Welcome back to The Journey, where we track the development of prospects as they excel in junior, make the NHL, and push towards stardom.
This week, I’m going to highlight some of the top scorers in each of the three Canadian Hockey Leagues (CHL): the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
While there are some big draft-eligible (Connor Bedard, Zach Benson, Riley Heidt, Andrew Cristall) and drafted (Matt Savoie, Logan Stankoven, Olen Zellweger, Pavel Mintyukov, Jordan Dumais, Sasha Pastujov, Matthew Poitras) players dominating the top of these leagues’ scoring charts, most of those players are relatively known commodities. Today we will focus today on some less heralded players that could be a savvy wire add in deeper keeper and dynasty and formats.
WHL: Chase Wheatcroft (DAL)
Passed over in several drafts, the flashy Wheatcroft recently secured a three-year entry-level contract with Dallas after exploding for 107 points in 68 WHL games.
That total was good for second in league scoring behind the kid who will go 1st overall to Chicago in just over a week from now. In fact, draft-eligible players were all around Wheatcroft at the top of the WHL scoring charts this year. An astounding five of the top ten WHL scoring leaders this year are set to be drafted in the upcoming 2023 NHL draft—likely all in the first round.
Aside from him being a triple overager, Wheatcroft taking such a significant step forward in production this year was not exactly foreseeable. He had posted only 82 points in his previous 137 WHL games across four seasons prior to 2022-23. Now 21, this was technically Wheatcroft’s Draft+3 campaign, so those numbers need to be taken in context. Outside of leagues with deep farm rosters, he is likely best left on the wire for now until he can prove his abilities at the professional level.
Still, those abilities were notable enough for Dallas to smartly take a swing on him. Wheatcroft has a projectable frame (6-2, 176 lbs) and a skillset highlighted by high-end puck handling and an above average shot.
As is clearly evident in those clips, he loves to bait and dangle defenders and is an absolute menace on the power play. He destroyed Prince George’s all-time power play scoring record only halfway through the season.
Of course, there is a reason he went undrafted. The main red flags from his draft year were below-average skating and hockey sense. I am not overly concerned when skating is the main mark against a prospect because it can be remedied to some extent with proper skill development. IQ, however, is a bit more of an “It” factor that players either have or don’t have. But if he can learn to better refine his offensive outbursts and make better tactical use of his teammates instead of always trying to dangle past multiple defenders, Wheatcroft has the skills to provide a scoring punch for Dallas in a bottom-nine role a few years from now.
Other WHL notables flying under the radar:
- Connor McClennon (drafted by Philadelphia but currently a free agent): 92 points in 64 games in his Draft +3. High-end shooting, handling, and hockey sense. Small frame (5-8, 176 lbs). Excels with high-end playmakers like former teammates Peyton Krebs, Zach Benson, and Matt Savoie.
- Alexander Suzdalev (WAS, 2022 3rd round): 86 points in 66 games playing in Regina with Connor Bedard. Many poolies will see the production bump and ascribe it entirely to his linemate. Don’t be so sure. He was drafted out of Sweden, where he put up over a point per game in the J20 Nationell, and next year he is heading to Hershey (AHL). We will have a clearer sense of what he is capable of once he settles into professional hockey but he is a skilled, deceptive handler with great finishing ability.
OHL: Matthew Maggio (NYI)
Maggio paced the entire OHL in scoring in 2022-23 with 111 points in only 66 games. He also led the league in goals (54) and shots taken (311, 4.7 per game). Although he was passed over in 2021, his first year of eligibility, the Islanders took a swing on him in the fifth round last year, and their trust has already been handsomely rewarded.
Maggio has a balanced, NHL-level skill set and is a dual-threat producer who can carry a line—and even a team at the junior level. Shane Wright joined the Spitfires for the final 20 games of the campaign, but Maggio’s numbers were not dependent on him or any one of his teammates. Aside from Wright and Maggio, Windsor had only two other drafted NHL prospects on the roster, both depth options without fantasy relevance. Compare that to other top OHL teams like the North Bay Battalion, for instance, who have nine NHL players, or Ottawa and London with five each.
