F Michael Misa - Saginaw Spirit, OHL (2025 Draft)

[PensFan101]

The other two were also 1st overall picks. Considering Schaefer has like 15 games played, Misa might end up surpassing him between now and June.

I have Misa as my #1 but probably for the first time since 2009 (Tavares/Hedman) or 2013 (MacKinnon/Barkov) it's pretty much a dead heat and I would understand either going first. I think both teams will be happy with these guys and despite Schaefer's bad luck, he's still the best Canadian D prospect to come along in a long while.

 

[Favin]

You're not impressing anybody with "these guys used to play in the USHL!" when this entire rabbithole we've gone down started with a poster shitting on the quality of the OHL.
Every team in the OHL would destroy every team in the USHL. Full stop.

I did a quick screen for any players that played for both USHL and CHL within a year of their draft year. It spit out 46 guys on NHL rosters and reserves today (list below). There may be others.

From a points perspective, here are the totals

USHL 1,250 GP -- 364 g -- 543 a -- 907 pts -- 0.73 ppg
CHL 2,324 GP -- 753 g -- 1,278 a -- 2,031 pts -- 0.87 ppg

If USHL was such an inferior league, wouldn't we see their numbers generally decline when they moved to CHL?

I really only see six guys who preformed better in USHL: Boucher, Milano, Cotter, Montgomery, Pastujov, Sillinger. The rest did better in CHL.

Note: Age of USHL seasons was 0.7 years younger than age of CHL season.


names:
Yegor Afanasyev, Justin Bailey, Kieffer Bellows, Zachary Bolduc, Tyler Boucher, John Carlson, Connor Carrick, Paul Cotter, Tony DeAngelo, Cam Dineen, Christian Dvorak, Christian Fischer, Joe Fleming, Conor Garland, John Gibson, A.J. Greer, Jonathan Gruden, Ryan Hartman, Samuel Hlavaj, Christian Humphreys, Max Jones, Caleb Jones, Seth Jones, Joey Keane, Kevin Labanc, Trevor Lewis, Chaz Lucius, Michael McCarron, Dakota Mermis, Sonny Milano, J.T. Miller, Blake Montgomery, Bryce Montgomery, Connor Murphy, Evan Nause, Sasha Pastujov, Ivan Provorov, Alec Regula, Brandon Saad, Matthew Savoie, Gracyn Sawchyn, Roman Schmidt, Cole Sillinger, Hunter Skinner, Andrei Svechnikov, Matthew Tkachuk

 

[frontsfan67]

If Sharks win #1 overall it's gonna be super hard choosing between Misa and Schaefer.

If Hawks win they probably go with Misa since they need another elite forward after Bedard.

Would be interesting if they went for Misa. That would be 2 CHL exceptional status players on the same team which I don’t believe has been done before (other than international comp)

I did a quick screen for any players that played for both USHL and CHL within a year of their draft year. It spit out 46 guys on NHL rosters and reserves today (list below). There may be others.

From a points perspective, here are the totals

USHL 1,250 GP -- 364 g -- 543 a -- 907 pts -- 0.73 ppg
CHL 2,324 GP -- 753 g -- 1,278 a -- 2,031 pts -- 0.87 ppg

If USHL was such an inferior league, wouldn't we see their numbers generally decline when they moved to CHL?

I really only see six guys who preformed better in USHL: Boucher, Milano, Cotter, Montgomery, Pastujov, Sillinger. The rest did better in CHL.

Note: Age of USHL seasons was 0.7 years younger than age of CHL season.


names:
Yegor Afanasyev, Justin Bailey, Kieffer Bellows, Zachary Bolduc, Tyler Boucher, John Carlson, Connor Carrick, Paul Cotter, Tony DeAngelo, Cam Dineen, Christian Dvorak, Christian Fischer, Joe Fleming, Conor Garland, John Gibson, A.J. Greer, Jonathan Gruden, Ryan Hartman, Samuel Hlavaj, Christian Humphreys, Max Jones, Caleb Jones, Seth Jones, Joey Keane, Kevin Labanc, Trevor Lewis, Chaz Lucius, Michael McCarron, Dakota Mermis, Sonny Milano, J.T. Miller, Blake Montgomery, Bryce Montgomery, Connor Murphy, Evan Nause, Sasha Pastujov, Ivan Provorov, Alec Regula, Brandon Saad, Matthew Savoie, Gracyn Sawchyn, Roman Schmidt, Cole Sillinger, Hunter Skinner, Andrei Svechnikov, Matthew Tkachuk

When players are older they play better who would’ve thought

 

[Mattb124]

Yeah, you keep moving the goalposts. Russia (after the Soviet era) has won 4 golds and 10 silvers at the WJC, and 5 golds and 2 silvers at the U17. I know what’s being discussed, but it’s hard to take your opinion seriously when you can’t even be bothered to verify your information before you post it.

