The Memorial Cup final has finally come, and the London Knights and Saginaw Spirit will battle it out for CHL supremacy. On the way to this final game, though, three top CHL prospects were put under the spotlight.
With the Memorial Cup being the final event on the CHL calendar for draft-eligible players to showcase what they can do on the ice, it’s an excellent chance to do some final scouting on the players in the tournament.
This year we have had the chance to see two of the OHL’s best defensemen in Zayne Parekh and Sam Dickinson go head-to-head as they both look to be among the top defenders off the board in June. Sam O’Reilly is another player of note who plays an understated game but showed out with one of the best goals of the tournament at the Memorial Cup.
In an effort to showcase how I go about evaluating players for the 2024 NHL draft, I’ve opened my personal notebook from time to time to show what I’ve made a note of and witnessed from players throughout the year. In this edition of ‘Draft Notebook,’ we take a look at Parekh, Dickinson, and O’Reilly on the CHL’s biggest stage.
Zayne Parekh, RHD, Saginaw Spirit (OHL), 6-foot, 181 pounds
May 26, 2024, vs. Drummondville - Parekh had a solid overall game against Drummondville at the Memorial Cup. His passing, especially on the breakout, was very impressive throughout the game.
Parekh’s vision when the puck is on his stick gives him a truly special quality which is why he is so highly regarded. This game was a great example of his skating being very good but not elite. He has the ability to move laterally, change direction, and weave through traffic. His first-step burst isn’t always as good as you’d like to see and his top end speed isn’t a major strength. He moves well enough to not worry about it but you’d like to see his skating become a massive strength so that he can continue to improve his defensive play with his mobility at the base of it all.
In this game, he had a number of solid offensive chances, joining the rush at will and creating numbers advantages in transition. He plays as a fourth forward when the puck is moving up ice, rarely abstaining from getting involved. Parekh was consistently using give and go passes or quick banks off the boards to move the puck to teammates. He did ice the puck a couple of times in this game but overall, he was a threat to create in transition with the desire to hit home run passes all of the time.
In the offensive zone, he stepped up and got himself into shooting position a number of times. He changes the angle on his shot, consistently finds shooting lanes, and almost never hesitates to get the puck on net. One thing he did a couple of times in this game that was really intriguing was using his shot as a threat before offloading the puck to a teammate laterally to change the angle that the goalie had to adjust to.
Defensively, there was much more to like in this game than many others I’ve seen this season. He was playing reserved without becoming lackadaisical when defending puck carriers. He displayed an excellent stick throughout the game and even made a few sliding shot blocks. On one play in particular, as Drummondville began to gain some traction, Parekh made a diving stop on a slot pass and sent the puck to the corner showing a much higher level of compete defensively than he had earlier in the season. With displays like this, It makes sense why he recieved CHL Defenseman of the Year Honors just yesterday along with being a finalist for the Top Draft Prospect Award.
While there were moments of inconsistent effort on the defensive end, it primarily came when he was the weak-side defender furthest from the play. There were a few times I noticed that despite the play heading back into his zone, he skated back with less effort than you’d like to see. He also had a couple of moments where physical forechecks got the best of him. Parekh does possess a competitive, after-the-whistle shenanigans side to his game. He loves to jaw at his opponents and it’s part of what NHL teams will value about him.
Overall, this was one of the better games I’ve seen from Parekh but it also came against QMJHL competition in a less physical game that featured much more open ice than a pro game would typically have. Parekh is a very talented player but the flaws are fairly obvious.
Sam Dickinson, LHD, London Knights (OHL), 6-foot-3, 194 pounds
May 29, 2024, vs. Saginaw - In London’s biggest game of the year, Dickinson played nearly 30 minutes with just defensive partner Oliver Bonk playing more for either team in this game. Dickinson’s presence defensively was a massive asset as he was almost always making the right play against his opponent to dislodge and then secure the puck.
Dickinson did a very good job of reading when Bonk was going to step up and look to move up ice in transition or pinch in off of the blueline which allowed him to shift and support the play from a good defensive posture. He showed a very good stick, poking pucks off opponents in space and using it to swipe pucks from players' feet in board battles. He showed some excellent physical play as well, defending the front of the net by tying up sticks and using his feet to drive the player out of the goalie’s sightline.
Along the boards, Dickinson displayed a willingness to throw his weight around and pin opponents to the boards. He rarely let a player go by without at least getting a piece of them, making life a bit more difficult even when an opposing player was able to make a good play.
With that said, in nearly 30 minutes of ice time, not every decision is going to be perfect. There were a few instances of Dickinson’s decision-making with the puck, particularly on the breakout, that were a bit questionable. One notable instance came early in the first period when he attempted to circle his net and evade one opponent before breaking up ice just to run into a Saginaw player and lose the puck. He was able to recover it and bat it to a teammate but Dickinson needed to take a look when he was initially skating with the puck as a quick reverse from behind the net would have freed up a teammate to have a much easier breakout.
When he was passing on the breakout, Dickinson was very solid for the most part, hitting outlets along the wall consistently and identifying teammates streaking up ice when the pass was available. There were a few times when a puck was knocked loose in the neutral zone and Dickinson would step up, corral the puck and attack up ice. It was a glimpse into what his tool can do when fully utilized.
He looked to be a playmaker once in the offensive zone, taking just three shots, all from the point with none of them making it to the net. It would have been nice to see him move laterally to create shooting lanes because he did so as a passer with some success.
This was a very good game for Dickinson. He was steady and stable in his own and while he wasn’t overall active offensively, he was making crisp passes and did a very good job in transition. Dickinson showed the kind of poise and minute-munching ability that NHL teams will love.
Sam O’Reilly, RW, London Knights (OHL), 6-foot-1, 176 pounds
May 27, 2024, vs. Moose Jaw - O’Reilly was involved in quite a bit in this game. He was on the ice for two goals-for and three goals-against. He picked up a goal and an assist in the match against Moose Jaw but he was also directly responsible for losing his man in the defensive zone on the first Moose Jaw goal, and made a poor positional decision on the second goal-against as well. The third goal was a shot from the neutral zone that never should have gone in but he was right there and didn’t disrupt the dump-in/shot attempt.
With that said, he scored the nicest goal of the Memorial Cup thus far and he made an excellent play to help clear the puck into the neutral zone on the penalty kill and then race on to it which allowed him to set up his teammate on a two-on-one as the penalty expired.
O’Reilly’s defensive intensity has been better in most viewings I’ve had this season but he was a bit of a puck-watcher at times in this one. On the first Moose Jaw goal, he allowed Denton Mateychuk to attack in off the blueline, walk right by him and snap a shot past the netminder.
On the second goal, the puck went deep in the zone and chaos ensued a bit and O’Reilly collapsed too far in off the point which allowed too much space for the puck to move laterally high in the zone and left O’Reilly diving to attempt to deflect the shot. These little mistakes are the kind of thing that O’Reilly generally doesn’t make but they played a factor in costing London two goals against.
On the flip side, you also don’t see the kind of skill that O’Reilly displayed on his goal often either but it’s nice to see him pull it out of his bag in this one. After Cowan – a finalist for the David Branch Player of the Year Award – worked the puck into the offensive zone and offloaded the puck to the right side, he flew to the outside lane drawing defenders in. O’Reilly was on the left side and received the cross-ice pass with plenty of space. As a Moose Jaw defender attempted to close in space, O’Reilly attacked the net, pulled the puck across his body to his backhand to deke the defender, put it back to his forehand and put it high on the far side from in tight to score. It was a marvelous goal and the Knights seemed to take control of the game from that point forward.
O’Reilly plays a fairly simple game, forechecking and working hard down low. He understands how to rotate through a cycle and then work off the wall and get the puck to the middle of the ice. He settled for some low-danger shots at times but always seemed to do so once a crowd formed in front of the Moose Jaw netminder.
There were a few uncharacteristic mistakes in this game and he scored a goal that was better than almost any from this season that he’s scored. There was some good and some bad in this game, showing a lot of what O’Reilly brings to the game from a simple puck movement, forechecking and cycle game standpoint, as well as some of what he can do in space.