Projected top-five pick in the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, Michael Misa, is the first CHL player to hit the 100-point mark this season.

The upcoming 2025 NHL Entry Draft is loaded with talent at the top. Matthew Schaefer has the potential to be a cornerstone franchise-type defenseman. Despite dealing with mono and suffering a collarbone injury at the World Juniors, he projects to be the No. 1 pick in June. 

However, if he wasn't in this draft, it's hard to argue that Saginaw Spirit center Michael Misa would not be the projected first-overall pick. 

Last night, Feb. 12, Saginaw smacked the Soo Greyhounds 8-4. Misa entered the game one point shy of the century mark and wasted very little time getting on the scoresheet. 

He won inside positioning on his man racing to a loose puck in the corner and while falling to the ice, on his backside, he made a one-hand pass off his backhand to set up the red-hot San Jose Sharks prospect, Igor Chernyshov. 

The former Mississauga Senator is the first CHL player to hit the century mark this season. 46 goals and 102 points in just 48 games for a 17-year-old — Misa turns 18 on Feb. 16. — is frankly absurd and puts him in elite company. 

Misa's 2.13 points-per-game rate is the highest by an NHL draft-eligible 17-year-old OHL player since Connor McDavid. 

The former great Erie Otter posted 120 points in 47 games — 2.55 points-per-game — during his draft year in 2014-15. 

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In the last 15 years, only one first-year draft-eligible OHL player has eclipsed the 50-goal mark. That was Hamilton Bulldog forward Arthur Kaliyev, who scored 51 goals in 67 games in the 2018-19 season. 

Additionally, only three players have recorded 120 points or more, and ironically, all three did it in the 2014-15 season: Dylan Strome, who scored 129 points in 68 games; Mitch Marner, who scored 126 points in 63 games; and Connor McDavid, who scored 120 points in 47 games. 

Misa is on pace for 62 goals and 138 points. He was granted exceptional status by the OHL in 2022 and boy has the young man lived up to the hype. 

Schaefer will compete for the first-overall selection in 2025 with Misa, Boston College forward James Hagens, and Brampton Steelheads captain Porter Martone.

Nevertheless, Misa's recent stretch of hockey, where he has been collecting multi-point games practically every night — he has recorded a multi-point outing in 15 of his last 17 games — should start to set him apart and close the gap between him and Schaefer. 

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