THE PIPELINE SHOW: January 18, 2019

This week on The Pipeline Show it was back to business as usual. With the World Junior Championship in the rearview mirror, it became Top Prospect Game time with one of the events completed and two more on the horizon. There is also an update on one of the top teams in the Alber-ta Junior Hockey League and a pair of 2019 Draft Spotlight segments featuring two key players available to NHL teams this coming June.

The Hockey News: Ryan Kennedy

It’s the first visit of Season 14 for the longtime scribe of The Hockey News but as usual, Ryan Kennedy was worth the wait.

We began our conversation with his lasting thoughts looking back at the 2019 World Junior tournament in Vancouver. Kennedy talked about why he felt Canada fell short and we spoke about the play of some of the draft-eligible players who were competing.

Speaking of the draft, the USHL Top Prospect game was held right after the WJC. Although it wasn’t a game where one particular player really stood out from the crown, Kennedy did share his thoughts on a few players that he felt were starting to generate some buzz.

Lastly, we talked about next week’s CHL Top Prospect game and what he is looking forward to about the event in Red Deer, AB.

Inside the AJHL: Tyler Yaremchuk

The Sherwood Park Crusaders sit atop of the North Division in the Alberta Junior Hockey League and are being led by some very promising prospects. My guest to tell us more about “The Cru” is the team’s colour analyst who also works in the TSN 1260 booth during our Edmonton Oil Kings broadcasts. His name is Tyler Yaremchuk and he is one of the young, rising stars in Edmonton media.

Yaremchuk begins his description of the Crusaders and their success by singling out some of the young stars of the club like 16-year-old forwards Garrett Clegg and Carter Savoie who lead the team in scoring. Defenceman Michael Benning, brother of Edmonton Oilers defenceman Matt Benning, is a standout and getting noticed ahead of the 2020 NHL draft.

There is also 2019 eligible netminder Carter Gylander who NHL scouts have been flocking to Edmonton to see with fingers crossed that the back up will get the start the night they are in town.

The Crusaders have also benefited by having added four WHL players who became available; former Oil Kings Jayden Platz and Nick Bowman as well as goalie Matt Berlin and forward Arjun Atwal.

We ended the conversation with a quick look at who the other top teams in the AJHL are right now and if anyone can take down the Brooks Bandits who have only lost three times this season.

2019 Draft Spotlight: John Beecher

Not every 1st round pick is going to be an offensive dynamo and that might be the case this year with big John Beecher from the US-NTDP.

At 6’3 and just shy of 201 lbs, Beecher has his role on the USA U18 squad and as his 20 points in 34 games would suggest, it isn’t to be the go-to scorer.

I spoke at length with Beecher the day after a 11-3 pummeling of the Youngstown Phantoms during which the center came away without impacting the score sheet. We talked about growing up in New York, getting the opportunity to play for the program, about the draft this year, his OHL option with the Soo Greyhounds and his choice to play for the Michigan Wolverines.

2019 Draft Spotlight: Dustin Wolf

Like a 5’8 forward that dominates junior hockey, the 6’0 goaltender has to continually prove doubters wrong even if he’s putting up better numbers than his 6’5 counterparts. Everett Silvertips goaltender Dustin Wolf knows all about that but it hasn’t deterred him at all as he continues to gives his WHL opposition fits.

Wolf is a California product and that’s where we begin our discussion. A fan of the San Jose Sharks, Wolf says he was drawn to the club’s netminders of his youth like Yevgeni Nabokov.

We spoke about his awareness of the WHL and why he felt Everett was the right career path for him, about following in the footsteps of Carter Hart and how the transition to starter has been for him this year.

Of course we talked about the 2019 Draft and not being part of the CHL Top Prospects game and that whole issue about size. We also looked back at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the way that it ended for USA in Edmonton.

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 intro-duce the audience to the future of the NHL and that is accomplished every week by speak-ing with the top players, coaches, general managers, scouts and media that junior and col-lege hockey have to offer. It is free to subscribe to The Pipeline Show and is available via iTunes, Google Play, Soundcloud, Spreaker, the Podcast App and www.thepipelineshow.com