With the regular season set to start this coming Friday, the Truro Bearcats have officially finalized their opening night roster for the season. Truro will run with 21 skaters to start the year, including 2 goalies, 7 defencemen and 12 forwards. The Bearcats will open the season in Bouctouche on Friday against the West Kent Steamers before their home opener Saturday at the RECC against Summerside.
Truro returns the same goaltending tandem as they finished the year with last season as Alexis Cournoyer and Frederic Cousineau will man the crease once again. Cousineau will start his second full season in Truro while Cournoyer begins his first full season after being picked up halfway through last season.
The Bearcats will ice a mix of experienced junior veterans and rookies on the back end this season, running with 3 20 year olds and 4 rookies on the blue line. Tyler Guy is the lone Bearcat returnee on defence after being acquired from Estevan at last January’s trade deadline. GM Jamie Barbour was able to bring in a pair of 20 year olds in the offseason in Camden McKenzie and Philippe Fauchon. McKenzie was traded to Truro at the draft in June and has over 100 games of MHL experience with Pictou County. Fauchon comes with over 170 games of QMJHL experience and will be heavily relied upon on the blue line. Local defenceman and 2023 territorial pick Wyatt Countway(2006) will make the jump to the MHL after captaining the Dartmouth Steele Subaru’s to an excellent year last season. 2024 second round draft pick Noah Tanner(2006) cracked the roster after an impressive camp. The former Sydney Rush U18 is coming off a career year culminating in a Telus Cup appearance with Sydney back in the spring. A pair of Moncton Wildcat picks round out the D core. After being released from Wildcats camp, 2006 born Nathan Dubreuil was brought in by Truro and has appeared in all games of preseason action. Finally, after a long run at Moncton camp, 17 year old Ben Lindsay has found his way to Truro after an impressive run in Moncton. He was a member of the record breaking Halifax McDonalds club last season who went on to become the winningest team in Nova Scotia U18 history ending in a provincial title.
Where the Bearcats may lack in defensive experience, they certainly make up for it in their forward depth. 10 of the 12 forwards have experience in junior hockey. The lone two rookies are both 2024 draft picks in territorial pick Elliott Mullen and 9th rounder Luc Marnell. Mullen is a familiar name for Bearcat fans as his brother Simon spent 2 and a half seasons on the Truro blue line. The 16 year old will be the lone 2008 born on the roster this season. 2006 born Marnell from St. Johns was a 3 year player for the East Coast Blizzard in Newfoundland and earned a roster spot after a great showing at training camp. Truro will ice 4 returnees on the forward side as Reese Allen, Matt O’Neil and Julien Roy enter their second season while Andyn Furmidge will enter his fourth season. Off-season acquisitions Zachary Marquis and Matthew Bolduc come with Q experience and have shown chemistry together in preseason. The signing of Luke McPhee and the returns of Liam Welsh and Kevin Walker have boosted the Truro offense immensely. The 3 of them have a combined almost 150 QMJHL games over the past 3 seasons. After being acquired from Amherst 2 weeks ago, Owen Sparkes is coming off an impactful first season with the Ramblers and as a 20 year old will add some skill and depth to our core.
New Head Coach Jon Greenwood and new Assistant Coach Ryan Falkenham will join second year Assistant Ryan Porter behind the Truro bench.