Latest news with #CHLUSAProspectsChallenge

Ottawa Citizen

a day ago

Sport
Ottawa Citizen

Calgary & Lethbridge to be host cities for the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge

Article content Calgary and Lethbridge will the host cities for the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge. Article content The first game of the two-game series will take place on Tuesday, November 25 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, while the second contest will be held the following night on Wednesday, November 26 at Arena in Lethbridge. Article content Article content First introduced in 2024, the CHL USA Prospects Challenge is a two-game series that sees the top NHL Draft-eligible prospects from the CHL's Member Leagues (WHL, OHL & QMJHL) compete against those from USA Hockey's National Team Development Program (NTDP) Under-18 Team. Article content Article content 'We are thrilled to bring the CHL USA Prospects Challenge to Calgary and Lethbridge this November,' said Dan MacKenzie, President of the CHL. 'These two passionate hockey communities will provide an exceptional backdrop to highlight the CHL's top prospects eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft, giving fans in both of these markets the opportunity to see a premier best-on-best competition featuring the next generation of NHL talent. This event not only highlights elite competition but also strengthens the cross-border rivalry that makes this series so compelling for fans and scouts alike.' Article content Article content

Calgary Herald

a day ago

Sport
Calgary Herald

Calgary & Lethbridge to be host cities for the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge

Top 2025 NHL Draft prospect Justin Carbonneau blends power with skill and scoring

New York Times

05-06-2025

Business
New York Times

Top 2025 NHL Draft prospect Justin Carbonneau blends power with skill and scoring

