Rosters announced for CHL Top Prospects game

[juliansteed]

I thought one of you WHL guys would have posted this by now but I don't see it anywhere so I figured I'd do the honours:

Toronto, ON – The Canadian Hockey League in association with Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment and Home Hardware Stores Limited today announced the 40 CHL players eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft that will compete in the 2011 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game January 18-19 at Air Canada Centre in Toronto, ON.

The 40 top prospects have been divided into two teams that will feature hockey icon Don Cherry behind the bench for Team Cherry, and Toronto Maple Leafs’ all-time great Doug Gilmour who will serve behind the bench for Team Orr.

“On behalf of the Canadian Hockey League we are very excited to showcase 40 of the league’s top prospects eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft at Air Canada Centre January 18-19 where they will compete in front of hundreds of scouts in attendance and live on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS for CHL fans across the country,” said CHL President David Branch. “We are also honoured to have Don Cherry and Doug Gilmour as coaches of this prestigious event. Don has been a tremendous builder of this event since it began in 1996, and Doug’s participation will be exciting for the Maple Leafs’ fans in attendance.”

The rosters were selected by the 30 NHL General Managers with NHL Central Scouting and include 18 players from the Ontario Hockey League, 13 players from the Western Hockey League, and nine players from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.

The rosters include all three players that were ranked first overall in their regional league in NHL Central Scouting’s Preliminary Draft Rankings including Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Red Deer Rebels who will compete with Team Orr, while Swedish National Junior Team hopeful Gabriel Landeskog of the Kitchener Rangers will compete for Team Cherry alongside Team Canada forward Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs.

27 of the CHL’s 60 teams are represented in this game including four players from the WHL’s Portland Winterhawks along with four players from the QMJHL’s Saint John Sea Dogs. Both the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and Oshawa Generals are each represented by three players.

The 2011 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game marks the 13th year of involvement for Cherry who has coached head-to-head against Bobby Orr 11 different times including six-straight meetings when the event began in 1996 at Maple Leaf Gardens. Last year in Windsor Team Cherry emerged with a 4-2 win over Team Orr to give Cherry his fifth coaching win in this event which also included a win over coaching opponent John Davidson in 2005. Following the 2006 contest the CHL presented the Don Cherry and Bobby Orr Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Trophy for the first time to the winning team. Engraved on the award are the names of every player to ever participate in this prestigious event.

Gilmour returns to Toronto where his number 93 jersey was honoured by the Maple Leafs in January, 2009. He played six seasons with the blue and white from 1991-97 including three years as team captain. In 1,474 career NHL games, Gilmour had his best season as a Maple Leaf scoring 127 points in 83 games as a nominee for the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league’s most valuable player, and winner of the Frank J. Selke Trophy as Best Defensive Forward in the 1992-93 season. He is currently in his third season as Head Coach of the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs.

The 2010 event in Windsor, ON, featured 17 CHL players that were selected in the first round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft including Taylor Hall who became the ninth player to compete in this event before being selected first overall when he was chosen by the Edmonton Oilers in June. Previous first overall picks following this game include Chris Phillips, Joe Thornton, Vincent Lecavalier, Rick Nash, Marc-Andre Fleury, Patrick Kane, Steven Stamkos, and John Tavares.

Home Hardware continues as the title sponsor of the Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game for the twelfth straight year dating back to 2000 when the game was last played at Air Canada Centre. Associate sponsors include Bank of Montreal, Subway, and CCM.

The game will be broadcast nationally live on Rogers Sportsnet and RDS.

Beginning Thursday December 23, 2010, at noon, tickets for the 2011 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Skills Competition and Game will be available individually. Tickets are available beginning at $10 for the Skills Competition on January 18 and $40 for the Game on January 19 at Tickets for Concerts, Sports, Arts, Theater, Family, Events, more. Official Ticketmaster site or by calling 416-872-5000.



Team Cherry (Red)

Forwards (12):

Sean Couturier, Drummondville Voltigeurs

Phillip Danault, Victoriaville Tigres

Nicklas Jensen, Oshawa Generals

Tomas Jurco, Saint John Sea Dogs

Gabriel Landeskog, Kitchener Rangers

Mark McNeill, Prince Albert Raiders

Matthew Puempel, Peterborough Petes

Rickard Rakell, Plymouth Whalers

Ty Rattie, Portland Winterhawks

Tobias Rieder, Kitchener Rangers

Mark Scheifele, Barrie Colts

Ryan Strome, Niagara IceDogs



Defencemen (6):

Myles Bell, Regina Pats

Scott Harrington, London Knights

Joe Morrow, Portland Winterhawks

Ryan Murphy, Kitchener Rangers

Duncan Siemens, Saskatoon Blades

Tyler Wotherspoon, Portland Winterhawks



Goaltenders (2):

Christopher Gibson, Chicoutimi Sagueneens

David Honzik, Victoriaville Tigres



Coaching Staff:

Head Coach -Don Cherry

Assistant Coach - Brian Kilrea, Ottawa 67’s

Assistant Coach - Bert O’Brien



Training Staff:

Russ Hammond, Guelph Storm

Brian Miller, Peterborough Petes



Team Orr (White)

Forwards (12):

