How does a prospect who was ranked 18th at the midseason skyrocket to first overall less than six months later?
We always believed in
Kane Cloutier’s elite vision and toolkit; we were just waiting to see him put it all together. And it was worth the wait. He was far and away the best U16 player in Ontario in the second half of the season. The wide-open draft class played to his favour: While other prospects maintained their levels of play or regressed in the final months of the season, Cloutier took his game to new, exciting heights.
Combining his dynamic playmaking vision with improved effort on every shift made Cloutier’s dual-threat abilities unstoppable. He leveraged manipulation and deception on every attack, sought the highest-value plays, and executed with lethal precision, controlling the game with ease. Elite crossover use and pace changes allowed him to attack inside lanes regularly, fool defenders as he dragged pucks through traffic to space, and create high-end plays as frequently off the rush as on the cycle.
Cloutier helped lead his Vaughan Kings squad to a GTHL championship to cap off a phenomenal spring. With the highest upside and most well-rounded, elite skillset in the class, he’ll drive play in the OHL in a top-line centre role. All he has to do is maintain this level of pace and effort, and he could ascend to superstardom.
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