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Shane Wright

Snapshots: 2022 Draft, Price, Ylonen

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Though the hockey calendar is starting to get back to normal, it looks like the 2022 NHL Draft may actually still be delayed from its normal late-June timeline. Corey Pronman of The Athletic tweets that the draft is likely to take place in the second week of July next year. Remember, now that the league has agreed to go to the Olympics the season schedule is a little longer than usual, which has seemingly pushed offseason dates back should Pronman’s expectation prove true.

Even though it won’t happen until next July, it’s never too early to start getting excited for the next wave of prospects. Scott Wheeler of The Athletic released his preseason top-32 ranking today, which has Shane Wright in the top spot as expected. Despite the OHL not playing last season, Wright remains the best prospect available in 2022 and is considered a lock by Wheeler at this point to be first off the board. The rest of the list has plenty of interesting scouting information on the top prospects available a year from now.

  • On July 23, the Montreal Canadiens announced that Carey Price underwent knee surgery and would face a recovery timeline of 10-12 weeks. The release included an expectation that he would be ready for the start of the regular season, and though Price has not yet begun skating, he is confident in the rehab he has been doing. The goaltender spoke with Dave Stubbs of NHL.com to discuss the injury and recovery, confirming that it had been a torn meniscus that he was dealing with for a while before the surgery. If all goes well, he’ll be back on the ice soon; his original timeline had him almost exactly synced up with the Canadiens’ season opener on October 13.
  • Speaking of Canadiens games, the organization expects young winger Jesse Ylonen to play in NHL games this season after spending last year with the Laval Rocket. That’s what director of player development Rob Ramage told Eric Engels of Sportsnet, though Ylonen will obviously still have to prove he’s ready to make the jump from Laval to Montreal. The 21-year-old was the 35th overall pick in 2018, had 17 points in 29 games with the Rocket, and actually made his NHL debut by playing 11:23 in the final game of the regular season.

Shane Wright Wins OHL, CHL Rookie Of The Year

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June 5: Wright has also won the CHL Rookie of the Year, becoming the first Kingston player to ever earn the award.

May 14: He won’t be eligible for the NHL draft until 2022, but that doesn’t mean hockey fans should overlook Shane Wright. The Kingston Frontenacs forward has just been named the OHL Rookie of the Year after an outstanding start to his CHL career. That start of course came a year earlier than most players, after Wright was given exceptional status to enter the OHL.

Not only did Wright score 39 goals and 66 points for the Frontenacs to lead the team in both categories, but he was also named an alternate captain just after Christmas. Having a letter sewn onto your jersey may not be notable for most top NHL prospects, but it happened to Wright when he was still just 15 years old, making him the youngest alternate in CHL history.

Following in the footsteps of other exceptional players like John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad and Connor McDavid, Wright is already dominating the competition in the CHL and looks like he will have a good shot at being selected first overall in 2022.

The list of winners for OHL Rookie of the Year is a who’s who of NHL talent. Andrei Svechnikov, Alex DeBrincat, Travis Konecny, McDavid, Ekblad, Taylor Hall, Patrick Kane and Tavares have all taken home the award over the last fifteen years.

WHL Designates Connor Bedard With First Ever Exceptional Player Status

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Exceptional player status in the CHL is only declared for those elite 15-year-olds deemed worthy of joining the major junior ranks a year early. Exceptional player status has been granted five times in the OHL – John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid, Sean Day, and Shane Wright – and just once in the QMJHL – Joe Veleno – but never before in the WHL. That is, until today. Just one day after the WHL was forced to make the disappointing announcement that the remainder of their season had been canceled, tonight they made the exciting revelation that for the first time exceptional player status has been awarded.

The lucky 15-year-old-to-be is Connor Bedard of North Vancouver, British Columbia. Bedard played this season with the U-18 team of West Vancouver Academy in the Canadian Sports School Hockey League. In 36 games, Bedard recorded a whopping 43 goals and 84 points. He led the league in both categories by a significant margin and contributed on nearly 50% of his teams total goals on the year. While Bedard is still undersized at 5’8” and 165 lbs., he is still four years away from his draft year and will spend all of that time in the WHL growing his already-impressive skills in addition to growing physically.

The WHL Bantam Draft is set for April 22, 2020 and Bedard is now expected to be the prize at No. 1 overall. The 2020 WHL Bantam Draft Lottery is scheduled for tomorrow, Wednesday March 25 and will determine the order of the first six selections of the draft. In the running for the top spot are the the Swift Current Broncos, Moose Jaw Warriors, Tri-City Americans, Prince George Cougars, Regina Pats, and Red Deer Rebels. Just one will end up fortunate enough to land the first ever “exceptional” player in league history.

Snapshots: Wright, Seattle, Percy

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The Canadian rosters for the 2019 World U17 Challenge have been released, a group that includes 15-year old OHL star Shane Wright. Wright was granted exceptional status to join the CHL a year early, following the footsteps of John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid and Sean Day.

While it hasn’t worked out quite so well for Day yet—he continues to play in the New York Rangers minor league system—the other three were first-overall picks and quickly turned into NHL stars. Wright is trying to follow that path and he’s off to a great start, recording nine points in 12 games for the Kingston Frontenacs so far despite being more than five years younger than some of his opponents.

  • The Seattle expansion franchise might not have a name just yet, but they’ve whittled down their options. The team announced today that the final five names were included in the Space Needle’s 100th anniversary time capsule, leading to a new round of speculation. There have been countless suggestions from fans since the team was officially announced, but there hasn’t yet been an indication of what it will be.
  • Stuart Percy has signed a professional tryout with the Belleville Senators, rejoining the team he spent part of last season with. Selected in the first round of the 2011 draft, Percy was once a promising young defensive prospect but never quite found his legs at the NHL level. The 26-year old has scored three points in 12 total games.

Shane Wright Granted Exceptional Player Status

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The OHL has officially announced their decision to grant Shane Wright exceptional player status, making him eligible for the 2019 OHL Draft. The 15-year old forward will be the fifth OHL player to be granted such a distinction, following John Tavares, Aaron Ekblad, Connor McDavid and Sean Day.

Like three of the previously distinguished players, Wright has an early birthday giving him an advantage over many of the other players born in 2004. Still, the young forward has proven to be exceptional in every way. Already measuring in at 6’0″ 183-lbs, he has dominated the highly competitive GTHL (Greater Toronto Hockey League) by scoring 66 goals and 150 points in 72 games. Wright plays for the Don Mills Flyers, an organization that has produced plenty of NHL talent including active players like Mitch Marner, Max Domi and Darnell Nurse.

Not eligible for the NHL draft until 2022, Wright has a long road ahead of him to live up to the other players given this distinction. Though Day hasn’t quite found his footing in professional hockey yet, the other three were selected first overall in the NHL draft and have had outstanding careers. The first step for Wright is finding out which OHL team will secure his rights, as the Flint Firebirds and Kingston Frotenacs are battling for the first overall draft pick, where he is widely expected to be selected.

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