Sask-Can Star continues to impress

There is a tournament going on right now in Airdrie, the Southern Alberta Invitational. The tournament doesn't really feature any of the so-called summer hockey powers but one cannot ignore the summer season Cody Young is having for Sask-Can. He has put up 14 more points in just 4 games in the tournament thus far. This is now the second straight tournament he has played in that he has not only led the tournament scoring derby, but ran away with it.

Congratulations to prospect on the rise, Cody Young.

Jr. Flames exact some revenge on the Jr. Blades in Finale

Johnny Quennville leads the Jr. Flames to a tournament victory in Richmond


To nobody's surprise the Saskatoon Jr. Blades and Calgary Jr. Flames met in the Challenge Cup final this afternoon. Both teams rolled through the round robin and the quarters and semi's undefeated. The final didn't disappoint at all as the Jr. Flames beat the Saskatoon Jr. Blades 4-3 in OT. Stay tuned to the website for more information when I have a chance to put all my notes together for a better re-cap. Also, in the May 31st newsletter we will have an extensive re-cap with notes and interviews from the tournament as well as a shift to our Top 100 rankings. The tournament really separated some players from the others some of the lesser knows are very well known now!

Jr Flames trounce OKS Kelowna 10-0

Top 5 ranked Brayden Point scored 1-4-5 and line mate Tyler Wong picked up a hat trick and added 2 assists in the win. John Quennville chipped in with 4 points and Josh McCulloch had 2 goals in the decisive win. In fact, every player scored a point in the win for the Jr. Flames.

In other A Pool action, the Saskatchewan Hustlin Huskies surprisingly got beat 6-0 by SPI from Vancouver. Top 5 ranked Tyler Sandhu led the way for the Vancouver team with a pair of goals.

In a great game, the BC Interior Selects defeated the Calgary Jr. Hitmen 5-4 in OT. Josh Blanchard led the way for the Interior selects with 2-2-4 while Brett Menneaur set up a pair. Blanchard played his bantam hockey last year in Kelowna. For the Jr. Hitmen highly touted Jaden Sveinsson from Red Deer didn't disappoint with 1-1-2 and fast rising Franco Colapaulo had a pair of assists.

Finally of note, the co-favorite in the tournament along with the Calgary Jr. Flames, the Saskatoon Jr. Blades won their opening game 5-3 over a determined NSD Titans squad out of Alberta. Top 10 ranked Tanner MacMaster scored a pair for the Titans while line mate Conner Bleackley had 1-1-2. For the Jr. Blades, Dawson Leedahl led the way with 3 assists, while defenceman Ross Hnidy had 2 goals. Chartier, Gardiner and Olynek also scored for Saskatoon.

So far to nobody's surprise, Calgary Jr. Flames, Saskatoon Jr. Blades and SPI Hockey Vancouver look to be the strongest.

Calgary Jr. Flames

Kord Pankewicz will replace Braden Oleksyn on the Calgary Jr. Flames summer squad. Zach Gonek will not play at this coming weekends Challenge Cup either for personal reasons.

Braden Oleksyn Signs with Beardy's Midget AAA

For the second season in a row, the Beardy's Black Hawks will feature an underaged player in their lineup. Braden Oleksyn, like Alex Forsberg in the 09-10 season will play age advanced hockey in Beardy's.

Oleksyn who had over 60 goals and 140 points in his first year of Bantam was right there with Olynyk as the top scorer in the GSHL. It will be interesting to see how Oleksyn compares to what Alex Forsberg was able to accomplish with Beardy's last season. Also Oleksyn like Fosberg is our #1 ranked prospect at this point.

Currently Braden is playing summer hockey with the Calgary Jr. Flames and is averaging 2 goals per game with the all important Challenge Cup coming up this weekend.

Newsletter now available

Our new edition of the newsletter is now available. This edition has an updated Top 100 which includes the Calgary tournament a tournament played in Winnipeg over the weekend. Also, we have three in depth interviews with Olynek, Painchaud and Shaw. We recap the North American AAA Hockey Classic and preview the Challenge Cup which is coming up this weekend.

