THE PIPELINE SHOW: CHL Top Prospects Game
The CHL Top Prospect game drove the content of this week’s episode of The Pipeline Show as Guy was in Red Deer for a couple of days, speaking with a number of players before the showcase event.
From the WHL
At an event like this, my focus tends to go towards the players from outside the Western Hockey League as it provides an opportunity for me to watch and interview players from the OHL and QMJHL. However, I did make sure to track down a pair of WHL participants beginning with the guy who was leading the entire Canadian Hockey League in scoring for most of the season, Brett Leason of the Prince Albert Raiders.
The other WHLer on my checklist was goaltender Taylor Gauthier of the Prince George Cougars. The Calgary product is one of seven WHL netminders to have been included by NHL Central Scouting in their recently released mid-term rankings.
Imports to the CHL
In the next segment I spoke with a pair of players that came to the OHL from Europe this season via the CHL Import Draft. The first was Russian forward Matvej “Goose” Guskov of the London Knights who shared his perspective on the transition to a different style of play on the ice and a different lifestyle off of it.
Defenceman Vlad Kolyachonok is ranked as a potential 1st round pick by NHL Central Scouting so a lot of eyes were on him in Red Deer. I spoke with him about beginning the year with the might London Knights and then the move to the always struggling Flint Firebirds.
QMJHL Content
There was a trio of players from the QMJHL that I tracked down including the top ranked goal-tender from the league, Colten Ellis of the Rimouski Oceanic. The Cape Breton product was drafted by his home town team but dealt to Rimouski which he admitted to be a gut punch at the time.
Next up was Raphael Lavoie of the Halifax Mooseheads who missed out of the 2018 NHL Draft be a mere 10 days. It shows on the ice as the 6’4 forward looks physically mature compared to most of the players around him and with his status as a projected 1st round pick, Lavoie might be a player who challenges for a NHL job next season.
Raphael Lavoie. Photo: Dan Hickling / Hickling Images.
The last player from the QMJHL that I interviewed was Samuel Poulin of the Sherbrooke Phoenix. The young roster is fighting for home ice advantage in the first round of the QMJHL playoffs and Poulin, son of former NHLer Patrick Poulin, is leading the way having already surpassed his of-fensive totals from all of last season.
On to Ontario
IN the last segment of the show I present interviews with four players from the Ontario Hockey League beginning with the top rated goaltender from the entire CHL, Hunter Jones of the Peter-borough Petes. At 6’4, Jones is one of the bigger masked men in the Class of 2019 and after our conversation, I can imagine he will do very well during the interview sessions at the NHL combine.
Sniper Arthur Kaliyev was born in Uzbekistan but his family relocated to the United States when he was still in diapers. I spoke with him about his role with the Hamilton Bulldogs and his perfor-mance at the 2018 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup which was also partly held in Red Deer. Kaliyev went on to have a terrific showing in the Top Prospect Game playing alongside fellow American Nick Robert-son and Kootenay Ice forward Peyton Krebs.
One of the more polarizing players in the draft class this year is Mississauga defenceman Thomas Harley. His offensive numbers are terrific and the combination of size and mobility are exactly what scouts are after but his defensive game needs work, and he knows it. I was impressed with Harley’s admittance to that fact as he gave me a self scouting report.
Lastly, I spoke with Niagara IceDogs forward Phil Tomasino about his club team’s strengths and they sit atop the OHL’s Central Division. The point-per-game forward is now surrounded by dangerous offensive weapons in Niagara and we talked about what it means to a player when his team goes out and makes massive trades to bolster the line up.
To download the episode and listen to it later, click HERE. If you just want to open up a player and listen now, click HERE. All of the segments can be played or downloaded individually from the main website or at Soundcloud.
Guy Flaming is the host of The Pipeline Show, a year round, 100% prospect orientated podcast now in its 14th season. Since 2006, the mandate of the program has been to in-troduce the audience to the future of the NHL and that is accomplished every week by speaking with the top players, coaches, general managers, scouts and media that junior and college hockey have to offer. It is free to subscribe to The Pipeline Show and is availa-ble via iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Spreaker, the Podcast App and www.thepipelineshow.com