He is a deceptive handler and opportunistic scorer with a smooth release and excellent playmaking instincts. While not a big guy (5-11), he has a stocky frame (183 lbs) and is not afraid to engage physically. My main concern with his NHL projection is that he lacks a defining trait, a single elite skill that separates him from the pack. Critics have also pointed to his lack of pace and conditioning. That said, he is a dedicated, hardworking rink rat who knows where to be and when.
Maggio likely grades out as a bottom-six contributor at the highest level, but it remains to be seen how his game will translate to professional hockey. His brief audition with Bridgeport (two assists in three games) after the Spitfires were eliminated in the first round suggests that he will move up to the AHL next year. That will clarify his projection and timeline. For now, there are worse assets to sit on in fantasy—especially if he is available for free off the wire.
Here is a great three-minute clip that shares his story and some of his recent highlights:
Other OHL notables flying under the radar:
- Ty Voit (TOR, 2021 5th round): 2nd in OHL scoring behind Maggio with 105 points in 67 games.
- Amadeus Lombardi (DET, 2022 4th round): 3rd in scoring, 102 points in 67 games
- Nolan Burke (NAS, undrafted): 18th in scoring, 82 points in 56 games (50 goals).
QMJHL: Riley Kidney (MON)
Kidney, a second-round pick by the Canadiens two years ago, is more widely known in prospect circles than either Wheatcroft or Maggio. He finished tied for fourth in Quebec-league scoring this year with St. Louis prospect Zachary Bolduc with 110 points in only 60 games.
His campaign included a mid-season trade from Acadie-Bathurst, where he had played for three years prior, to Gatineau, where he absolutely caught fire alongside the Olympiques’ other eight NHL drafted prospects to the tune of 65 points in only 29 games. That is an absurd 2.2 points-per-game, which would have even bested the 2.19 mark set by Q scoring leader Jordan Dumais (CBJ, 140 points in 64 games), albeit over a smaller sample size. He clearly has nothing left to learn at the junior level. Expect to see him in Laval (AHL) in the fall jostling with the other prospects in Montreal’s well-stocked pipeline for his first NHL call-up. His timeline might not be as long as other junior-level players because of how well he thinks the game.
With Kidney, it is all about the supreme passing and playmaking ability. He has always been an analytics darling, but his deceptiveness and defensive play held down his stocks during his draft year. He has shown notable improvement in both those areas over the past couple years, however, and appears to be on track to be a solid middle-six contributor at the next level. He reminds me of a slightly less dynamic Hendrix Lapierre.
On that note, beware of his lack of shooting and physicality in fantasy. He is the type of asset I love to acquire cheaply and then try to flip later by pointing to his excellent production. Especially at the junior and even minors levels, where there are fewer peripherals and advanced stats tracked, your fellow poolies may be more easily fooled by raw numbers than they will be once he arrives in the NHL. Even if he makes the show and hits his 50–60-point upside as a second- or third-line C, Kidney may still disappoint in fantasy with his persistent drive towards non-physical playmaking.
Other QMJHL notables flying under the radar:
- Josh Lawrence (undrafted, unsigned): second in Q scoring with 101 points in 68 games. He is 21, so 2022-23 was his Draft+3 campaign. He has great passing ability, is solid defensively, and is speedy in transition but tends to stick to the perimeter and attack with predictable patterns that lack creativity or dynamism. His totals may have been inflated by playing with Dumais but it is a good sign that he meshed well as a shooter with a high-end playmaker. He led the Q with over 4.5 shots per game.
- Alexandre Doucet (DET, undrafted): third in Q scoring with 115 points in 70 games. Back in March 2020, David St. Louis at Elite Prospects wrote, “I think he becomes one of the better playmakers in the Q in two, three years.” That prediction was bang on, but Doucet also scored 58 goals, which led the league. He has developed into a true dual-threat scorer. His main problem as a draft-eligible skater was that he almost never shot the puck. This year, playing on a line with Lawrence and Dumais, Doucet took over three shots per game.
- Jacob Melanson (SEA, 2021 5th round): scored 50 goals in 59 games in his Draft+2, which tied for fourth in the league. He was Acadie-Bathurst’s other top talent along with Kidney but was also traded mid-year. He put up almost 1.7 points per game on a loaded Sherbrooke squad after the trade.
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Twitter @beegare for more prospect content and fantasy hockey analysis.