By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

By this time tomorrow, pundits will be hard at work analyzing the winners and losers of this year’s expansion draft.

Two new teams (the Saint John Sea Dogs and the St. John’s Fog Devils) will have 24 new players to start a franchise.

The 16 other QMJHL teams will assess their losses (teams can lose no more than three players). After considering these factors, this expansion draft (today at 4 p.m. in Chicoutimi) will be history, and the focus will shift to the weekend’s entry draft.

“It really is the most exciting time of the season for the league,” said Maineiacs Vice President and Governor Matt McKnight recently. “It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen before.”

This is the first true league expansion since the Baie-Comeau Drakkar joined the league for the 1997-98 season. The league has since realigned teams, most recently from Montreal and Sherbrooke to Charlottetown, PEI and Lewiston, but not since Baie-Comeau has there been a team (or two) added.

As in previous expansion years, in order to make the newer teams more competitive, the league has granted them an exception to the rule of no more than three 20-year-old players per team. Saint John and St. John’s will each play up to five 20-year-old players in 2005-06, and four in 2006-07. In 2007-08, the two teams will drop into line with the rest of the teams in the league.

Each team had to submit a 16-player protection list, telling those expansion teams which players were off-limits. Anywhere from 30-39 players on the existing teams’ 55-man protection list are up for grabs.

Some hard-core fans in the Maritimes have conducted mock drafts. Other remain convinced of certain players’ worth compared to the rest of the league. In Lewiston, there are a few notable names adrift, including defenseman Jonathan Cameron, forward Guy Belisle, forward Alexandre Picard and forward Ryan Murphy. Murphy would be of particular interest to the Saint John Sea Dogs in New Brunswick. A tall, rugged power forward that never realized his full potential in Lewiston, Murphy will be 20 next season and could be a 25-30 goal-scorer with the proper mental toughness.

Picard would be a gamble, as most bets have him in the AHL next season, while Belisle was rumored to be a problem in the locker room at certain points during the season. Cameron might be one of the more valuable unprotected entities. He will be an 18-year-old defenseman with experience next season, thanks to the rush job the Maineiacs had to do last year due to injuries. Cameron was solid, but may still be a year away from being a dominant defenseman.

There are others on the list who may go, too, and still others who were protected who might be traded during the official two-hour trading period Friday morning, the day before the entry draft.

General Manager and head coach Clem Jodoin said in an interview last week that “there will be some activity” from the Maineiacs, likely in the way of acquiring better picks in the entry draft and in the European draft, that may involve players that were regulars on last year’s roster.

Around the league, there were some surprises, but none greater than Rimouski’s choice to continue to protect Sidney Crosby. Also, the Oceanic, who lost Sunday in the Memorial Cup final to London, have protected six 20-year-old players, which likely means they have some trades worked out with teams.

Martin Houle, a 20-year-old netminder from Cape Breton is among the favorites to be taken with one of the first picks by the expansion teams today.