Shane Wright, Jiri Kulich and Logan Stankoven made up the forwards, while Brandt Clarke and Simon Edvisson represented the top defensive prospects in the league. The top prospect between the pipes this season was Yaroslav Askarov.
Last Thursday, the AHL announced the 2023-24 Top Prospects Team.
Shane Wright, Jiri Kulich and Logan Stankoven made up the forwards, while Brandt Clarke and Simon Edvisson represented the top defensive prospects in the league. The top prospect between the pipes this season was Yaroslav Askarov.
Prior to their time in the AHL both Clarke and Wright had successful careers playing for their respective OHL clubs.
Clarke spent three seasons in the OHL playing for the Barrie Colts. At the end of his rookie season, Clarke established himself as a reliable defender recording 6 goals and 32 assists in 57 games.
Clarke's sharp instincts and playmaking ability allowed him to accel at the junior level. Combining that with his footspeed and a willingness to join the rush made him a very dangerous offensive defenseman.
Over the course of 143 games, he scored 40 goals and added 118 assists. He averaged 1.10 points per game.
While playing for the Ontario Reign in the AHL this past season, Clarke scored 10 goals and registered 36 assists.
He was fifth amongst defensemen and second amongst rookie defensemen with only Logan Mailloux outscoring him by a single point.
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Wright started his OHL career with the Kingston Frontenacs where he played for two consecutive seasons.
His shoot first and ask questions later play style was evident during his rookie campaign. Wright took the league by force scoring 39 goals and adding 27 assists.
Its hard to believe Wright could improve upon scoring more than a point a game as a rookie, but in his sophomore year he scored 94 points in 63 games.
In his final year, Wright moved from Kingston to Windsor as part of a trade. Though he only played in 20 games for Spitfires he still managed to score 37 points.
While playing for the Coachella Valley Firebirds of the AHL this past season Wright scored 22 goals and 25 assists for a total of 47 points. This placed him seventh among rookies.
Despite being outscored by several players, Wright stood out because he only played 59 games.
At 0.8 points per game, if Wright had played all 72 games he would have recorded 57 points. That would have tied him with Logan Stankoven for first in rookie scoring.
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Every time the two dynamic players have been on the same team they have found success.
In their OHL draft year, Clarke and Wright played together for the Don Mills Flyers U-16 AAA team. That season, the team never lost in regulation.
They pair won a gold medal playing for Canada at the 2021 U-18 World Junior Championship.
They followed that impressive performance with another gold medal at the U-20 World Junior Championship in the 2022-23 season.
Success in the AHL is often one of the steps that leads to a fruitful NHL career. Both Wright and Clarke proved in their first professional seasons that they have what it takes to excel at the AHL level.
It is now up to the young stars to prove that they have what it takes to make it in the NHL.