CHL regular season ends this weekend.
In the Q, D'orio (St John) and Drozg (Shawinigan) see their seasons come to an end. Assume D'orio will get a PTO with WBS to at least get some practice time in. Drozg probably will too, however Slovenia is in the b pool of the world championships in April, and I assume he will be on the roster.
Lauzon and Rouyn Noranda finished 7th and draw Sherbrooke in the first round. Should be a tight series. Sherbrooke's most notable player is Samuel Poulin (2019 draft eligible and son of former NHLer Patrick Poulin). Drafted 2nd overall behind early favorite to be the 2020 1st overall NHL pick Alexis Lafreniere (do yourself a favor and watch this kid play if you ever get the chance).
In the OHL, Sam Miletic (6th in OHL scoring) and Niagra will play Oshawa in the first round in what should be a tight series. Oshawa is led by Boston 2nd rounder Jack Studnicka. They also feature Nik Antropov's son Danil. Connor Hall and Kitchener finished 2nd in their conference, but their opponent has not been determined yet (Windsor, Guelph or Saginaw), all of which would be heavy underdogs.
In the WHL, Jordy Bellervie and Lethbridge draw Red Deer in the first round. WHL has a similar playoff format as the NHL does. Lethbridge and Red Deer finished 8th and 9th in their conference point wise, but 2nd and third in their division, so they play each other in the first round in what should be a tight series. Medicine Hat won their division and had less points than 4 teams in the other division in the conference (they have home ice against a team that had more points than they did). If a scenario like this played out in the NHL, hopefully it would spell the end of the dumb divisional format, however, if the Caps/Pens playing each other in the second round two years in a row didn't convince them it is a terrible format, they may never be convinced. I think our best hope would be if say two strong Canadian teams played each other in the second round instead of the conference finals some year. That would get the Canadian media all riled up, which is usually what it takes for change to happen, and unfortunately they don't pay much attention to American teams and their issues.