Sask-Can are the Champions!

The North American AAA Hockey Classic wrapped up today in Winnipeg with the Sask-Can team defeating Pembina Valley Hawks 8-6 in the final. Sask-Can was once again led by Cody Young who had 3 goals and 2 assists and was the tournament scoring champ by a large margain. He finished with 10-14-24 in the 5 games he played. In fact he finished a whopping 11 pts ahead of Scott Gall from Pembina Valley in the scoring race. Tyler Olson scored twice for Sask-Can. For Pembina Valley, they were led by Ryley Lingren's 2 goals and 1 assist and 3 assist effort from Chris Toupin.

Final Tournament Scoring Leaders
1. CODY YOUNG 10-14-24 Sask Can
2. SCOTT GALL 5-8-13 Pembina
3. AARON BEAUCHAMP 5-8-13 Norman
4. ADAM WOWRYK 9-3-12 Lightning
5. Chris Toupin 6-6-12 Pembina
6. David Sheppard 5-7-12 Sask Can
7. Jack Lotscher 5-6-11 Pembina
8. Adam Santoro 5-6-11 Sask Can
9. Carter Amson 7-3-10 Sask Can
10. Ryley Lindgren 5-5-10 Pembina

We now set our sights on the Champions Cup in Richmond, BC which will feature many of the top players in this age group. The exception will be the absence of the province of Manitoba who won't be sending a team to BC. However we got a good look at some of the prospects in this tournament. We'll have to wait until the tournament in Winnipeg, the Subway Challenge to get a firm guage on the Manitoba kids.

Sask-Can thumps Pembina Valley in showdown

In what was supposed to be a battle between two of the top teams in the tournament, Pembina Valley proved to be no match at all for Sask-Can who went on to win the game 8-2. Pembina Valley will now have to beat Norman Icebears in a early morning semi-final just to have a chance at redemption in the final. The final will take place at 1:45 tomorrow afternoon.

Back to the game tonight though, Cody young had a 6 point night including a 4 goal effort to pace the Sask-Can squad. Young will finish with a tournament leading 7 goals and 10 assists in just 4 games.

In the other Saturday evening game, Norman defeated the Northwest Thrashers 8-2. The Northwest Thrashers finished 0-4 and were outscored 35-12! Aaron Beauchamp continued his strong play with 2 goals and an assist giving him 5 goals and 8 assists in the tournament, finishing only behind Cody Young's 14 point effort.

***Note: Gavin Klassen of Pembina Valley was credited with a goal in the game this evening.

Scoring leaders
CODY YOUNG 7-10-17 SASK-CAN
Aaron Beauchamp 5-8-13 NORMAN
Jack Lotscher 4-6-10 PEMBINA VALLEY
Adam Santoro 4-6-10 SASK CAN
Carter Amson 6-3-9 SASK CAN
Scott Gall 4-5-9 PEMBINA VALLEY
David Shephard 4-5-9 SASK CAN
Adam Wowryk 7-1-8 LIGHTNING
Chris Toupin 5-3-8 PEMBINA VALLEY
Aavory Wilkie 2-6-8 NORMAN

Saturday Afternoon

In afternoon action at the North American AAA Hockey Classic, the Pembina Valley Hawks and Sask-Can continue their collision course to a likely meeting in the final with both teams picking up victories.

Pembina Valley trounced the now 0-3 Northwest Thrashers 12-2. Jack Lotscher picked up a hat trick giving him 4 in the tournament, Chris Toupin scored a pair giving him 5 for the tournament. Matthew Bachynski scored his third of the tournament for the over matched Thrashers.

In the other game at noon today, the Sask-Can squad doubled up the Manitoba Lightning 8-4. The Lightning are now 1-3 while Sask-Can are 3-0 in a first place tie with Pembina Valley. Pembina Valley and Sask-Can will meet later today. Carter Amson once again led the way for Sask-Can with a pair of goals giving him 6 goals in 3 games. Cody young had his second multiple point game in three games with three points. Nico Lisi and Adam Wowryk each scored a pair for the Lightning who have now lost three straight. Wowryk has a tournament leading 7 goals, while Lisi has 5

There will be two more games today to wrap up the round robin portion of the sked. Northwest will play Norman first off, a Norman win and they will be in the semi's. pembina will play Sask-Can for a buy to the final for the winner.


