CHL Top Prospects Game an Exciting Showcase

Monday night the CHL Top Prospects took to the ice in Quebec City in a best-on-best style format that pitted Team Cherry against Team Orr. Headlined by top prospects Nolan Patrick and Nico Hischier, the game played out in exciting fashion, with Team Cherry taking the victory 7-5. 

Team Cherry goals were scored by Isaac Ratliffe (Guelph), Antoine Morand (Acadie-Bathurst), MacKenzie Entwistle (Hamilton), Maxime Comtois (Victoriaville), Gabe Vilardi (Windsor), Owen Tippett (Mississauga) and Jake Leschyshyn (Regina).  In an losing effort, Sasha Chmelevski (Ottawa), Michael Rasmussen (Tri-City), Hischier (Halifax), Kailer Yamamoto (Spokane) and Stelio Mattheos (Brandon) added goals for Team Orr. 

If you want a closer look at some of our writers and hockey writers from outside DP ranking the top 31 prospects for the 2017 draft, check out the Fantasy Ranking of the 2017 Draft that Pete posted last week. 

Personally, I like watching the players who are battling it out for the second tier draft spots in these type of events. I continue to be interested where guys like Cody Glass, Yamamoto, Chmelevski, Leschyshyn, Rasmussen and Entwistle will land. This draft will be more of a depth draft, where many of the selections after the elite players are gone will be drafted based on need of the particular GM's and organizations. It should be a fun one to watch with a ton of unpredictability.

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Last Night's NHL Action

Sebastian Aho, who had a hat trick and an assist in Carolina's 5-1 victory over Philadelphia on Tuesday is now up to 30 points in 49 games. He has 15 goals on the season despite not scoring until his 14th game. I wrote about Aho for DobberHockey on Friday for the Second Half Rookie Stock Report prior to his outbreak a night ago – Hint: His stock is way up.   

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It was a goal-fest in the Ottawa-Florida game last night, and prospects played a huge part. Mike Matheson scored twice, for his 13th and 14th points of the season. He has struggled to make an impact on the scoresheet of late, as they were his first points in his last 15 games. Ryan Dzingel also scored twice, but opposite of Matheson, he has been heating up with six points in his last eight games. Michael Sgarbossa and Greg McKegg added a total of three assists for Florida, and Fredrik Claesson added an assist for his fourth point in three games for Ottawa. 

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Devin Shore continues to perform as a secondary scorer for Dallas, adding a goal and an assist in the Stars 6-3 win over Toronto. Shore, who has played up and down the lineup this season for the injury-ridden Stars now has eight goals and 14 assists on the season, and is on pace for 35 points. 

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Nick Ritchie has been playing sparingly for Anaheim recently, but posted a two assist effort last night to go along with two shots and five hits. Although he has been playing in the neighborhood of just 11 minutes a night over his last ten games, Ritchie has been receiving power play time recently which could help his point totals. For now, his draw is in multi-category leagues, where owners can take advantage of his two shots and three and a half hits per game. 

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Stick tap to Nick Jensen and Jake Dotchin who both put up NHL firsts last night. Dotchin tallied his first NHL assist on Brayden Point's third period marker, and Jensen scoring his first NHL goal. 

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Tonight's Games:

Boston at Washington: 8:00PM ET

Minnesota at Calgary: 10:00PM ET

Colorado at Los Angeles: 10:00PM ET

Follow Kevin @kleblanchockey for NHL prospect talk and happenings.