The Halifax Mooseheads are a Canadian major junior ice hockey club in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The team was founded in 1994 and began play in the Dilio Division of the QMJHL from the 1994–95 season. They have appeared in the President's Cup Finals four times, winning in 2013. The other three appearances were in 2003, 2005 and 2019. They hosted the Memorial Cup tournament in 2000 and 2019 and won the Memorial Cup in 2013. The team plays their home games in the Scotiabank Centre. The Mooseheads were the first team from Atlantic Canada to join the QMJHL. With the Mooseheads' success, the QMJHL then expanded to several other east coast cities. The QMJHL's eastward expansion has been credited with elevating the skill level and the career opportunities for hockey talent from the region. In the 2018–19 season, three of the NHL's top seven scorers were QMJHL alumni from Halifax; two of them former Mooseheads. History Inception and first seasons: 1994–1997 Halifax was home to professional American Hockey League clubs for 22 seasons; however, in 1993 the Quebec Nordiques-affiliated Halifax Citadels announced plans to relocate the team. Faced with the loss of its major hockey draw, brewery executive Harold MacKay proposed the city seek a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) franchise. Since its founding in 1969, the QMJHL consisted of almost exclusively Quebec-based teams. Expansion to Atlantic Canada was considered financially unfeasible by QMJHL commissioner Gilles Courteau and much of the league's executive committee due to the added travel costs for the existing franchises, but on 17 March 1994, the QMJHL Board of Governors unanimously approved the Halifax application. MacKay won the financial backing of Moosehead Breweries president and CEO Derek Oland. The company put up the $500,000 expansion franchise fee and secured the team's naming rights. Nine minority owners included auto dealer John Gwynne-Timothy, fuel company executive Laddie Farquhar, and National Hockey League players Wendell Young and Cam Russell. The new club then had to create a team in less than six months. MacKay recruited as the team's head coach and general manager Clément Jodoin, then an assistant coach with the Quebec Nordiques and a former AHL defenceman who had spent seven seasons in Halifax. He added as an assistant coach Shawn MacKenzie, a former professional goaltender and university coach. With attendance averaging over 3700 per game, the