Nine minority owners included auto dealer John Gwynne-Timothy,[9] fuel company executive Laddie Farquhar,[10] and National Hockey League players Wendell Young and Cam Russell.

[9] Aided by key acquisitions, including goaltenders Pascal Leclaire and Aleksei Volkov, and Slovakian forward Ladislav Nagy, the team rebounded to second place divisional finishes in 1999 and 2000, losing in the second round both seasons.

[15] Following the four-game sweep to the Rimouski Océanic in the second round of the 2000 QMJHL playoffs, and a month before the Memorial Cup tournament was to begin, the club released Mongrain, replacing him with assistant coach Shawn Mackenzie.

Led by a 10-point performance by Ramzi Abid, the Mooseheads finished the Memorial Cup round-robin with a 2–1 record, but lost in the semi-final to the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts.

[9] Following the team's strong Memorial Cup showing, Mackenzie was awarded the head coaching job to start the 2000–01 season, while Marcel Patenaude took over as general manager.

[9] In 2002, Sidney Crosby, a skilled forward from the Halifax suburb of Cole Harbour, had attracted media attention from an early age and often played with older teammates.

With a regular season record of 44–15–10–3, the club secured first place in its division, before sweeping Cape Breton in the first round, then beating Acadie Bathurst and Baie Comeau each in seven-game series.

[9] The 2002–03 season was also significant as the city of Halifax played host to the World Junior Hockey Championship and original majority owner Moosehead Breweries disclosed the company was looking for a buyer for its 64 percent share of the club.

Before the start of the 2003–04 season, the club announced that Bobby Smith, a Nova Scotia native and former NHL forward and general manager, had become majority owner.

In addition, team owner Bobby Smith engaged in a public spat with the management of the club's arena, claiming the Mooseheads' lease was the worst in junior hockey.

[20] A few games into the 2010–11 season, Russell stepped away from the bench to become the club's full-time general manager, with Bobby Smith taking over the head coach's role.

[21] In 2011, Nathan MacKinnon, a fast-skating forward from Dartmouth and had developed his skills in the Cole Harbour minor hockey system like Sidney Crosby, was attracting media attention.

After failing to land Crosby nine years earlier, the club was determined to add MacKinnon to the Mooseheads roster, however, Baie Comeau Drakkar held the first pick in the June 2011 QMJHL midget draft.

[22] Five weeks later, the Drakkar agreed to trade MacKinnon to Halifax in exchange for two top forwards and three consecutive first round draft picks.

A trade with the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies netted them the second pick overall in the 2011 midget draft, allowing the Mooseheads to select highly ranked centre Jonathan Drouin.

While MacKinnon had departed for the Colorado Avalanche, Drouin and Fucale both returned to the Mooseheads lineup, and the club added a couple of star forwards by way of the 2013 import draft, Nikolaj Ehlers and Timo Meier.

After a fourth-place divisional finish, the team upset favoured Shawinigan Cataractes in the first playoff round, before falling to the Moncton Wildcats in seven games.

[30] The following season saw the club fall back into losing territory, recording only 21 wins and finishing out of the playoffs in sixth place in the Maritimes division.

[33] The Mooseheads made history at the 2016 QMJHL draft by being the first team to have the first and second overall picks when they selected highly touted prospects Benoit-Olivier Groulx and Truro's Jared McIsaac.

At the centre of their plans was a bid for the 2019 Memorial Cup tournament and to make sure the Mooseheads were legitimate contenders for a second national junior title.

[36] The Mooseheads began the season by moving offices, training, and practice facilities to the RBC Centre, a new $43 million four-pad arena in Dartmouth.

While import star Nico Hischier had departed after one season, selected first overall by the New Jersey Devils in the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, the club had signed another top Czech prospect, Filip Zadina.

[39] The team then traded for veteran players, including Antoine Morand and Samuel Asselin from the reigning Memorial Cup champion Acadie-Bathurst Titan, and Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, native Keith Getson from the Charlottetown Islanders.

After a seven-game, come-from-behind win over Quebec in the first round, the Mooseheads swept the Moncton Wildcats in four straight, then beat Drummondville in six games in a semi-final matchup.

In the final, the Mooseheads faced the league-leading Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, a team that had finished the regular season with 59 wins and had lost only two playoff games.