Sven Bartschi, Portland Winterhawks

Daniel Catenacci, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds

Jonathan Huberdeau, Saint John Sea Dogs

Colin Jacobs, Seattle Thunderbirds

Boone Jenner, Oshawa Generals

Lucas Lessio, Oshawa Generals

Shane McColgan, Kelowna Rockets

Vladislav Namestnikov, London Knights

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Red Deer Rebels

Zack Phillips, Saint John Sea Dogs

Brandon Saad, Saginaw Spirit

Vincent Trocheck, Saginaw Spirit



Defencemen (6):

Nathan Beaulieu, Saint John Sea Dogs

Dougie Hamilton, Niagara IceDogs

David Musil, Vancouver Giants

Xavier Ouellet, Montreal Juniors

Stuart Percy, Mississauga St. Michael’s Majors

Reece Scarlett, Swift Current Broncos



Goaltenders (2):

Jordan Binnington, Owen Sound Attack

Liam Liston, Brandon Wheat Kings



Coaching Staff:

Head Coach - Doug Gilmour, Kingston Frontenacs

Assistant Coach - Stan Butler, Brampton Battalion



Training Staff:

Joey Garland, Windsor Spitfires

Kevin Emo, Barrie Colts

 

[devs30rko]

cherry v/ gilmour

its guy love gone wrong.

 

[Destroydacre]

A lot of your Sea Dogs on Team Orr Julian. Looks like Saint John has a bright future (as well as present).

 

[juliansteed]

A lot of your Sea Dogs on Team Orr Julian. Looks like Saint John has a bright future (as well as present).

Yup. Made the Q finals last year. Top team in the league this year so far, with lots of talent returning next season for a run in which we hope to host. All a result of a decision to sell at the trade period 2 years ago when we had a talented but underachieving team. Sucked at the time but we're reaping the benefits of it now.

Although some of my fellow fans are never happy. Some are saying we should either pick this year or next to go all in instead of going for it both years. Kinda hard to justify selling when you're ranked the top team in the CHL (those rankings need to be taken with a grain of salt but aren't completely random) with only 1 major non-returning asset (or at least highly unlikely) in Simon Despres. But at the same time it makes little sense to go all in this year with the majority of the core returning and getting better all the time. I guess they are just still bitter about being the top team in the Q all last season and then losing to the hated Moncton Wildcats in the finals as a result of Moncton loading up at the trade period and the Sea Dogs doing very little, but next year will be the year they go all in and trade away the future to try to win it all.

Who is your team again? The Chiefs? I know its 1 of the US teams in the WHL.

 

[dash]

Boone Jenner - That's a great hockey name.

 

[juliansteed]

Boone Jenner - That's a great hockey name.

Ha! Agreed!

 

[Destroydacre]

Who is your team again? The Chiefs? I know its 1 of the US teams in the WHL.

Yeah I root for Spokane. They're doing awfully well considering this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. It'll be interesting to see if the team decides to buy or sell at the trade deadline this year. Cowen sure would bring in a haul.

I hope Saint John goes for it this year. Next year is so far away you just never know what's gonna happen. Spokane kind of faced the same thing a few years back. They were really good in 07-08, but "their year" was supposed to be 08-09. Well the Chiefs decided to make a few trades and give up some youngsters to make a run in 08 and ended up winning it all. The next year they didn't make it out of the 2nd round. If Saint John's GM is really shrewd he could make trades that puts the Sea Dogs in contention both this year and next. I hope for your sake it works out though. Win or lose, there's few things in sports that compare to watching your team play for the Memorial Cup.

 

[juliansteed]

Yeah I root for Spokane. They're doing awfully well considering this was supposed to be a rebuilding year. It'll be interesting to see if the team decides to buy or sell at the trade deadline this year. Cowen sure would bring in a haul.

I hope Saint John goes for it this year. Next year is so far away you just never know what's gonna happen. Spokane kind of faced the same thing a few years back. They were really good in 07-08, but "their year" was supposed to be 08-09. Well the Chiefs decided to make a few trades and give up some youngsters to make a run in 08 and ended up winning it all. The next year they didn't make it out of the 2nd round. If Saint John's GM is really shrewd he could make trades that puts the Sea Dogs in contention both this year and next. I hope for your sake it works out though. Win or lose, there's few things in sports that compare to watching your team play for the Memorial Cup.

Well they seem to be willing to make some minor moves as long as it doesn't ruin it for next year. As you see, those 4 are all draft eligible which means they will be back next year. We have a few others already drafted that will still be back. Simon Despres is unlikely at best but other than him and 1 of our 20s, all of our major talent will be back. Plus we are bidding to host next year. So we won't go all in this year but we will make a few moves. Next year we will go all in whether we win the right to host or not, and we'll probably suck for 1 or 2 years afterwards but that's cool if we at least make the finals for 3 years straight and make the final 4 for 4 of 5 years. Maybe we'll see you in the Memorial Cup either this year or next. I wish there was another Q fan on here, regardless of which team.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

Are they going to show this game in the U.S.?

 

[juliansteed]

Are they going to show this game in the U.S.?

No idea. My guess would be no. Do you know if they have done so in the past? If not, I'm sure someone (other than myself ) might be able to find a link to a stream.

 

[DaBoltsNIsles]

I don't think they've ever shown it in the U.S.. I think it would be great if the NHL Network showed it but since they didn't last year I doubt they will.