2009 Born for the 2025 OHL Draft

[zaluty]

I went to a U16 today here in Kingston. Now I have no kids or grandkids involved so just my eyes looking at the players. GK was playing North Central Predators. NCP won 2-0 and a few observations from the untrained eye. GK is not a good team. Only 1 player caught my eye possibly and that was the dman Lamont. From NCP I liked Kennedy, Black, Koert and MacKay. Now like I said untrained eye. But if you live in a centre that offers U16 you should go out and see a game or two. One thing that never changes are hockey dads lol. I saw one today yell at the linesman why wasn't that icing when the puck died at the top of the faceoff circle in the far end lol. He spoke a little quick.

 

[digicamo]

well, look at the league, how many successful 5’8 defenceman are there? I believe there are 4 5’9 and under D in the entire league, so how can a list have 4 guys that size in its top 60? You have to be super skilled at that si3 or Uber competitive. being 5’8 and defending against st 6’4 is just almost impossible. people often forget defending is a defence man’s top priority

forwards are a bit of a different story but same rules apply. the smaller you are, the harder it gets to be successful. You need to be elite at 5’7 or have giant family members (Headrick). look at sim in Sarnia, lots of pace and skill, I’m sure online scouts loved him, but he can’t play because he can’t make up for his lack of strength

So if your drafting, and you see all these trends of where players are going and how successful they are, you can’t justify drafting a 5’7 defenceman unless they are absolutely elite, because significant odds are they will fail against bigger and better.

When I see some of these under 5’8 defenceman ranked top 40 or 60 I shake my head, there’s no history of those players being successful in the OHL , so how could they be that good?

I have coached AAA for over 10 years and every year the online scouts overhype small skilled players. It’s a trend we will never see end as they can easily dominate minor hockey with the lack of strength.

To be fair to undersized defenseman though OHL, there is some history of guys around 5’8 being successful as Ryan Ellis was around that size when he was drafted and he wasn’t just successful, he was elite.

 

[OHL4Life]

I have coached AAA for over 10 years and every year the online scouts overhype small skilled players. It’s a trend we will never see end as they can easily dominate minor hockey with the lack of strength.

To be fair to undersized defenseman though OHL, there is some history of guys around 5’8 being successful as Ryan Ellis was around that size when he was drafted and he wasn’t just successful, he was elite.

right, that’s why I said elite. if your 5’7 and less then a point a game at U16, your not a top 100 or even top 150 prospect.

 

[Caper1963]

Add a 2009 born goaltender
Tanner MacIsaac 6'4" at 14
U18 for Scarborough ice raiders

 

[OHL4Life]

Add a 2009 born goaltender
Tanner MacIsaac 6'4" at 14
U18 for Scarborough ice raiders

isnt that 'a' level hockey? come on. dont do this to your kid

 

[Caper1963]

I went to a U16 today here in Kingston. Now I have no kids or grandkids involved so just my eyes looking at the players. GK was playing North Central Predators. NCP won 2-0 and a few observations from the untrained eye. GK is not a good team. Only 1 player caught my eye possibly and that was the dman Lamont. From NCP I liked Kennedy, Black, Koert and MacKay. Now like I said untrained eye. But if you live in a centre that offers U16 you should go out and see a game or two. One thing that never changes are hockey dads lol. I saw one today yell at the linesman why wasn't that icing when the puck died at the top of the faceoff circle in the far end lol. He spoke a little quick.

I've seen Kennedy play over the years he is a steady tough defenseman, shoots right, has size and is a strong player.

 

[Caper1963]

Charlie Murata -- DMF U15
Brock Chitaroni -- Barrie U16
Noah Laus -- JRC U15
Camryn Warren - NYR U16
Tyler Lee -- DMF U15

Player to add -- Max Delisle, Toronto Titans U15

Not as familiar with players outside the GTA area, I'll add names from time to time.

Karsten Barbeau - 2009 - Ottawa Myers U16 AAA

 

[Caper1963]

Karsten Barbeau - 2009 - Ottawa Myers U16 AAA

ETA has a few good players - I don’t know all the names but will once the season starts. These are where they played last year.

Larmand - Barrie
Patron - Barrie
Martin - Barrie
Edgar - YSE
Cloutier - YSE
Blyth -YSE
Bouchard - APR
Farmer - APR
Bagshaw - COW
Wolfe and Morden NCP - two goalies

I will add more once the season starts.


