San Jose Sharks prospect Joshua Ravensbergen and the Prince George Cougars were eliminated from the Western Hockey League playoffs by the Penticton Vees on Sunday night. Ravensbergen, the Sharks' 30th overall selection in the 2025 NHL Draft, had a phenomenal season with Prince George, but now he has his sights set on conquering the world of collegiate hockey. In his final season with the Cougars, Ravensbergen played 46 regular season games, recording a .919 save percentage and a 2.51 goals against average along with four shutouts. In the playoffs, he was just as reliable. In 12 playoff games, he had a .918 save percentage and 2.71 goals against average. "It’s rare for a 6-foot-5 goalie to play with so much speed and aggressiveness," Elite Prospects scout Liam Crouse said of the 19-year-old netminder [https://www.eliteprospects.com/player/817695/joshua-ravensbergen/scouting-report#report-104855]. "It gives him such a huge advantage over most because he naturally takes up a ton of space while only boosting that even farther by making saves at the top of his crease even more than most small goalies." With the recent changes to NCAA eligibility, quite a few players have been making the jump from the Canadian Hockey League to the NCAA and Ravensbergen will be among the next batch to do so. A couple of months ago, he committed to Michigan State University for the 2026-27 season. Some of the goalies who made the jump for the 2025-26 season benefitted from it tremendously. The most notable is University of Denver goaltender Johnny Hicks who registered a .957 save percentage and 1.19 goals against average as a 20-year-old freshman. With Michigan State's former starting goaltender Trey Augustine signing his entry level contract with the Detroit Red Wings and their former backup Melvin Strahl transferring to the University of Minnesota, it seems there won't be a considerable amount of competition for Ravensbergen to earn the starting job in East Lansing right out of the gate.
