The CHL USA Top Prospects Challenge is taking place on Tuesday and Wednesday, with two games in Ontario. Teams, scouts and fans have clamored for this type of best-on-best hockey for draft-eligible players in North America.
The CHL’s Annual Top Prospects Game featured the best draft-eligible players from three Canadian Major Junior Leagues. However, the excitement about this Prospects Challenge, which pits the United States National Team Development Program against the Canadian Junior hockey leagues, is one that many scouts have circled on the calendar.
Only a few top prospects that were expected to participate will miss out with injury: Carter Amico and LJ Mooney for the USNTDP and projected top-10 pick Roger McQueen for the CHL.
The USNTDP is loaded with talent, even without James Hagens who is at Boston College. The NTDP is the most centralized team of draft-eligible players in the world. While there are other draft-eligible players in the USHL that are expected to be taken in the first few rounds, the NTDP has the highest concentration of top-end players.
Canada does not centralize an under-18 team, as their under-18 World Championship team is made up of eligible players on teams already eliminated from Memorial Cup contention. Given that many of Canada’s best players will be unavailable for the spring tournament, this is likely the best opportunity for scouts and fans to see the best from Canada face off against the USNTDP. Here’s a rundown of the top players to know who will be in action this week:
