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CHL to NCAA Recruiting Megathread

06 F Rene Van Bommel commits to LSSU. Plays for London Knights, won 2 straight OHL champs and memorial cup as a depth piece on a stacked squad this season, plans to enroll in 26-27. Good pesty guy, 18 points in 53 games and 70 PIM. a true representative of Dale Hunter goon squad hockey. totally possible he has more offense in there with a larger role though
 
Bunch more news drops-

06 F Ollie Josephson to NoDak for this season, Red Deer Rebels, 2024 4th round pick by Seattle.

Moncton Wildcats trade for the rights to 07 F Teddy Mutryn, BC commit, 2025 3rd round pick by San Jose. Nothing about him signing yet but he added the post to his instagram story and it would be a great pre-college spot. These trades are rarely made without prior engagement between the team and player. Moncton continues to torture the entire QMJHL by loading up their roster.

09 F Charlie Murata commits to Michigan State. He was drafted 8th overall by Flint Firebirds this past OHL draft and has already signed his SPA.
 
06 F Ben Wilmott reported to play for London Knights this season, Ohio State commit.

07 F Grayden Robertson-Palmer signed with Moncton a few days ago, Dartmouth commit and 2025 DET 7th round pick.

Dunno if I've mentioned it before, but the QMJHL starts their training camp and their season a week earlier than everyone else. They all start at some point this upcoming week.

Full QMJHL training camp roster lists:

Gatineau Olympiques (in english! sort of... mostly)
Rouyn-Noranda Huskies
Victoriaville Tigres
Québec Remparts
Sherbrooke Phoenix
Cape Breton Eagles
Saint John Sea Dogs announced their invites a while ago
 
Aw, thank you for the kind words you two! And thanks to everyone who subscribed. I'll work on getting the next one out soon.

05 C Preston Lounsbury of Moncton Wildcats commits to Holy Cross for 2026

Halifax Mooseheads training camp roster

As a birthday present, the universe has blessed me with the return of hockey for day 1 of the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. Just in time too, because I was resorting to having to watch baseball of all things...

Notes from day 1:
  • Captain Keaton Verhoeff (NoDak) named player of the game for Canada in their 5-3 win over Finland with 1g2a and a lot of time on the penalty kill, which was impressive, but Canada should really stop taking so many penalties
  • Cooper Williams (Saskatoon Blades, NoDak 27) was listed as 13th forward and Pierce Mbuyi (Owen Sound Attack, Penn State 26) was a scratch. Has more to do with an embarrassment of riches than anything against those players. Seriously, Tynan Lawrence was their 3rd line center.
  • However, 1st line left wing Jean-Christoph Lemieux took a tough hit at some point of the game and didn't return, so Williams received a promotion as forwards had to shift up a line. If Lemieux is out for any amount of time, Mbuyi could get in the lineup.
  • D Cameron Chartrand (Saint John, BC 27) doesn't get a lot of attention considering the players on the blue line being multiple projected 1st round picks this year and his D partner being the projected 1st overall pick in 2027, but his spot in the lineup is indicative that they trust him.
  • Germany and Sweden didn't have any current commits afaict, but there are a few Germans going to major junior this upcoming season. Sweden smoked the Germans 10-0. Blowouts starting early this year
  • USA wins their opener against Slovakia 6-3, but it was closer than the score would say with 2 ENGs. The tying goal came with a little over 2 minutes left in the game
  • Noah Davidson (Medicine Hat Tigers, BC 27) was player of the game for the US, scored that tying goal. 1st line of Klepov Hextall Zielinski looked excellent.
  • Slovakia does have one college commit in D Michal Marsalek (Maine). No word yet on where he's playing next season from what I can find. The real standout for them was 09 F Oliver Ozogany, who will be playing for USHL Tri-City this season, scored a hat trick. I'd guess both CHL and NCAA teams have their eyes on him.
  • Czechia won over Switzerland 6-2. 1 Swiss player is going to the CHL in F Yanis Lutz, and there's multiple on Czechia- F Simon Belohorsky, Jan Trefny, D Ondrej Ruml, Ben Stefan Reisnecker.
Canada:
Verhoeff (NoDak) 1g2a
Valentini (Kitchener, Michigan) 2a

US:
Klepov (Saginaw, Michigan St) 2a
Davidson (Med Hat, BC) 1g
Rogowski (Oshawa, Michigan St) 1g
Varga (Kelowna, DU) 1g
Duskocy (Charlottetown, UMass) 1a

Also interesting was TSN prospect analyst (today's color commentator) Craig Button's comments on the CHL/NCAA path opening up, which were wholly player-focused. I've found that to be often tacked on when mentioning the unfortunate loss for the CHL as an afterthought, but he started with it. Gord Miller mentioned Medicine Hat having a big hole to fill with McKenna leaving, and Craig Button comes in focusing on how it is great that kids aren't forced to make this decision so young anymore and how beneficial this option is for a player who finds the CHL level not challenging enough. He even asked Verhoeff about it, who said to him directly that he wasn't happy with the level of challenge in the WHL. Button has some outdated takes in how he evaluates prospects and his rankings can sway heavily Canadian, so it was refreshing to hear this from someone in his position.
 
Cinnamoroll - curious to know, have you ranked your top college teams that have recruited? I haven’t seen anything but may have missed it.
 
hawkeytown said:
Cinnamoroll - curious to know, have you ranked your top college teams that have recruited? I haven’t seen anything but may have missed it.
Click to expand...
i just began posting my deep dive into each CHL recruiting class on my substack, starting with an intro and the 3 independents. it does end with a generic ranking based on the sort of potential impact the CHL players could have on the team. working on the others now, i can attempt to rank all schools after i finish but its tough to balance impacts NCAA-wide when the leagues all have different baselines and expectations.
 
cinnamoroll said:
i just began posting my deep dive into each CHL recruiting class on my substack, starting with an intro and the 3 independents. it does end with a generic ranking based on the sort of potential impact the CHL players could have on the team. working on the others now, i can attempt to rank all schools after i finish but its tough to balance impacts NCAA-wide when the leagues all have different baselines and expectations.
Click to expand...
Makes complete sense. I look forward to reading this and your future offerings!
 
07 D John-Alex Banks signs with Owen Sound Attack, UMass commit

08 F Andrei Molgachev signs with Calgary Hitmen, UConn commit

The QMJHL often has the toughest time recruiting American players, rarely drafted them, and some just would never end up going to any camps. Seems like a notable amount of the American players drafted this year are reporting to camp, which is great to hear. By the end of the season last year, 17 American players had at least 1 game in the QMJHL, an increase from the total of 2 players the year before. There's already confirmation of 11 American players joining the QMJHL without full roster decisions being made, so I think we can easily project breaking that record once roster confirmation is made. They're also hoping to get the Manchester expansion team set up for 2026, it seems to have good traction.

Day 2 of Hlinka Gretzky!
  • Canada vs Switzerland was a goalie clinic with the Swiss limiting them to 1 goal before Canada threw on the blender in the third and scored a casual 8 goals. 9-1 win, Mathis Preston with the hat trick and player of the game, Valentini (Kitchener, Michigan) 2g, Dima Zhilkin 2 goals.
  • Mbuyi (Owen Sound, Penn State) made it onto the lineup with Lemieux indeed injured, had 1 assist
  • Preston, Zhilkin, Ethan Belchetz are definitely of interest to NCAA teams. Zhilkin is a month too young for this years' draft and had a solid rookie season with Saginaw, Preston is uber talented, Belchetz is tied for lead in points in HGC with 6. Also worth keeping an eye on the Ruck twins, Markus and Liam, both Medicine Hat Tigers.
  • For my fellow science nerds, they are mirror identical twins. Even extends to their play style, Markus playmaking LH C, Liam high-scoring RH W. Part of Preston's big 3rd period was a result of coaching staff putting the Ruck twins on the same line with him.
  • Canadians mostly fixed their penalty problems, unlike...
  • The Americans had a 3-1 lead only to lose 5-3 after Sweden scored 3 goals in under 2 minutes in the 3rd.
  • Both teams had a lot of penalties, called super tight. Sweden was more effective on their power play and the US took some bad penalties at inopportune times.
  • Varga (Kelowna, DU) 1a, Klepov (Saginaw, Michigan State) 1a. Steven Ellis writes good standouts of the day articles for Daily Faceoff, and he mentioned Joseph Salandra (Barrie, Harvard) looking good today despite not getting on the scoresheet
  • Of the 5 USA players in the CHL last season, Rogowski (Oshawa, Michigan State) and Varga both committed soon after the recruiting cycle began. The other 3 are Shaffer Gordon-Carroll (Med Hat), Alofa Tunoa Ta'amu (Edmonton), and Brody Gillespie (Spokane). The last two don't have any rumored suitors afaict but SGC has a bunch.
  • Slovakia beats Germany 1-0, Finland beats Czechia 4-1
 
Charlottetown Islanders training camp roster.

Moncton Wildcast release their camp roster... for rookie camp. Most new players and draft picks are attending, but Niko Tournas (UNH) and Teddy Mutryn (BC) were both able to get out of the rookie portion likely due to age and experience. Both should join for main camp Sunday. Moncton is also planning to stream their intrasquad games on their youtube, which is nice of them. The first 3 are during rookie camp. Schedule is here

Hlinka Gretzky prelims are done, tomorrow the semi-finals will be Canada v US and Sweden v Finland, which are both very fun matchups.
  • USA won 8-1, which means Germany does not go home without scoring a single goal all tournament 🥳
  • Americans decided to fix that penalty problem from two angles, only taking 4 and scoring twice shorthanded.
  • Harvey 2g (Windsor, Penn State), Duskocy 1g2a (Charlottetown, UMass), Salandra 1a (Barrie, Harvard), Klepov 1a (Saginaw, Michigan State), Rogowski 1a (Oshawa, Michigan State), Noah Davidson 2a (Medicine Hat, BC), Varga 1g (Kelowna, DU)
  • Canada won 5-0 over Czechia, but it was 1-0 as late as halfway through the 3rd
  • Survived a 5 minute major, their PK has been spotless so far
  • Lemieux returned to the lineup, Mbuyi (Owen Sound, Penn State) remained in, Williams (Saskatoon, NoDak) went out
  • Valentini 1a (Kitchener, Michigan)
  • Switzerland wins in overtime vs Finland 4-3, if Czechia won their game Finland would've been out of the semis.
  • Sweden beat Slovakia 7-0, because of course they did.
 
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