Scoring Leaders
1. ADAM WOWRYK 7-1-8
2. CODY YOUNG 3-5-8
3. AARON BEAUCHAMP 3-5-8
4. CARTER AMSON 6-1-7
5. CHRIS TOUPIN 5-2-7
6. SCOTT GAL 4-3-7
7. JACK LOTSCHER 4-3-7

Saturday Early

The North American AAA Hockey Classic continued in Winnipeg last night with two more games. First off, Sask-Can ran their record to 2-0 with a 6-1 victory over the now 0-2 Northwest Thrashers. Adam Santoro and Brett Armstrong each scored twice for Sask-Can, while David Shephard chipped in with a goal and an assist. In the final game of the evening the Norman Icebears picked up their first win of the tournament, outscoring the Manitoba Lightning 8-5. Both teams are now 1-2. Aavory Wilkie picked up a 5 point night with 2 goals and 3 assists for Norman, while Aaron Beauchamp also had a 5 point night with 1 goal and 4 assists. For the Ligntning Adam Wowryk had a hat trick, he now had 5 goals in the tournament. Matthew Davis had a goal and 3 assists.

Action will continue today with four more games on the slate, concluding the round robin portion of the tournament. Pembina Valley and Sask-Can both play twice today and both have a 2-0 record. Pembina will play Sask-Can in the final game of the round robin which should decide who gets the first place finish in the round robin and a buy to the tournament final on Sunday. At this point it is looking like it will be Pembina and Sask-Can in the final though as Sask-Can have outscored their opposition 15-1 while Pembina has outscored theirs 15-5.

Standings
Sask-Can 2 0 0 4 15 1
Pembina Valley 2 0 0 4 15 5
Norman Icebears 1 2 0 2 11 22
Man Lightning 1 2 0 2 16 22
NW Thrashers 0 2 0 2 8 15

Tournament Leaders Top 15
Player GP G A PTS Team
Aaron Beauchamp 3 3 5 8 Norman
Adam Wowryk 3 5 1 6 Lightning
Taylor Fisher 2 2 4 6 Pembina Valley
Adam Santoro 2 4 1 5 Sask-Can
Chris Toupin 2 3 2 5 Pembina
David Sheppard 2 2 3 5 Sask-Can
Cody Young 2 2 3 5 Sask-Can
Aavory Wilkie 3 2 3 5 Norman
Matthew Davis 3 2 3 5 Lightning
Carter Amson 2 4 0 4 Sask-Can
Scott Gal 2 3 1 4 Pembina
Gordon Wasteste 3 3 1 4 Thrashers
Brett Smith 3 1 3 4 Lightning
Jack Lotscher 2 1 3 4 pembina
Devan Bertoia 2 1 3 4 Sask-Can

North American AAA Hockey Classic early Friday action

A couple games are in the books today in Winnipeg at the North American AAA Classic. First off, the Sask-Can team played their first game of the tournament and galloped to a convincing 9-0 victory over the struggling Norman IceBears who now have dropped both games by a combined score of 17-3. Leading the way for the Sask-Can team was Carter Amson with 3 goals, Cody Young also had a stellar game with 2 goals and 3 assists.

Also this morning over at Notre Dame arena, Pembina Valley upped their record to 2-0, thumping the Manitoba Lightning 7-2. The Lightning now fall to 1-1. Leading the way for pembina Valley was Scott Gall with a pair while Jack Lotscher chipped in with 3 assists.

A pair of games complete Friday's action this evening, check back later for updates.

Friday Primer

As the Challenge Cup draws nearer, one of the players fans and scouts will be keeping close tabs on is Saskatoon Junior Blades forward Kolten Olynek. The 5'7 140lb Olynek sat down and did an in depth interview with us this morning which will appear in Monday's edition of the newsletter.

