We’re currently in the midst of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) playoffs, with the second round in full swing in the OHL, WHL and, of course, the QMJHL.
In these series, a number of National Hockey League hopefuls are making their mark, and several of them belong to the Montreal Canadiens.
Here’s a rundown of the careers of some of the CH’s top prospects.
QMJHL
Joshua Roy – Right wing – age 19
The Tricolore’s Quebec prospect picked up right where he left off in last season’s playoffs.
He scored 23 points (eight goals and 15 assists) in 11 games last season.
Except this year, he’s even more dominant for the Sherbrooke Phoenix.
Roy already has 18 points (nine goals, nine assists) in six games since the start of the playoffs.
That makes him the QMJHL’s leading playoff scorer.
That’s an average of three points per game, while the Sherbrooke Phoenix are still unbeaten in six games.
Roy scored six points last night, as noted by my colleague FΓ©lix Forget.
Joshua Roy ‘s Six-Point Night – three goals and three assists. He leads all Q playoff scorers with nine goals and nine assists in six games. He’s the only CHL player averaging three points per game this playoff.
https://t.co/LZYxquDIPr via @YouTube– Grant McCagg (@grantmccagg) April 16, 2023
See each of his points in the video above.
Roy is now just five points short of matching his incredible 2021-2022 playoff point total.
The Phoenix have been untroubled so far in the playoffs, currently leading their series 2-0 over the Drummondville Voltigeurs.
If things keep going like this for Sherbrooke and Roy, we could very well see the Phoenix make it all the way to the Memorial Cup.
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Riley Kidney – Center – 19 years old
Here’s another one who’s currently dominating the QMJHL.
After taking the spotlight from Joshua Roy since joining the Gatineau Olympiques, Kidney hasn’t amassed as many points as Roy since the start of the playoffs.
However, he is still dominant with 13 points (two goals and 11 assists) in seven games.
The Gatineau Olympiques are also 2-0 up in their second-round series, and would therefore face the Phoenix in the semi-finals.
That would be quite a match-up.
We’d be sure to see Kidney or Roy in the QMJHL final.
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OHL
Logan Mailloux – Right-handed defenseman – age 19
Mailloux finished the regular season as the OHL’s top-scoring defenseman with 25 goals.
There was no question of him stopping there, which explains his excellent performances since the start of the playoffs with the London Knights.
Mailloux has eight points (three goals and five assists) in six games since the start of the playoffs.
This currently ranks him fourth among defensemen in the playoffs.
Logan Mailloux scores less than a minute in! π
The @CanadiensMTL prospect nets his third of the playoffs and the @LondonKnights strike first in Game 2 π₯#OHLPlayoffs | #LDNvsKIT pic.twitter.com/YLzQXzRR8e
– Ontario Hockey League (@OHLHockey) April 14, 2023
Note the insane performance of top scorer Brandt Clarke, the Los Angeles Kings prospect, who currently has 18 points (six goals and 12 assists) in six games.
Yes, he’s a defenseman.
In short, the Knights are crushing everything in their path, and this steamroller could very well make it all the way to the Memorial Cup.
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Filip Mesar – Center – 19 years old
The only problem with Mailloux’s London steamroller is that it’s currently crushing another CH prospect, Filip Mesar.
After completely surprising the West’s top team, Shane Wright’s Windsor Spitfires, the Kitchener Rangers seem to have lost their bearings against the Knights.
Nothing is going right, and let’s hope for their sake that a return home for the next two games will help.
As for Mesar, he has three points (one goal and two assists) in six games.
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Vinzenz Rohrer – Right wing – 18 years old
Here’s a CH prospect we don’t talk much about, considering the Tricolore has so many of them that it’s hard to keep track of the performances of second-tier prospects.
However, we mustn’t forget the little Austrian.
Rohrer is a high-energy player who is currently very useful to his team in the playoffs, even if he isn’t the star of his team.
His eight points (one goal and seven assists) in six games are more than respectable.
The Ottawa 67s currently lead their second-round series against the Peterborough Petes 1-0.
It’s a series that will be tight right to the end, and the team that comes out on top could go far and even qualify for the Memorial Cup.
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Owen Beck – Center – 19 years old
This Petes team includes Owen Beck, another CH hopeful.
Beck hasn’t broken anything so far with Peterborough, and that continues right now in the playoffs (three points, including a goal in five games).
He’s not as dominant as we might have hoped, but Beck is still a very complete player, and even if he doesn’t score, he’s still very important to his team’s success.
Let’s see if his all-round game will be enough to see the Petes through to the next round.
WHL
Jared Davidson – Center – 20 years old
Being older than the others, Davidson is in the shadows.
However, his current playoff performances could open the eyes of CH fans.
Davidson is currently playing with one of the WHL’s top teams, the Seattle Thunderbirds, and their success has a lot to do with Davidson’s performance.
At the moment, Seattle has yet to lose a game.
Davidson has nine points (three goals and six assists) in six games.
The Thunderbirds will most likely move on to the next round, and could make it all the way to the Memorial Cup.
In a gust
– When the going gets tough…
0 – Montreal CF scored in 2023 0 (ZERO!) goals 11-on-11 and in the game π³.
The 1st goal against Philadelphia was on a penalty kick and the other 2 at 11 against 10. So that’s a sequence of nearly 700 minutes without a goal at 11 against 11 and in the game π .#CFMTL #IMFC pic.twitter.com/8fMS5xa5Gh
– KAN FC β½ (@kanfootballclub) April 16, 2023
– The Islanders could very well surprise the Hurricanes.
“Sorokin has had a much more consistent season in comparison to Andersen, and considering all the talk about Andersen’s inability to win a playoff series since his days in Anaheim, I feel he’s under lots of pressure.” https://t.co/TTgRsB32Lv
– Kevin Kurz (@KKurzNHL) April 16, 2023
– Teams that finished just outside the playoffs will have to find what they were missing to participate in the spring tournament.
It will certainly be a game-changing moment for one team, when they win the lottery and draft Connor Bedard with the top pick. But how will the other non-playoff teams handle their off-seasons?@RoryBoylen has the story. https://t.co/d8NLQIcjaM
– Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 16, 2023
– What do you think?
One Big Question: Is there any reason to believe this year will be different for the Leafs?
WATCH: https://t.co/LybhNgiLOS pic.twitter.com/ptFh3wSpsR
– TSN (@TSN_Sports) April 16, 2023
– In any case, the Leafs are the favorites.
NHL playoff preview: Leafs vs. Lightning
with @seangentille and @hayyyshayyyFor the fourth straight year the Leafs are favoured in the opening round – is this the year they finally break through?https://t.co/UBQ089dZ53 pic.twitter.com/pto3dwAbMA
– dom π (@domluszczyszyn) April 14, 2023