Re: 2017 Draft Prospects
Couple players to keep an eye on next year that haven't been mentioned yet (I don't think)
OHL
Brady Gilmour - Saginaw's 2015 first round pick (6th overall in the OHL draft), left shooting center. Put up 3 points in 4 playoff games. More of a playmaker than a shooter, but he should get some more playing time and approach closer to 50 points. Saginaw isn't a hugely offensive team, so don't expect him to hit anything more than PPG at most.
Ivan/Vanya Lodnia - Though his name is very clearly a Russian name, he was born in Missouri and is American. Was the youngest player on Erie, but had a nice rookie year with 39 points. He'll likely see a slight rise in playing time which should boost his numbers nicely too. He's on the smaller side like Debrincat but he's got offensive talent.
Nick Suzuki - Another first round pick from the 2015 OHL draft, I think he'll be in line for a big jump in point totals. Owen Sound has two overage centers leaving this season with Sterk and Cianfrone graduating. He'll be competing with Szpula for playing time at a center but I'm betting Suzuki will win the top line spot when it's said and done. Either way he'll have a top 2 center spot to work with. He likes to shoot, and he's a guy who's already earning time on the PP and in situations where his team needs to win (he had 5 PPG and 5 GWG last season). And he's not half bad at center for a rookie (49 percent is pretty decent). I like him. He barely makes the cutoff for the 2017 draft too.
Robert Thomas - I don't think he'll be a big fantasy prospect this time next year, but I wonder if he'll kind of work his way towards being a Cliff Pu type prospect. A guy who plays in limited time but shows some nice potential. He's good on faceoffs, having won more than half of them in the season. Outside chance he wins out over Pu for increased playing time.
WHL
Nikita Popugaev - 6 foot 4 Russian left winger. Nice first season in North America with 47 points in 70 games. Was a depth scorer on a pretty potent Moose Jaw team. With Hunt moving on to the pro game, and likely Point graduating as well, the Warriors will rely on Howden, Gregor and Popugaev to run their offense. Popugaev will likely get a prime spot as the 1LW which should reflect nicely is his numbers. First rounder likely.
Michael Rasmussen - Big center for Tri-City coming it at 6 foot 5 and with Bowles completing his overage year, the top line center spot is likely Rasmussen's to lose going into next season. He was a former 2014 WHL draft 1st rounder.
Jordy Bellerive - Taken 2nd overall in the 2014 draft, Bellerive was impressive in a depth position in his first rookie season. He's not the biggest at 5 foot 10, but he's solid at 190 and he'll likely grow a little still. He's got good skating, vision and a nice release. He's going to face some tough competition for playing time next season on Lethbridge but there's no reason he can't push for more time with his talent.
Juuso Valimaki - 6 foot 2 defender, Finnish, two-way defender with a nice breakout ability. He was the Captain of the Gold Winning Finnish U18 team this year too.
Scott Walford - Didn't play a ton, but he's shown some serious offensive potential in his past. Interesting defender, but he'll need to show more this year.
Stelio Mattheos - Right shooting 6 foot 1 center, should see more playing time on Brandon next year with a couple players likely graduating. Playing behind (or even with) Nolan Patrick could be pretty beneficial.
Lane Zablocki - Average sized right shooting RW. He plays a power forward style game and has no qualms about playing roughly having put up 95 PIM's. Has a nice shooting ability too, and he led the Pats in playoff goals with 7 (tied with Brooks and Sanford). I'd expect to see him stapled to Steel's wing next year, which could be a pretty nice tandem for the Pats. Who doesn't like a left shooting center passing pucks to a right shooting winger? He has some intriguing multi-cat upside.
QMJHL
Antoine Morand - He's an undersized forward, but he was over a PPG in his rookie season with Acadie-Bathurst.
NCAA/USHL
Eeli Tolvanen - Picked in the CHL import draft on Tuesday but he's committed to Boston College next year. He led Finland in points during their run to a U18 Gold Medal. He was 2nd in points among USHL u17 players too. He's a LW.
Scott Reedy - 6 foot 1 center, committed to University of Minnesota for 2017-2018, he had 28 points in 33 USHL games this year. Led the US U17 tourney team in points, and was only one point behind tourney leaded Eeli Tolvanen. He'll play the next season in the USHL.
14T BiWeekly H2H. 4 C/RW/LW, 6 D, 2 G
Cats:G(3), A(1.5), PIM(0.2), PPP(1), SOG(0.2), GWG(1), SHP(2), Hits(0.3), BkS(0.4). W(2), SO(2), OTL(0.5), SV(0.2), GA(-1), L(-1). 9 Keepers in Bold. 12 player Farm team (skaters under 110, goalies under 80 gp) in italics
LW - Gaudreau, Forsberg, Parise, Hyman (C)
C - Backstrom, Getzlaf, N Foligno (LW/RW), Kotkaniemi, Carter (LW/RW)
RW - Tarasenko, Rantanen, Arvidsson, Atkinson, Gourde (C/LW), Mikheyev (RW)
D - Dahlin, Theodore, Ellis, Klingberg, Fox, Andersson
G - Murray, Grubauer
Prospects -Rossi, Turcotte, Kravstov, Tippett, Bouchard, Lehtonen, K Miller, Addison, DeSmith, Kahkonen, Ingram, Gustavsson
Originally Posted by The Bottlenecker
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