Carbonneau scoring again; McIsaac named captain of WHL squad; Ott gets first win as T-Birds head coach
Apparently, Justin Carbonneau had enough of not scoring.
The St. Louis Blues prospect, a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft (No. 19) went through a stretch of six games from Jan. 4-17 scoring just twice for Blainville-Boisbriand of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, and both goals came in one game on Jan. 14 in a 6-1 win against Cape Breton.
The 19-year-old got back on track this past week with six points (three goals, three assists) in three games, including his fourth streak this season of scoring in three straight games helpng the Armada to a trio of wins.
Carbonneau had a goal and two assists on Thursday in a 5-0 win against Rouyn-Noranda:
Carbonneau would then open the scoring on Saturday in a 5-3 win at Quebec:
He then had a goal and an assist on Sunday in a 4-1 win over Gatineau, scoring his 35th of the season to tie Maxim Masse of Chicoutimi for the league lead in goals and also the 221st point of his Armada career, which set a club record:
Carbonneau now has 55 points (35 goals, 20 assists) in 40 games and is projected for 83 points (including 53 goals), helped the Armada (26-12-5-1) pull within one point of the Western Conference lead on Drummondville with a game in hand.
* Huge honor for Will McIsaac -- Congratulations are in order for prospect Will McIsaac, who earlier this week was named captain of Spokane of the Western Hockey League for the remainder of the 2025-26 season:
The defenseman, a fifth-round pick in the 2024 draft, became the 38th captain in franchise history and took over for Berkly Catton, who was called up by the Seattle Kraken and has remained there this season.
“At the beginning of the year we were unsure what our team would look like, but now that our team is set for the rest of the season we felt it was important to add a captain to our leadership group,” Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said in a team release. “We feel that Will embodies all the right qualities and is the perfect fit to lead this group through the rest of the season.”
McIsaac (6-foot-3, 205 pounds) is in his fourth full season with Spokane and has 20 points (four goals, 16 assists) in 43 games this season and 95 points (18 goals, 77 assists) in 247 career regular-season games.
McIsaac is the second Blues prospect to have been named a recent captain, including Lukas Fischer (second round, 2024) prior to the start of the 2024-25 season with Sarnia of the Ontario Hockey League. Fischer has since been traded to Sault Ste. Marie this season.
* Adam Jiricek -- The silver medalist, and 2024 first-round pick (No. 16), for Czechia in the 2026 World Junior Championship picked up four assists the past two games for Brantford of the OHL despite a goal drought of a season-high six games.
The defenseman, who has 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists) in 34 games for the Bulldogs, did not factor in the scoring in a 5-4 loss at North Bay on Thursday, then picked up a helper Saturday in a 5-4 overtime win at Sudbury, then adding three assists in a 7-1 home win over Barrie at home on Sunday.
* Thunderbirds in first game under Steve Ott -- A number of Blues prospects certainly came out to play in a dramatic way in the first game under new Springfield coach Steve Ott, who was an assistant/associate coach of the Blues for nine seasons before being named the American Hockey League club's coach after the Thunderbirds fired Steve Konowalchuk last week.
In Ott's debut on Friday against Toronto, a game in which the Thunderbirds trailed 3-1 after two periods, they chipped away little by little, first getting a goal from defenseman Marc-Andre Gaudet (fifth round, 2022) off a face-off win by Zach Dean (good to see him contributing since returning from a lengthy absence):
Then Michael Buchinger (third round, 2022) makes a play to the net that was finished off by Chris Wagner that made it 3-2:
And then Aleksanteri Kaskimaki (third round, 2022), who had a cup of coffee with the Blues earlier in the season, makes two high-end plays to complete the comeback for assists.
He works a give-and-go and sets up Matt Luff for the tying goal to make it 3-3, Luff's 100th AHL goal:
And then Kaskimaki bull rushes his way up the ice on a 2-on-1 to set up Theo Lindstein (first round, No. 29, 2023) for the OT game-winner and a 4-3 Springfield win, a great play by Lindstein too taking the pick off his skates and lifting the shot from a sharp angle:
Goalie Vadim Zherenko (seventh round, 2019) deserves some love by stopping 29 of 32 shots; this after stopping 45 of 48 in a huge effort despite a 3-2 loss to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton last Monday.
* Gold medal winner back to his stomping grounds -- It was quite the ride for goalie Love Harenstam and Sweden after the Swedes took the gold at the 2026 WJC, and now the Blues 2025 sixth-round pick is back playing for his club once again.
He picked up his fourth shutout for Sodertalje of HockeyAllsvenskan on Jan. 18 in a 3-0 win over Oskarshamn, tying Harenstam for the league lead in shutouts.
Harenstam's won/loss record (10-12-4) does not nearly reflect his sparkling 1.92 goals-against average and .916 save percentage he carries.
* Updates -- From an injury standpoint, forward Matvei Korotky (seventh round, 2024) finally returned to action on Jan. 22 for SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL after missing nearly three months with a lower-body injury.
Center Adam Jecho (third round, 2024), who had to bow out of the WJC with a hand injury and could not represent Czechia, returned to action for Edmonton of the WHL on Wednesday in a 4-3 loss to Regina after missing six weeks of action.
Defenseman Arseny Koromyslov (fourth round, 2022) continues to play big minutes for Traktor of the KHL; he's a plus-7 and averaging 17:53 playing in the top four and has a goal and 14 assists in 45 games.
Also, defenseman Colin Ralph (second round, 2024) continues to play steady solid for Michigan State and helped the second-ranked Spartans to their third and fourth straight wins with 3-1 and 3-2 wins over Minnesota Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Ralph had four shots on goal and three blocks and was a plus-2 on Saturday.
He has a goal and nine assists on the season.
Always check out Blues prospects stats bookmarked here:
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