Please move the goalposts to another thread so this one can stay in topic.

 

[Andy Dufresne]

Please move the goalposts to another thread so this one can stay in topic.

How good the OHL is as a league is kinda on topic, considering what you think of Misa is dependent on what you think of the league. That said, until NCAA and USHL teams play OHL teams on a regular basis (never gonna happen) every post here is just opinions. Opinions are like......nm
Here's a Misa scouting video to get things back on track:

 

[Favin]

When players are older they play better who would’ve thought

I wish this were true for people my age!

It was a response to a comment suggesting OHL was much better than USHL (which is obviously untrue)

 

[cupface52]

I did a quick screen for any players that played for both USHL and CHL within a year of their draft year. It spit out 46 guys on NHL rosters and reserves today (list below). There may be others.

From a points perspective, here are the totals

USHL 1,250 GP -- 364 g -- 543 a -- 907 pts -- 0.73 ppg
CHL 2,324 GP -- 753 g -- 1,278 a -- 2,031 pts -- 0.87 ppg

If USHL was such an inferior league, wouldn't we see their numbers generally decline when they moved to CHL?

I really only see six guys who preformed better in USHL: Boucher, Milano, Cotter, Montgomery, Pastujov, Sillinger. The rest did better in CHL.

Note: Age of USHL seasons was 0.7 years younger than age of CHL season.


names:
Yegor Afanasyev, Justin Bailey, Kieffer Bellows, Zachary Bolduc, Tyler Boucher, John Carlson, Connor Carrick, Paul Cotter, Tony DeAngelo, Cam Dineen, Christian Dvorak, Christian Fischer, Joe Fleming, Conor Garland, John Gibson, A.J. Greer, Jonathan Gruden, Ryan Hartman, Samuel Hlavaj, Christian Humphreys, Max Jones, Caleb Jones, Seth Jones, Joey Keane, Kevin Labanc, Trevor Lewis, Chaz Lucius, Michael McCarron, Dakota Mermis, Sonny Milano, J.T. Miller, Blake Montgomery, Bryce Montgomery, Connor Murphy, Evan Nause, Sasha Pastujov, Ivan Provorov, Alec Regula, Brandon Saad, Matthew Savoie, Gracyn Sawchyn, Roman Schmidt, Cole Sillinger, Hunter Skinner, Andrei Svechnikov, Matthew Tkachuk

I'm not going to look through all those names, but seeing names like Jones and Carlson included it's safe to assume all these players played in the USHL in their d-1 draft and in the OHL in their draft year. You also included someone like Garland who played !6! Games in the USHL as a 16 year old.

Did a single one of these players go from the OHL to the USHL?

 

[newmanager]

I'm not going to look through all those names, but seeing names like Jones and Carlson included it's safe to assume all these players played in the USHL in their d-1 draft and in the OHL in their draft year. You also included someone like Garland who played !6! Games in the USHL as a 16 year old.

Did a single one of these players go from the OHL to the USHL?

I looked at just a few that I'd seen play.

Sasha Pastuyov went from 1.44 ppg in the USHL to 1.17 in the OHL 1 year later so his PPG went down.

Chaz Lucius went from 1.5 ppg in USHL to 2.5 ppg in WHL 2 years later. He played 1 year in college between the USHL and WHL. PPG went up. Those 2.5 ppg in WHL were in 6 games so hardly worth counting.

Zach Bolduc only played 2 games in USHL so probably shouldn't be included.

Brandon Saad went from 1.08 PPG in USHL to 0.93 PPG in OHL 1 year later. PPG went down.

Bryce Montgomery went from 0.10 PPG in OHL to 0.35 PPG in the USHL 1 year later. PPG went up. Only one I recall going to USHL from CHL but there's no doubt others.

Paul Cotter went from 0.76 PPG in USHL to 0.54 PPG in OHL 1 year later. PPG down.

 

[AlternateSideParking]

The OHL is a joke league in terms of goaltending. This undeniable fact definitely helps explain its bloated scoring numbers.

1) The list of OHL goalies drafted in the last 10 years is laughable. After Mackenzie Blackwood (2015), there currently isn’t a single NHL backup drafted out of the OHL from the 20 in that timeframe, and only a few are AHL caliber. Most are either in the ECHL or out of pro hockey.

2) OHL combined goals per game currently sits at a whopping 7.32. Hockey East is at 5.56. Big-10 is at 6.25. USHL is at 6.70. MHL Gold Divisions are a combined 5.74. WHL is 7.12. QMJHL is 6.70. Misa and Martone play in a league that scores nearly two more goals per game than Hagens’ Hockey East.