Also of note this weekend is that the North American AAA Summer Classic is underway in Winnipeg. There are 5 1996 born teams there including 4 from Manitoba and the Sask-Can team from Saskatoon/Saskatchewan.

Yesterday, two games were played with pembina Valley Hawks defeating Norman Icebears 8-3. Chris Toupin fired home a hat trick for Pembina Valley while star defenceman Taylor Fisher scored a pair, Fisher also added 3 assists for a 5 point night. Aaron Beauchamp scored twice and added an assist, figuring in on all 3 goals for Norman.

In the second game of the day, the Manitoba Lightning out gunned the Northwest Thrashers 9-7. Nico Lisi fired home a hat trick for the Lightning while Adam Wowryk and Simon Klassen each scored twice. Gordon Wasteste scored a hat trick for Northwest while Matt Bachynski scored a pair.

Sask-Can will see their first action of the tournament today against Norman in the first of 4 games for the 96 age group today.

Check back later today for updates and other news.

Challenge Cup Sked Released

Kolten Olynek hopes to lead his Jr. Blades to a 2nd straight tournament championship


Can top ranked defenceman for the 1996 age group put a stop to the talented 96 born Jr. Blades forwards?

The Challenge Cup is drawing nearer with festivities to kick off at the Bill Copeland Arena with opening ceremonies at 9am PST on Friday, May 21st. The actual hockey action will commence at 12pm that same day with the Calgary Jr. Flames taking on the Cyclone Taylor Eagles. The final game of the tournament will be at 5:30pm PST on Monday, May 24th.

A quick look at the pools, which feature 4 teams in each pool suggest to me that the Pool 1-A is perhaps the strongest with 3 of the 4 teams very strong. The Calgary Jr. Flames will be the favorite in this pool with a who's who of the top 1996's in Western Canada. However, you can't overlook SPI Hockey club who has Tyler Sandhu, Alec Dawydiak and defenceman Shaun Dosanjh. All three of those key players are from the Seafair bantam program and should all be top picks in the first round next year. The other team who will battle for 2nd in the pool are the Saskathcewan Hustlin' Huskies. This pool will belong to the Calgary Jr.Flames though, not much doubt about that.

Pool 1-B has the other favorite, the Saskatoon Jr. Blades. The Jr. Blades will be led by offensive talents, Olynek, Chartier, Gardiner, Duret and Warkentine. That group of forwards are likely five of the top seven or so in Saskatchewan, in what is a very strong 96 age group there. The Saskatoon team will be pushed hard in this pool by the Vancouver Selects Blue squad. Vancouver is 3 lines deep with many of the provinces top 96 born kids including: Bamford, Virtanen, Skapski, Seto, Wozney and Painchaud up front. Baron and Stadel will anchor the backend for Vancouver. Another team in this group who could make noise are the NSD 96 Titans. They have potentially three first rounders on the roster in Brycen Martin on defence, Mumby on defence and talented offensive force Tanner MacMaster.

This tournament promisses to showcase many of the top 1996 born kids. Could we see a repeat of the Calgary Tournament final which featured the Junior Blades vs. Junior Flames? Or will Vancouver, SPI or perhaps another surprise team make some noise? Let us know your thoughts.

Wednesday's Interview Corner

Steady, hard hitting Keenan Shaw looks to make big inpact

In this weeks edition, we had a chance to sit down with Allen Shaw. Allen is and his wife are strength and conditioning coaches with www.perfectbody.ca.

Where did Keenan play his hockey in the 09-10 season?
My son is Keenan Shaw, born April 9, 1996.
Last season he played as a first year for the Knights of Columbus Squires in the AMBHL and finished the season with 0G - 7A- 7 Points and 38Pims.
He played about 25 minutes per game, primarily in a shut down role against the opposing team’s top lines.
Keenan is currently 6’1” and about 185Lbs.

