The Memorial Cup featured a handful of standout performers, including tournament MVP James Malatesta. Carol Schram lists the best from each team.
Gather the best of the best from Canada's 60-team junior hockey system, and you're bound to see some standout performances during the Memorial Cup.
On Sunday in Kamloops, Quebec Remparts winger James Malatesta was named the tournament's most valuable player. With five goals in four games, including one on Sunday, he joins a list of Stafford Smythe Award winners that include Mitch Marner, Leon Draisaitl and Nathan MacKinnon over the last decade alone, as well as Alexander Radulov from the last time the Remparts hoisted the Memorial Cup, in 2006.
"James was outstanding during the entire playoffs and Memorial Cup, and the season, actually," said a beaming Patrick Roy on the ice during Sunday's celebration.
A fifth-round pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2021, 20-year-old Malatesta is a high-octane competitor who can raise his game when it matters most. When asked what has worked so well for him this spring, he cites "passion and determination."
"We're a group of determined guys here, and we all feed off of each other," Malatesta added. "When you've got a group of guys like that, we all would do anything for each other on the ice, and I think it showed."
The Remparts were not short on confidence, and Sunday's 5-0 championship win over the Seattle Thunderbirds was the culmination of a full season's work.
"We knew the whole year that it was our year," Malatesta said. "We had the team, the coaching staff, everybody. And I think we proved it tonight. We played a great game, and I couldn't be happier."
Here's a look at some of the other standout players from this year's event:
Quebec Remparts: William Rousseau and Kassim Gaudet
Rousseau, an undrafted 20-year-old, earned the Hap Emms Memorial Trophy as the tournament's most outstanding goaltender, outduelling world juniors gold medalist Thomas Milic for top honors. Rousseau allowed just eight goals in four games to finish with a .937 save percentage and 2.15 goals-against average. He's the first netminder to earn a shutout in a Memorial Cup final since Evan Fitzpatrick of the Acadie-Bathurst Titan shut out the Regina Pats 3-0 in 2018.
When asked to name an unsung hero, Roy and Malatesta pointed to Kassim Gaudet. Through the year, the undrafted 19-year-old worked his way up the lineup to become an important player by the post-season. In the QMJHL playoffs, he chipped in nine points in 18 games. Through the Memorial Cup, he added another five points, including an assist on what proved to be Sunday's game-winning goal by Vsevolod Komarov and a shorthanded tally to make it 3-0 midway through the third.
"Scoring that one, I think that hurt (Seattle) a bit," said Roy.
Seattle Thunderbirds: Kyle Crnkovic
You know the names of Seattle's high-profile stars like Dylan Guenther, Brad Lambert, Kevin Korchinski and Thomas Milic. But it was the undrafted 21-year-old from Calgary, Kyle Crnkovic, who drove the bus for the Thunderbirds with five goals and eight points in five games.
Undersized but full of heart, Crnkovic was named player of the game in two of Seattle's three wins, off his hat-trick performance in the Thunderbirds' tournament-opening win over the Peterborough Petes and again when his team eliminated the Petes in the semifinal.
Peterborough Petes: Brennan Othmann
The New York Rangers' first-round pick from 2021 is high on skill and wears his heart on his sleeve.
After his Petes fell into an early hole with round-robin losses to Seattle and Kamloops, Brennan Othmann helped rally his team for the 4-2 win over Quebec that earned them their spot in the tiebreaker game. Two nights later, Othmann scored the goal that started Peterborough's rally from 4-1 down against the Blazers to come all the way back and eliminate the host team. Then, he scored the Petes' only goal in Friday's 4-1 semifinal loss to Seattle.
After his team was eliminated and knowing that this is most likely the end of his junior-hockey career, Othmann took to the podium in the press room in his full gear, including his skates. Eyes red-rimmed, he spoke with passion about how the foundation of the Petes' refuse-to-lose post-season was the strong bond that had formed in the room and how he was going to cherish the last few hours that he'd spend with these teammates.
Kamloops Blazers: Logan Stankoven
No player may have experienced more pressure in this tournament than the host team's 20-year-old captain, Logan Stankoven. A born-and-bred Kamloops boy, Stankoven spent the last four-plus years repping his hometown team and thrived in the spotlight, earning CHL player of the year honors in 2021-22.
Coming into the Memorial Cup, the Blazers and their fans knew they hadn't been able to get the best of Seattle during the WHL playoffs. Stankoven had the hopes of the local fans sitting squarely on his shoulders as the Blazers played for their first national title since 1995 while celebrating the winners that had come before — and with those winners like Shane Doan, Jarome Iginla and Scott Niedermayer in town and taking part in activities throughout the tournament.
Stankoven started the tournament like he was shot out of a cannon, with three assists in the Blazers' 8-3 loss to Quebec and a five-point night in their 10-2 win over Peterborough. He added one additional goal in the tiebreaker against the Petes to finish with the tournament scoring lead (nine points). But after J.R. Avon's overtime dagger ended the tiebreaker game and, most likely, Stankoven's junior career, the second-round pick of the Dallas Stars looked nothing less than shellshocked as it started to sink in that his storybook junior career had ended so abruptly and harshly.
Stankoven's a gamer. Keep an eye on his next chapter.