Thursday, May 17 @ 11:00 am EST

Starting with a few of my tweets from the other day…

“@RossyYoungblood Did you know, London Knights have never went through an NHL draft without having a player drafted since changing their name to ‘Knights’ in 1968”

In the history of the Ontario Hockey League, the Peterborough Petes have had the most players drafted into the OHL (170).  Oshawa Generals have 162m Kitchener Rangers 148, London Knights 146 and Ottawa 67’s with 137.

“”@RossyYoungblood With Maatta, Griffith, Houser, Athanasiou, Rupert twins, Anderson, Tierney all draft eligible, London will boost their NHL drafted players big time”

Ryan Murray (2012 eligible) is competing for Team Canada with a ton of high profiled NHL’s at the IIHF World Championships. He has yet to record a point in six games of action but then again he’s seeing just shy of eight minutes per game – by far the fewest.

Team Canada lost a shocker to Slovakia Thursday morning 4-3 and has been eliminated as a result.  Very disappointing for Canadian fans. Murray saw one 32 second shift.

 Red Wings’ prospect Tomas Tatar had an apple in the win for the Slovaks and has recorded two goals and five points through eight games.  The former second round pick (2009) led the AHL’s Grand Rapid Griffins’ this past season with 58 points in 76 games and could crack the Detroit roster this fall.

Other Notable prospects playing in the World Championships.

Finland’s Mikael Granlund (Wild) has four assists through seven games.

Russian forward Evgeni Kuznetsov (Capitals) is outscoring Pavel Datsyuk as he has buried two goals and six points. Remember, Kuznetsov is arguably the best player in the world not playing in the NHL and we will have to wait at least a year for him to come to North America after he signed in with the KHL.

Undrafted Swiss 26-year-old star Damien Brunner has racked up a point per game with 7 points.  He is a gritty forward with offensive skills that should get plenty of NHL teams calling his number. He led the Swiss league with 60 points last season which was nine more than the next closest player.  For comparison, former NHLer Petr Sykora had 49 points in the same league.

Swedes Johan Larsson (Wild) and Jakob Silfverberg (Senators)  have tallied 2 points a piece.  Red Wings’ forward Calle Jarnkrok has a single point in seven contests and is a 2010 draftee that played on the same team as Silfverberg  and Larson (Brynas) in the Elitserien league this season. The trio finished one, two and three in team scoring at the combined average age of 20 years young.  These three 2^nd round draft picks all have a good future in the NHL.

Blue Jackets’ forward Cam Atkinson is certainly a player to keep tabs on for next year’s fantasy drafts.  Despite playing just over 11 minutes for Team USA, he has 3 points and sits plus-3. 

One player who deserved more Calder Trophy attention was Justin Faulk of the Carolina Hurricanes as he finished second in rookie defensive scoring (behind Toronto’s Jake Gardiner, 30points) with 22 points. He led all rookie d-men in goals (8), powerplay goals (5) and shots (101) as well as logging the most time on ice (22:50). 

Through seven WC games, Faulk leads USA defensemen in scoring with seven points including four goals outscoring players like Jack Johnson, Alex Goligoski, and Cam Fowler.  Impressive stuff! He has the potential to really break out next season.

Not surprising, “Shrek” (aka Malkin) sits near the top in WC scoring with 14 points in seven matches.  However, Malkin’s 2 points-per-game pace does not lead the tournament.  Former NHLer Patrick Thoresen sits with 16 points for Team Norway.  Thoresen suited up for Edmonton and Philadelphia four years back and has 24 career points in 104 NHL games. In 2011-12, Thoresen suited up for SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL playing alongside players like Petr Prucha, Viktor Tikhonov (Coyotes) and Vladimir Tarasenko (Blues) finishing second in team scoring.

The CHL Mastercard Memorial Cup begins Friday night!

There are a ton of NHL prospects competing in this mini-tournament to crown the CHL’s top major junior team.

OHL – London Knights:  McKegg (Leafs), A. Watson (Predators), Namestnikov (Lightning), Knight (Bruins), Tinordi (Canadiens), Harrington (Penguins) plus a boatload of 2012 draft eligibles including Maatta, Griffith, and Houser among others.

QMJHL – Saint John SeaDogs: Huberdeau (Panthers), Phillips (Wild), Coyle (Wild), Galiev (Capitals), Jurco (Red Wings), Beaulieu (Canadiens)

WHL – Edmonton Oil Kings:  St. Croix (Rangers), Pelss (Oilers), Pysyk (Sabres), Ewanyk (Oilers) , goaltender Laurent Brossoit (Flames) plus Griffin Reinhart (2012), Henrik Samuelsson (2012) and Curtis Lazar (2013)

Host Team – Shawinigan Cataractes: Chaput (Flyers), Kabanov (Islanders), Bournival (Canadiens)

Make sure you tune in if you can.  I believe that all games (or most) are televised on Sportsnet (don’t quote me on it though).

Happy Hockey Watching! Have a fun safe long weekend!

Feel free to follow me on twitter @RossyYoungblood