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We are 10 days into the NHL playoffs, 3 days into AHL playoffs, amid the semifinals of OHL, WHL, and QMJHL playoffs, and a month and a half of SHL playoffs just wrapped up. My point here is that there's been so much imortant hockey being played, you would be totally forgiven for getting a little behind. I'll try to catch you up on some of the biggest notes so far from… everything.

 

Elias Pettersson was named SHL Playoffs MVP and set the record for U20 scoring in the playoffs. 

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In less fun Canucks prospects news – Jonathan Dahlen was a healthy scratch in Utica's Game 1 loss to the Marlies. But at least Thatcher Demko saved 52 of 55 (.936 SV%).

 

The AHL playoffs aren't far enough along yet to pick favorite or clutch scorers (only a few teams have played more than one game), but Matthew Peca (TBL), Rudolfs Balcers (SJS) and Dylan Strome (ARI) are off to nice starts.

 

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In the OHL, Tampa Bay's scoring duo of Boris Katchouk and Taylor Raddysh are unstoppable with 23 and 21 points, respectively, in 13 games for SSM. Morgan Frost is slowing the team down with a measley 18 points. Adam Mascherin, who will either be traded by Florida or re-enter the 2018 Entry Draft, is raising his value with 21 points so far, although his team is down 0-2 in the semis. 

 

Meanwhile, Hamilton is up 2-0 on Kingston. Superstars Robert Thomas and Gabe Vilardi are going head-to -head here and producing amazingly, but both Bulldogs wins so far have been blowouts. 

 

2018 Draft top pick Andrei Svechnikov was eliminated in Round 2 but didn't disappoint with 11 points in 8 matches. Same with Ryan Merkley with 6 in 6 and Evan Bouchard with 5 in 4. This league will be well-represented in the draft this year. Barrett Hayton has 12 in 12 for the still-alive SSM.  Serron Noel had a disappointing 1 in 5 for a poor Generals showing.

 

Drafted and highly-touted guys we expected to do great that are: Logan Brown, Cliff Pu, Jason Robertson, Matthew Strome, Nick Suzuki, Conor Timmins, Michael DiPietro

Drafted and highly-touted guys that kindof disappointed: Jordan Kyrou, Max Jones.

 

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The WHL is full of players producing out of their minds. For Tri-City, Michael Rasmussen, Morgan Geekie and Jake Bean are leading the way. In Swift Current, Aleksi Heponiemi and Tyler Steenburgen continue to be brilliant together and Glenn Gawdin is pulling more than his weight as well. SC is up 2 games to 0 in their matchup, while TC is tied 1-1 with Everett, who has Carter Hart pulling a 0.936 SV%  for them.

 

Drafted and highly-touted guys we expected to do great that are: Brett Howden, Kale Clague, Cody Glass, Kieffer Bellows, Sam Steel, Tyler Benson, Jaret Anderson-Dolan, Garrett Pilon

Drafted and highly-touted guys that kindof disappointed: Kailer Yamamoto, Dillon Dube

 

Speaking of Brett Howden – he scored this beauty you can vote for in the CIBC Showdown:

{source}<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">OT finish from <a href="https://twitter.com/NYRangers?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYRangers</a> prospect <a href="https://twitter.com/B_Howdy21?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@B_Howdy21</a> of <a href="https://twitter.com/MJWARRIORS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MJWARRIORS</a> represents <a href="https://twitter.com/TheWHL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@TheWHL</a> in this week's <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/CIBCShowdown?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#CIBCShowdown</a>.<br><br>VOTE: <a href="https://t.co/fI3X1c1mse">https://t.co/fI3X1c1mse</a> <a href="https://t.co/mYFxb1M4ou">pic.twitter.com/mYFxb1M4ou</a></p>&mdash; CanadianHockeyLeague (@CHLHockey) <a href="https://twitter.com/CHLHockey/status/987768863873032193?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2018</a></blockquote>
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{/source}

 

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In the QMJHL, Ottawa's Drake Batherson is up to 19 points in 11 games played, which is not too shabby.

 

Top 2018-eligible pick Filip Zadina was knocked out in the quarter finals but had himself a nice 12 points in 9 contests. Noah Dobson had an acceptable 7 in 12. Joseph Veleno had 10 in 10 himself. All should go in the top-15 (obviously much higher for Zadina). 

 

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In case you missed it, CSS released their official Draft Prospect Rankings for April:

http://www.nhl.com/ice/draftprospectbrowse.htm?cat=1&sort=finalRank&year=2018

 

There's a few standings on here than have the Dobber Draft Analysts laughing (feel free to ping Cam Robinson, Jokke Nevalainen, Will Scouch, Peter Harling, and many others on twitter about this).

 

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Sorry if that was a bit erratic, I'm just as frazzled by all this hockey as everyone else. Its one of the best times of the year for fans like us who are too eager to fill our brains as much as possible, but that brain is indeed getting softer every day. Worth it.

Hayden Soboleski

@soboleskih