Please explain to us some of Keenan's strengths as a hockey player moving forward?
Size and strength: he is not only a big guy for his age, but has trained diligently in the gym for the last 2 years to develop functional strength and agility on the ice.
Physicality: may be one of the best open ice hitting Defensemen in the AMBHL, his vision of the hit is much like Shea Weber. In his 5 games at the Champions Cup (May 1st weekend) he had four hits which lead to players being forced to leave the game. He is also punishing in front of his net and in the corners.
Skating: skating and foot speed has developed well this past year. His lateral movement has improved very well, leading to him rarely ever getting beat 1 on 1.
Shot: powerful shot from the point.
Coach-ability: All of his coaches for the last 5 years, including the coaches from his school (Vimy Ridge Hockey Academy) have stated that he is great to coach. You tell him what you want done, and he does it.
Desire: he wants to be the best he can be. His goal is to play in the WHL, for Team Canada at the World Juniors and in the NHL.

Every player at this age has a few things to work on, what are some of the skills Keenan is working on moving forward?
Shot accuracy: Keenan often hits the net with his slappers and wristers from the point, but needs to hit the open holes with more accuracy to find the mesh.
Offensiveness: he is slowly getting accustomed to the fact that he can skate and carry the puck well. He has a good first pass, but has the ability to skate the puck with more frequency.

With more and more players entering summer hockey programs and tournaments, what is Keenan doing in regards to hockey this summer?
Keenan will be playing for the Vimy Ridge Hockey Academy – Junior Varsity Team. This will be their “flagship” team for 95 and 96 boys. They are travelling to Kelowna to play in a tournament against the Pursuit of Excellence team on the May 20th long weekend. A number of 2010 WHL drafted players will be on both teams including: Curtis Lazar, Greg Chase, Jaedon Descheneau.
Keenan will be attending the National Hockey Institute (www.nationalhockeyinstitute.com ) for 2 weeks in July in St. Catherines Ontario. He will be working directly with: Darryl Belfry and Andy O’Brien. He is really excited to be working with the best in the hockey industry for those 2 weeks and knows this will help take his game to the next level.
Keenan will continue his strength and agility training and strict nutritional plan thru-out the summer in effort to be a power house next season on the ice.

Thank you for the interview and best of luck to you and your son and his hockey endeavors.

Suggestions Welcomed

This site was constructed primarily for all the 1996 born hockey players, parents and fans to share. With that in mind, I'm proposing a question to all of you. What would you like us to add in the newsletter every two weeks?
More Player profiles and perhaps a Top 50 list?
More Interviews and a Top 50 list?
Keep it as it is?

I'm hearing to listen and will deliver what you the readers would like to see.

Building blocks

I would like to thank our four newest subscribers to the newsletter in the past day or so. Without getting into specifics in terms of names, I must mention three are from Calgary and 1 is from Edmonton. Alberta is sure becoming the new hockey hot bed as evidence by the recent draft count.

Note: If you would like your son or you yourself profiled, let us know at hockey_scout@live.ca. We'd love to expose you to the WHL folks.

Monday Musings.....

- looks as though first round prospect John Queenville could be making the move from Sherwood Park to South Side Athletic Club. South Side is expected to be a powerhouse in the AMBHL next season with rookie of the year Riley Simpson at forward, defenseman, Zach Patterson and Aaron Irving as well as top goalie Jordan Papirny.

- the spring/summer hockey season is well underway with a pair of tournaments already complete. The first one took place in Notre Dame, with the 2010 Notre Dame Hounds innagural spring classic. To nobody's surprise, the Calgary Jr. Flames won the tournament defeating a team from Quebec in the final 8-4. This coming after the team from Quebec handed Calgary a loss in the round robin portion of the tournament. The Bronze medal went to the Manitoba Jr. Jets who feature many of Manitoba's top 1996 born kids. Three western kids were named to the all-star squad at the tournament including: Zach Gonek(Cal)-D, Red Duke(Cal)-F, Jayce Hawryluk(MAN) -F.
Secondly, the Calgary Jr. Flames hosted a tournament which ended in a loss for the host team. The powerhouse Saskatoon Jr. Blades defeated Calgary by a score of 7-4 in the final. Prior to the gold medal game, Calgary had outscored its openents 40-5.

