NBer named to Team Canada, tops QMJHL players in draft rankings

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It was a big day for Spencer Gill of the Rimouski Oceanic on Tuesday.

First, the towering 6-foot-4 defenceman from Riverview was selected to the Canadian under 18 men’s hockey roster that will compete for the world championship beginning next week in Finland.

Then, the talented New Brunswicker was named as the top QMJHL skater for this year’s NHL draft in Las Vegas when he was pegged at No. 29 among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting in their final ranking of players for the draft.

That was an improvement of nine positions for Gill from the mid-season rankings earlier this year.

Gill, who turns 18 in August, is a graduate of the Moncton Flyers U18 AAA program and had 12 goals and 34 assists for 46 points in 65 games this season. He was also an alternate captain for Team White at the CHL Top Prospects game that took place in Moncton in January.

Joining Gill on Team Canada is Moncton Wildcats rookie Caleb Desnoyers, who earned a gold medal for Canada at the World Under 17 championship in Charlottetown this past November.

Desnoyers was a finalist for the Q’s rookie of the year award with 56 points in 60 games this past season.

Gardiner MacDougall of the University of New Brunswick is the head coach for the team, Travis Crickard of the Saint John Sea Dogs is an assistant coach and Saint John native Kevin Elliott is the athletic therapist for Team Canada.

The Canadian delegation has already left for Finland and will have pre-tournament games against Finland on Saturday and Norway next Tuesday before opening the tournament against Sweden April 25.

The semifinals are set for May 4 before the tournament concludes with the medal games on May 5.

Meanwhile, there were a number of other New Brunswick connections with the Central Scouting rankings, including No. 33 overall Eriks Mateiko of the Saint John Sea Dogs.

In his second year with the Sea Dogs, Mateiko recorded 43 points in 49 games with the Dogs. He also represented the team on Team Red during the CHL Top Prospects Game.

He was ranked No. 36 overall among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting in the mid-term evaluations.

Gabe Smith, a bruising winger from St. Andrews, enjoyed the biggest jump among NBers in the second half of the rankings, improving to No. 94 from No. 113 at the midterm rankings.

The six-foot-four forward from St. Andrews picked up 23 points in 54 games in his sophomore campaign with the Wildcats.

Dieppe’s Justin Gendron, a member of the Victoriaville Tigres, is the 189th ranked North American skater, while Julius Sumpf of the Wildcats is the 200th skater and Miles Muller was ranked 210.

Keegan Warren of the Wildcats is the 12th ranked goaltender.

There were 224 North American skaters listed and 32 North American goaltenders. Additionally, there were 136 international skaters and 18 international goaltenders ranked for the draft, which is slated for June 28-29.

In other league news on Tuesday, former Saint John Sea Dogs assistant coach Jim Midgley was dismissed as head coach by the Halifax Mooseheads.

Midgley just completed his first year with the Mooseheads after spending two years as an assistant coach with the New York Rangers. Halifax finished second overall in the QMJHL’s Eastern Conference but were upset in four straight games by the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.

He is the second coaching change since the end of the regular season. Last week, Daniel Lacroix and the Moncton Wildcats parted ways after they were swept by the Chicoutimi Sagueneens in Round 1 of the post-season.