There are also a couple real good forwards on Quinte just blanking on there names.

Patrick Farmer - NSW
Paul Couvillon - Markham Waxers

 

[Isaac Nootin]

isnt that 'a' level hockey? come on. dont do this to your kid

Quickly looked it up, and it's somehow worse than that.

"Ice Raiders “Select” players are drawn from the Ice Raiders House League program and compete against other House League “Select” teams in exhibition games, tournaments and the North York Hockey League (NYHL)."

 

[LeProspector]

Add a 2009 born goaltender
Tanner MacIsaac 6'4" at 14
U18 for Scarborough ice raiders

And just like that, this kid is on every teams Do Not Draft List.

Thanks Dad!

 

[OHL4Life]

Quickly looked it up, and it's somehow worse than that.

"Ice Raiders “Select” players are drawn from the Ice Raiders House League program and compete against other House League “Select” teams in exhibition games, tournaments and the North York Hockey League (NYHL)."

mod should remove for the benefit of the kid

 

[Leviathan899]

This is something I 100% agree with! Although I do believe Valentini is a high-end player, and the USHL tends to be less "friendly" to 16 year old players, I think if he was in the OHL, he'd be up there with the rest of them.

Regardless, these insights are dead on. Smaller players look better on video and aren't necessarily targeted by OHL teams, for example last year Jay-Zeus Mbarushimana looked fantastic playing agaisnt his peers, put up 55 points in 30 games but he's 5'8 140 and fell to pick #253 in the draft. Especially small d-men, outside of a few of the high-end guys at the top of the draft, teams take chances on big defensemen, who if they pan out will pay off.

Scouting 1000+ players is next to impossible doing it by yourself. There's a reason why OHL teams have 5-15 people running around the rinks.

Valentini/Lemieux/Hawrey line looked elite against the Czech in the first game of the u17.

 

[Leviathan899]

I don't think anyone here is scared for their jobs lol. This is getting out of hand.

I think OHL was actually trying to give him advice to be successful and taken seriously.

You have to understand some of us go to 150+ games a season and some people go to 5 games and pretend to go to 150.
If all you are doing is scouting off of Live barn that's some funny shit.

It's obviously a huge slap in the face to people that spend 4-5 nights a week away from their family at rinks to have some people watch tv 5 nights a week from their couch and use the same job title.
Perhaps using the term Hockey Journalist would be a better choice for people who sit at home and write stories because scouting is not done from the couch.

100%. You don’t have to and shouldn’t be trying to watch every team at the big tournaments. Pick a game and watch it, and if you want go and watch 2 periods of more games, and over a season you’re going to get more than enough views. But to try and cheat it and watch crappy video feeds where you miss more than half the game just to try and get a quick list out, makes no sense to me. Who wants an OHL list before silverstick anyways? It’s unfair to the families and kids IMO. You could go to the eta showcase in clarington like someone else mentioned already, and see every team play and not have to get off your ass. So many people do it, I don’t know why it shouldn’t be the expectation for everyone, if your goal is to credibility.

 

[Leviathan899]

well, look at the league, how many successful 5’8 defenceman are there? I believe there are 4 5’9 and under D in the entire league, so how can a list have 4 guys that size in its top 60? You have to be super skilled at that si3 or Uber competitive. being 5’8 and defending against st 6’4 is just almost impossible. people often forget defending is a defence man’s top priority

forwards are a bit of a different story but same rules apply. the smaller you are, the harder it gets to be successful. You need to be elite at 5’7 or have giant family members (Headrick). look at sim in Sarnia, lots of pace and skill, I’m sure online scouts loved him, but he can’t play because he can’t make up for his lack of strength

So if your drafting, and you see all these trends of where players are going and how successful they are, you can’t justify drafting a 5’7 defenceman unless they are absolutely elite, because significant odds are they will fail against bigger and better.

When I see some of these under 5’8 defenceman ranked top 40 or 60 I shake my head, there’s no history of those players being successful in the OHL , so how could they be that good?

Eshkawkogan is a prime example of what you need to be like to play at this level while being small. Amazing mobility and quickness, head up all the time, good passer and puck handler, can QB a PP. not going to make it not being an elite skater unless you’re smart as hell like Adam Fox.