblay and Ryan Maynard, plus forwards Ben Boyd and Sam Oliver, the team’s top pick in the June draft.
Hulton said the coaching staff has been pleased with the fitness and compete levels in camp.
“I thought there was a fairly distinct line between the veterans and the newcomers,” he said. “And in order for a newcomer to beat out a vet, he has to be considerably better.”
With the team all but set, the attention will turn to being ready for opening night.
“You could sense that excitement and energy level in our practices on Friday and Saturday,” Hulton said. “You could tell the guys are chomping at the bit to get going with the next phase.”
The Islanders have three pre-season games remaining with the next one scheduled for Friday against the Acadie-Bathurst Titan at the K.C. Irving Regional Centre. The Isles begin the regular season with six straight road games, the first being Oct. 2 at Moncton.
The Eastlink Centre is being used as the COVID-19 testing clinic as well as the cough and fever clinic until the end of the month. There will then be a three-week period to clean the facility and install the ice.
The first home game is slated for Oct. 23 against the Saint John Sea Dogs.
Roster
A look at players remaining at the Charlottetown Islanders’ training camp
Player Birth year 2019-20 team (league)
Goalies
Colten Ellis 2000 Rimouski (QMJHL)
Jacob Goobie 2003 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Defencemen
Lukas Cormier 2002 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Noah Laaouan 2001 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Will Trudeau 2002 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Anthony Hamel 2002 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Oscar Plandowski 2003 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Felix Tremblay 2001 Baie-Comeau (QMJHL)
Ryan Maynard 2002 Kapuskasing (junior A)
Forwards
Thomas Casey 2000 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Cedric Desruisseaux 2000 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Brett Budgell 2001 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Jakub Brabenec* 2003 Kometo Brno (Czech)
Matous Mensik* 2003 Kärpat (Finland)
Sam Oliver 2004 Rothesay Netherwood (prep)
Zac Beauregard 2001 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Drew Johnston 2001 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Drew Elliott 2003 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Justin Gill 2003 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Keiran Gallant 2002 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Patrick LeBlanc 2002 Charlottetown (QMJHL)
Ben Boyd 2003 Cole Harbour (major midget)
Brendan McCarthy 2001 Hawkesbury (Ontario junior A)
* All players taken in the Canadian Hockey League import draft are still awaiting clearance from the federal government to enter the country due to the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain) pandemic.
