Stat Pack: Major Junior Numbers Ahead of CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game

The top 2023 NHL draft-eligible prospects from across Canada are gathering in Langley, B.C. this week for the CHL/NHL Kubota Top Prospects game, which takes place Wednesday night.

With just over two months left in the regular season for Canada's three major junior leagues, this is a good time to check in on the key numbers and storylines for those potential 2023 draft picks as well as the clubs that are looking to chart their courses back to B.C. for the Memorial Cup in May.

You can catch the Top Prospects Game Wednesday night at 10 p.m. ET on TSN and RDS in Canada and on NHL Network in the U.S.

Top Prospects Game

Players Selected: 40

December's initial roster announcement listed 19 players from the WHL, 15 from the OHL and six from the QMJHL. And the Seattle Thunderbirds led all teams with three representatives: center Gracyn Sawchyn, right wing Nico Myatovic and goaltender Scott Ratzlaff.

Two players from the WHL and two from the OHL are now unable to participate due to injury: forwards Samuel Honzek (Vancouver Giants), Andrew Cristall (Kelowna Rockets) and Quentin Musty (Sudbury Wolves) and defenseman Andrew Gibson (Soo Greyhounds).

That quartet has been replaced by forwards Connor Levis (Kamloops Blazers), Alex Pharand (Sudbury Wolves) and Denver Barkey (London Knights), along with defenseman Dylan MacKinnon (Halifax Mooseheads). That shifts the ratio to 18 players from the 'Dub', 15 from the 'O' and seven from the 'Q.'

Participating players were identified through a survey conducted with the NHL’s 32 teams. Since 1996, 15 Top Prospects Game participants have gone on to be selected first overall in the NHL Draft, dating back to Chris Phillips (Ottawa, 1996) and most recently, Alexis Lafreniere (Rangers, 2020).

After a one-year absence due to the pandemic in 2021, the Top Prospects Game returned in March 2022. Thirty-eight of the 41 players who suited up in Kitchener, Ont. went on to be selected in the 2022 NHL draft, headlined by Shane Wright at No. 4.

Central Scouting Breakdown

All 40 participants in Wednesday's game are ranked on the mid-term list released by NHL Central Scouting on Jan. 13.

The WHL earns top honors in that department, too, boasting top-ranked North American skater Connor Bedard of the Regina Pats and the top-ranked North American goalie in Carson Bjarnason of the Brandon Wheat Kings.

Three other top-10 skaters will suit up in Langley on Wednesday: fifth-ranked Brayden Yager of the Moose Jaw Warriors, seventh-ranked Zach Benson of the Winnipeg Ice and 10th-ranked Colby Barlow of the Owen Sound Attack. Honzek, the WHL rookie from Slovakia, slotted in at No. 9 but is out of action after suffering a skate cut to his leg during the World Junior Championship.

We aren't seeing many North American defensemen ranked highly by Central Scouting this year, but nine of the top 10 will be patrolling the blue lines in Langley on Wednesday. Lukas Dragicevic of the Tri-City Americans tops that list (No. 12), followed by Oliver Bonk of the London Knights (No. 18), Etienne Morin of the Moncton Wildcats (No. 24), Beau Akey of the Barrie Colts (No. 25), Cameron Allen of the Guelph Storm (No. 29), Caden Price of the Kelowna Rockets (No. 30), Hunter Brzustewicz of the Kitchener Rangers (No. 33), Luca Cagnoni of the Portland Winterhawks (No. 34) and Tanner Molendyk of the Saskatoon Blades (No. 36).

The one top-10 defenseman who will be missing is the injured Andrew Gibson, at No. 32. 

Another WHLer, Scott Ratzlaff, slots into sixth place among the goalies.

CHL Top Performers

Here's a rundown of the top-performing teams and players across all three leagues so far this season:

The WHL

With a record of 33-5-1-0, the Winnipeg Ice sit comfortably atop the WHL standings. After they were knocked out of the 2022 playoffs by the Edmonton Oil Kings in the third round last spring, the Ice have loaded up their roster even more. 

Their scoring leader is draft-eligible Zach Benson, who's second in the WHL with 65 points in 38 games — only behind some guy named Bedard. 