3) The top 20 NHL goalies in save percentage between 2021-22 and 2024-25 are from the following leagues:

WHL 4
NCAA 3
MHL 3
KHL 2
J20 Nationell 2
SM-Sarja 1
SM-Liiga 1
NAHL 1
USHL 1
QMJHL 1
OHL 1

The lone OHL’er is Binnington, who was drafted 14 years ago and turns 32 in July.

In summation, OHL goaltending blows.

 

[Bear of Bad News]

Let's get this back on topic.

 

[newmanager]

I did a quick screen for any players that played for both USHL and CHL within a year of their draft year. It spit out 46 guys on NHL rosters and reserves today (list below). There may be others.

From a points perspective, here are the totals

USHL 1,250 GP -- 364 g -- 543 a -- 907 pts -- 0.73 ppg
CHL 2,324 GP -- 753 g -- 1,278 a -- 2,031 pts -- 0.87 ppg

If USHL was such an inferior league, wouldn't we see their numbers generally decline when they moved to CHL?

I really only see six guys who preformed better in USHL: Boucher, Milano, Cotter, Montgomery, Pastujov, Sillinger. The rest did better in CHL.

Note: Age of USHL seasons was 0.7 years younger than age of CHL season.


names:
Yegor Afanasyev, Justin Bailey, Kieffer Bellows, Zachary Bolduc, Tyler Boucher, John Carlson, Connor Carrick, Paul Cotter, Tony DeAngelo, Cam Dineen, Christian Dvorak, Christian Fischer, Joe Fleming, Conor Garland, John Gibson, A.J. Greer, Jonathan Gruden, Ryan Hartman, Samuel Hlavaj, Christian Humphreys, Max Jones, Caleb Jones, Seth Jones, Joey Keane, Kevin Labanc, Trevor Lewis, Chaz Lucius, Michael McCarron, Dakota Mermis, Sonny Milano, J.T. Miller, Blake Montgomery, Bryce Montgomery, Connor Murphy, Evan Nause, Sasha Pastujov, Ivan Provorov, Alec Regula, Brandon Saad, Matthew Savoie, Gracyn Sawchyn, Roman Schmidt, Cole Sillinger, Hunter Skinner, Andrei Svechnikov, Matthew Tkachuk

Others on the list that scored less once they reached the OHL were. (Besides the 6 you pointed out and Brandon Saad)

Keiffer Bellows dropped from 1.39 to 1.32 PPG despite being 2 years older as he played 1 year at Boston University before joining the OHL.

Tony DeAngelo dropped from 0.54 to .34 at 1 year older

Christian Dvorak dropped from 0.56 to 0.42 at 1 year older

A J Greer dropped from 1.5 to 0.82 at two and a half years older as he played 1.5 seasons at Boston University before joining the OHL. A very steep plummet in PPG.

Jonathan Gruden dropped from 1.36 to 1.12 at 2 years older as he played at Miami University before joining the OHL

Trevor Lewis dropped from 1.34 to 1.18 at 1 year older

Michael McCarron dropped from 0.53 to 0.52 at 1 year older

Dakota Mermis dropped from 0.45 to 0.41. He played 2/3 of a season at Denver University before joining the OHL.

So Misa scoring at the rate he's at at his age is nothing short of spectacular. He's neck and neck with Schaefer right now with a very good chance to move into first.

 

[CanadianHawks]

The other two were also 1st overall picks. Considering Schaefer has like 15 games played, Misa might end up surpassing him between now and June.

Would be awfully interesting what SJ would do. Have to imagine they lean Scheffer.

Always felt like the Hawks would be enamoured with Misa

 

[Star Platinum]

Would be awfully interesting what SJ would do. Have to imagine they lean Scheffer.

Always felt like the Hawks would be enamoured with Misa

Anyone who's watched a significant amount of Sharks games knows they need a lot of help on defense. I'd be stunned if the Sharks pick first and don't pick Schaefer.

 

[CanadianHawks]

Anyone who's watched a significant amount of Sharks games knows they need a lot of help on defense. I'd be stunned if the Sharks pick first and don't pick Schaefer.

Their system is certainly way better up front. They have very little on the backend now and going forward. I just wonder if they have become enamoured with Misa watching him with their Russian prospect

 

[Star Platinum]

Their system is certainly way better up front. They have very little on the backend now and going forward. I just wonder if they have become enamoured with Misa watching him with their Russian prospect

If you already have your #1 center in place, #1 defenseman is a bigger priority than your #2 center (which they may already have on their roster). I wouldn't cry having Misa on the team, but the defense need is glaring and this is the most straight-forward way to address it. Plus if Dickinson and Schaefer both pan out, they'll be NHL ready about the same time.