CHL USA Prospects Challenge - Craig Button

We are now less than a week away from the inaugural CHL USA Prospects Challenge presented by Kubota. Last week I sat down with TSN’s Director of scouting, Craig Button to talk about the new event.In my conversation with Craig we discuss the upcoming CHL USA Prospects Challenge, emphasizing the importance of international competition for player evaluation and development. Craig tells us how players can showcase their skills in different roles, we talk about Team CHL captain Porter Martone and the significance of leadership within teams, the expectations for both Team CHL and Team USA. Craig explains how the experience can impact player growth, and the overall excitement surrounding the event.

In our first CHL USA Prospects Challenge edition of the CHL Top 10 Show I recently had the opportunity to talk with one of the captains of the USNTDP U18’s, defenceman Asher Barnett as well as captain of Team CHL, Brampton Steelheads’ star Porter Martone. Martone is off to a hot start for the relocated Steelheads sitting near the top of the O scoring race in goals and points. We chat about the excitement around the new event, reuniting with his former Team Canada teammates, how he plans to bring Team CHL together fast, what challenges Team USA presents them and how things are going in Brampton this year.Asher came through the Chicago Mission program and is in his second season with the USNTDP. He tells me how excited the Americans are to come up and play against the CHL, how their team is constructed and the style of game they play. How much they know about the CHL players and what they’ll have to do to come away victorious.

Welcome to another Road to Memorial Cup edition of the CHL Top 10 Show, this week I chat with a player from each of the leagues that earned sweeps last round. Cam Squires from the Cape Breton Eagles, Trevor Wong from the Saskatoon Blades and Justin Ertel from the North Bay Battalion.Cape Breton’s Cam Squires has four or more points in three games already this post season. He leads the entire CHL playoffs with a +18 in 9 games helping lead the Eagles back to the Q semi finals for the first time since 2007.Trevor Wong and the Saskatoon Blades are back in the WHL’s conference final for a second straight season. Last year the Blades needed 14 games to make it to the third round, eventually running out of gas against Winnipeg. This year they make it there in just 9 games.The North Bay Battalion have lost in the conference finals to the eventual OHL champions the past two seasons. The last time they faced Oshawa in the conference final was in 2015 when the Gens went on to win the Memorial Cup. Justin Ertel tells us why this year will be different.

Welcome to a Road to Memorial Cup edition of the CHL Top 10. This week I chat with players from three different leagues that earned first round sweeps. Riley Heidt from the Prince George Cougars, Jorian Donovan from the Saginaw Spirit and Colby Huggan from the Acadie-Bathurst Titan.Riley tells us how expectations have changed for the Cougars this playoffs, what it’s like playing against friends in the post-season, what the team has been up to with their time off, signing his ELC with Minnesota, breaking franchise records and what they have to do in round two against Kelowna.Jorian tells me what it was like joining the Spirit at the deadline, what makes their defence corps so special, how he can use his past experience to help the team during this run, how this team compares to his 2022 Bulldogs team that lost in the Memorial Cup final and what they have to do in round two against the Soo.Colby Huggan tells us why the Titan always believed they could win the series, dodging a bullet in game two, how they were able to shut down the Moose’s snipers while capitalizing while shorthanded and what they’re going to have to do in round two against a Drakkar team that finished with 23 more wins and 42 more points.

It’s our final regular season episode of the CHL Top10 Show, and today we have an all OHL episode with assistant coach of the OHL leading London Knights, Dylan Hunter and the leading scorer for the OHL’s Eastern Conference leading Oshawa Generals, Cal Ritchie.Call me superstitious but I wasn’t about to talk to Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Easton Cowan in the midst of a 34 game point streak, so we did the next best thing and spoke with Dylan Hunter. Hunter spent five seasons as a player with the Knights in the early 2000’s winning a Memorial Cup in ’05, after retiring in 2011 he re-joined the Knights as a coach and hasn’t looked back.The Oshawa Generals spent the first 17 games of the regular season without their offensive catalyst Cal Ritchie as he recovered from offseason should surgery. Since rejoining the team in mid-november the Avalanche prospect has been a force, helping turn the Gens into serious contenders in the O.

Today I check in with two teams that have been in the Top10 for 19 of 22 weeks. From the top-ranked Baie-Comeau Drakkar it’s Justin Gill and from the 7th ranked Portland Winterhawks it’s Tyson Jugnauth.Now in his fifth season in the QMJHL, first with the Drakkar, Justin Gill is helping pace the CHL’s top team to a franchise record breaking season. The New York Islanders prospect also sits second in Q scoring.After the Portland Winterhawks acquired his rights from Kamloops it didn’t take long for Tyson Jugnauth to leave Wisconsin and join one of the top teams in the WHL. The Seattle Kraken prospect has had no trouble adjusting to the CHL.

This week we sit down with the QMJHL’s leading point producer and the CHL’s leading goal scorer. It’s Antonin Verreault from the 10th ranked Rouyn-Noranda Huskies and Zac Funk from the fourth ranked Prince George Cougars.Now in his fourth season in the Q and first with the Huskies. We’re getting an opportunity to see what a healthy Antonin Verreault can do for the first time since his rookie campaign. The former 2nd overall pick in the Q has a 34 point lead over his closest teammate.Zac Funk had never scored a WHL hat-trick before the first game of the season this year. The Cougars’ overager now has 8 hat-tricks on the season to got along with single season franchise records in goals and power play goals.

Today we check in with a player that keeps break franchise records and one that’s just getting settled with his new franchise. It’s Saginaw’s Zayne Parekh and Swift Current’s Conor Geekie.It’s hard to believe that Zayne Parekh just turned 18 last week. The right shot defender already holds the Spirit’s single season franchise record for goals and points by a defenceman and is on pace to hit the 100 point mark this season.Conor Geekie was off to an incredible start to the season with the Wenatchee Wild. A post World Juniors trade reunited Geekie with his former assistant coach in Winnipeg, now in Swift Current where he continues to have a career season offensively.

Welcome to another episode of the CHL TOP10 Show this week we talk to a pair of WHL stars that have their sights set on extended playoff runs. From the 9th ranked Moose Jaw Warriors Matt Savoie and from the 8th ranked Everett Silvertips Ben Hemmerling.Matt Savoie, after spending three years with the ICE, starting this year in the AHL and NHL followed by a dozen games with the Wild, is settling in with a Warriors team that has Memorial Cup aspirations. After an injury cut Ben Hemmerling’s season short last year the Vegas prospect has taken a step forward this year as co-captain of the Everett Silvertips, already surpassing last year’s numbers in fewer games.

On this week’s episode of the CHL Top 10 Show a pair of forwards from two of the hottest teams in the CHL stop by for a chat. We’ll hear from Drummondville’s Ethan Gauthier and Saskatoon’s Fraser Minten.Gauthier is in the midst of a career year. His first with the Voltigeurs after an offseason trade brought the Tampa Bay prospect from the Sherbrooke Phoenix to his hometown Drummondville Voltigeurs.Fraser Minten has been a bit of a nomad this season playing on four different teams, the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect is happy to be settled in Saskatoon for the final few months of his junior career and his numbers are showing that.