- coming up in less than two weeks time, starting on the Victoria Day long weekend will be the Vancouver Challenge Cup. The 1996's will gather in Richmond, BC for their games. There will be 30 teams taking part in the event this season. The tournament will feature most of all the top 1996 born players in western canada. We'll have a comprehensive review in our newsletter at the completion of the tournament.

- finally, thank you to all who have donated to read the newsletter so far. A comment we are getting from a few folks is that the height weight numbers are a bit off on some players. Well, kids from the age 13-14 grow alot and at different rates. We can only go from the information we receive via rosters or summer camp websites and rosters we are given. If your child or you yourself want to send us your up to date height and weight numbers and any other information you feel might be of concern to us, let us know fast because our newsletter also gets sent to most WHL teams.

- Coming up in future newsletters we will be profiling some players who are in the top 100. If you wish to be profiled content us at hockey_scout@live.ca and we'll set that up.

Thats all for now, have a good start to the week everyone.

Top Five Friday's

In the weekly installment of "Top Five Friday's", we'll take a look this week at the tope five small men or kids if you will to make an inpact leading up to draft day.

1. Brayden Point 5'3 115

Standing at just 5'3 and weighing only 115 lbs entering in the spring hockey season, Brayden is a small player right now. However, he puts up huge numbers and reminds many of us of another few small hockey players who dominated either in bantam or in junior. Evan Richardson from Naniamo was just 5'2 at this time in his draft year but went on to be selected in the first round by the Broncos and further more lead the BC Midget league in scoring this past season. Jordan Weal is another tiny player who dominated, was taken late in the draft and dominated in his 17 yr old WHL season.

2. Joe Hicketts 5'6 150

A smallish 5'6 defenceman playing on the spring/summer Calgary Jr. Flames squad. He is an offensive defenceman who is responsible in his own zone. Joe is very good with the puck and is undoubtably one of the top defenceman in the draft at this point despite his small size right now.

3. Jayce Hawryluk 5'5 127

Jayce is an extremely talented player who was playing in a bit of obscurity last season in AA Dauphin. However nobody can deny the kids skill set. Standing at just 5'5 and weighing 127, Jayce is able to dominate and lead his league in scoring. Jayce is probably in the top 1-2 Manitoba players available for next years bantam draft despite his small stature.

4. Rourke Chartier 5'4 130

Rourke had a simply outstanding bantam season last year. He led all Saskatoon Bantam scorers with 86 goals, 18 more than top 5 rated Oleksyn and this coming as a first year Bantam. The sky is the limit for this player, lets hope his height is too because if it all comes together, Rourke could be another dominate small man in the WHL someday.

5. Tyler Wong 5'6 150

Tyler was the leading scorer last season for first year players in the ambhl. This spring, he already has 11 goals in 10 games for the powerhouse Calgary Jr. Flames. Tyler can play a crash and bang style or produce on the score sheet with the best of them. Tyler is a player to watch for the first couple rounds leading up to the 2011 WHL Bantam Draft.

Check back tomorrow, where we'll look at the "Sataruday Situation" where we discuss the happenings around minor hockey.

Brayden Point - Big things in a small package

Alberta born, Brayden Point stands just 5'3 and weighs under 120 lbs, however he doesn't let size get in his way when it comes to hockey excellence. Entering into his 5th season with the Calgary Jr. Flames spring/summer hockey team, Point will be relied upon heavily for production. Point is a buzz-saw type of player and very hard worker with hockey sence that is second to none. Brayden is the captain of his Jr. Flames team and has gotten off to a tremendous start this spring with 7 goals and 13 points to lead his talented all-star type team.

WHL 2011 Prospects Launch

The 2010 WHL Bantam Draft is now over, so now what? Well, we start to look ahead to the 2011 crop of young prospects. It looks to be a very strong group across the board in Western Canada. Through the summer, some of our top rated prospects will converge and meet in several tournament. We at Western Elite Prospects will take a look at some of the emerging talents as the summer progresses. Stay tuned for exclusive interviews on some of the top names each week as well as up to date rankings at the end of each tournament. Follow stars such as Oleksyn, Olynek, Point, Martin, Sandhu, Hicketts as we approach their big day a full year from now. Should be a fun ride.