He's supported by a trio of NHL first-rounders: forwards Matthew Savoie and Conor Geekie from 2022 and defenseman Carson Lambos from 2021. At the January trade deadline, the Ice paid a king's ransom to add Vancouver Giants captain Zach Ostapchuk. He's now a two-time world juniors gold medallist with Team Canada and a second-round pick of the Ottawa Senators in 2022.

Also performing well this season: the Seattle Thunderbirds, Portland Winterhawks and Red Deer Rebels. The Kamloops Blazers sit third in the Western Conference by points percentage but have a guaranteed spot in the Memorial Cup as hosts.

The top eight teams in each conference will earn a playoff berth. As of Monday, Jan. 23, Connor Bedard's Regina Pats sit eighth in the East with 46 points — the same number as the seventh-place Swift Current Broncos, but with two more games played. Regina is three points up on the Brandon Wheat Kings and Medicine Hat Tigers.

Bedard, of course, leads the WHL scoring race with 39-42-81 in 33 games played, and he's on a 32-game point streak. The Pats are 4-1-0-0 since Bedard returned from his MVP turn at the World Junior Championship, and the WHL playoffs will sizzle much hotter if they're part of the post-season.

Austin Elliott of the Saskatoon Blades has the top goals-against average in the entire CHL at 2.05. The undrafted 18-year-old also boasts a save percentage of .918 and a record of 15-5-2 with the Blades this season.

The OHL

With a record of 31-9-1-1, the Ottawa 67's are perched at the top of the OHL standings with a .762 points percentage. After a first-round sweep at the hands of the North Bay Battalion last season, Dave Cameron's crew is looking for a better playoff outcome in 2023.

With an offense led by undrafted 20-year-old Cameron Tolnai and 2023 NHL draft-eligible Luca Pinelli, the 67's loaded up at the trade deadline by acquiring center Logan Morrison and defenseman Pavel Mintyukov, the 10th-overall pick of the Anaheim Ducks in 2022.

Right behind Ottawa in the OHL league standings: North Bay, along with the Windsor Spitfires — now featuring deadline acquisition Shane Wright — and the London Knights. 

Offensively, Ty Voit of the Sarnia Sting leads all OHL scorers with 12-52-64. The 19-year-old from Pittsburgh was selected in the fifth round of the 2021 NHL draft by the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Dom DiVincentiis of North Bay owns the best goals-against average in the OHL this season at 2.51. A seventh-round pick of the Winnipeg Jets in 2022, he's 23-6-1-0 this season with a .910 save percentage.

The QMJHL

You'll find Patrick Roy's Quebec Remparts atop the standings in the 'Q' this season. They have a stunning .830 points percentage off a record of 35-6-1-2. They have a league-low 101 goals against, thanks largely to undrafted goalkeeper William Rousseau. The 20-year-old has the second-best GAA in the CHL, at 2.08, to go along with a .917 save percentage. And with a .919 save percentage and 11-2-0 record, Quebec's Quentin Miller is the top-ranked goalie from the QMJHL by Central Scouting, at No. 9.

Offensively, the Remparts are led by Zachary Bolduc. He was the 17th-overall pick of the St. Louis Blues in 2021 and a late cut from Team Canada's world juniors roster. The 19-year-old is comfortably on pace to eclipse his 99 points from last season, with 73 points in 38 games and a plus-38 rating so far this season.

But that output only ranks him third among QMJHL scorers. Leading the pack are a pair of Halifax Mooseheads forwards. 

Jordan Dumais, an 18-year-old who was a third-round pick by Columbus in 2022, is up to 82 points in 39 games — yes, one point ahead of Connor Bedard, although with six more games played. And trade acquisition Alexandre Doucet has been on fire since he joined Halifax from the Val d'Or Foreurs. The undrafted 21-year-old has 23 points in 11 games in a Mooseheads uniform and is now up to 76 points for the year.

At 31-7-4-1, Halifax ranks second in the QMJHL standings, followed by the Sherbrooke Phoenix and Gatineau Olympiques. 

Sherbrooke forward Ethan Gauthier, the son of former NHL defenseman Denis Gauthier, is the top-ranked player from the QMJHL at the Top Prospects Game. He led Canada's gold-medal team with six goals at the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Red Deer, Alta., and is ranked 14th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.