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Before Mathieu Turcotte coached Justin Carbonneau for two seasons in the QMJHL with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada, Carbonneau used to attend his hockey camps in Levis. Back then, Carbonneau 'was always high-end skill-wise.' A few years later, though, Carbonneau also has something else, according to Turcotte. Advertisement 'He's a tank,' Turcotte said on a phone call earlier this year. 'He really is. And he plays through s— that a lot of guys wouldn't even practice with. He's really built different. With age and physical maturity, he has the body of a power forward.' These days, he's NHL Central Scouting's No. 16-ranked North American skater and a projected top-20 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft. This season, he registered 49 goals and 92 points in 67 combined regular-season and playoff games with the Armada, leading the team in goals and points, and leading the forwards in penalty minutes with 73. His 89 regular-season points were the second-most in the QMJHL to league scoring champion and overager Jonathan Fauchon, and his 46 regular-season goals tied for second. At year's end, he was named to the QMJHL's First All-Star Team. Though he's on the older side of the draft class because of his late November birthday, he looks it, with a strong, athletic 6-foot-1, 191-pound build. He has also played three years in the QMJHL instead of two. At 16, he registered 20 points in 32 games as a young 16-year-old in the league following a trade from the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, the team that drafted him with the 20th pick in the 2022 QMJHL draft, to the Armada as the Huskies chased a QMJHL title. Last year, a full year out from the draft, he registered 31 goals and 59 points in 68 games, good for second on the Armada in scoring to Fauchon, who was then his teammate. In November, while playing against his peers at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge, Carbonneau was a standout and registered two points in two games. NHL Central Scouting's report reads as follows: '(Carbonneau) has shown that he is a natural goal scorer with an excellent shot release. He is also a threat offensively as a playmaker, showing a ton of poise and deception with the puck. Impacting the game in so many ways. His compete level is high and will finish checks whenever possible. His skating has continued to improve; he can generate good speed and is agile on his edges in tight areas. A confident player who wants the puck on his stick and tries to make a difference every shift he's out on the ice. His size, grit, goal scoring and overall puck skill make him an attractive prospect.' Advertisement His skating has improved because he has put the time in with his skating coach, Barb Underhill. He has also worked at it with his strength and conditioning coach, Jean-Philippe Riopel, whom he will train with three to four days a week for a fourth offseason in a row this summer. Riopel said Carbonneau has always been big for his age, and they've focused on adding speed and agility to the power that he has had since a very early age. When he first started working with him back in 2022, Carbonneau was already in the 'top tier' from a power standpoint, but he was average from a speed and agility standpoint. 'He was always stronger than other players. (And) because naturally big guys are not faster guys, he has to improve his speed. But when we compare him to other guys who played in the NHL when they were the same age, he's in the average of those guys,' Riopel said, suggesting that all of the future NHLers he has trained have been advanced physically. When those who know him best talk about Carbonneau, they all talk about a person who is physically and mentally mature, and a player with the full package of strength, goal scoring, skill and work ethic. 'He's the type of guy that anything that has to do with a rush, or a broken play, or in tight, he's going to create something out of nothing. He's really a high-end player that way,' said Turcotte. Skills and shooting coach Maxim Noreau talks first about his dedication and desire to get better. Noreau worked with him through the Armada this season, but whenever Carbonneau has had a window in his busy schedule, he has reached out to Noreau to set up extra skates, making the three-hour one-way drive from his home in Quebec City to get on the ice with Noreau in Montreal. During those skates, Carbonneau is constantly asking him for things that he can take home to work on, too. Advertisement 'He's a great kid. He's not this arrogant guy who is like 'Hey, I scored 40 goals in junior, I'm sick,'' Noreau said on a recent call. 'I'm known for my shot as a player and get hired a lot in development to work on shooting techniques, but I always tell him, 'Look at my shot, you see my shot? I had six NHL games and I got zero points, so if you think you're going to rely on something like that, it's not enough. You've got to be a package. And I think Justin understands that.' Development coach Yannick Tremblay, who is entering his fifth summer working with Carbonneau and has worked with players such as Thomas Chabot, David Savard, Mavrik Bourque and Tristan Luneau, says he has always been 'the same driven type of player.' At an early age, the first thing Tremblay noticed about Carbonneau was his attention to detail and his proactiveness in trying to learn how to do things right. Whenever he has needed technical or physical work on a specific tool, habit or trait over the years, he would fully commit himself to going after it. He has always been 'very physically capable compared to his age group,' too, according to Tremblay. On the ice, he was also always a natural shooter. 'His shooting was always something that was visible,' Tremblay said. 'His way to create power on the ice for his shot was really noticeable.' Over time, he has gotten quicker, in more ways than one. 'From the start, he wanted to be quicker and faster. He was more of a power type of player. Now I think he's more capable of being quick,' Tremblay said. 'He has always had really good stickhandling skills. But his execution capacity was dropping a bit in different contexts and that's what we worked on. If you look at top players, they can really generate speed when they need to, but in close areas they also have the same stickhandling, or shooting, or passing ability. And that's what we've worked on, to be as efficient as possible and to go from generating speed out of the zone to maybe quickly stopping on a dime and then going back again to creating speed with power. Getting as automatic as possible to have his body in the right position and right posture at all times without him thinking about it.' After putting in that work, Tremblay wasn't surprised by the season Carbonneau had, or by the long list of highlight reel plays he made in his draft year. 36 and counting for Justin Carbonneau! 🚨 #QMJHL | @ArmadaBLB — QMJHL (@QMJHL) February 14, 2025 'It was only a matter of time for him to find a way to use his skills,' Tremblay said. 'There was never such and such flaw that was pulling him away from getting results. It wasn't that. But the years prior, I thought he could have done better, without telling him that. Because I can see his capacity to execute whatever he needs to execute. Really, I'm creating drills and things for him that are really hard to execute well, and when I see that he can execute that, I'm pretty confident that he can do it in a game. So I'm not so surprised to see him do it.' Ahead of the draft, when NHL scouts have called Riopel to ask him about Carbonneau, they've had two common questions. The first is 'Is he maxed out physically or can he still get bigger and stronger?' The answer to that one is no, he's not maxed out, and yes, he does still have room to get bigger and stronger. Advertisement 'At this time of his development, he's at a good point and in a good situation,' Riopel said. 'He has a good balance between agility and power, so that's why he's so interesting for NHL teams.' The second is usually about the person, with some feeling as though he comes across a little cocky. Riopel has pushed back on that, telling them they said the same thing about his client Thomas Chabot when he was a teenager. 'When you know him he's a shy guy, he's a smart guy, he's a guy who has a lot of questions about what we're doing and why we're doing it, and one thing I love is he has questions of 'How can I improve that thing to be better?' So, for me, that's a big difference between him and other hockey players. I had this discussion with another scout last week, and he has a really good mindset about how to be better. He knows he can be better, and he questions a lot about how he can improve,' Riopel said. 'People have said 'Oh, he's cocky' but I think he's really confident. He knows what he can do and he knows what he has to do. Some of those athletes are shy and confident in their abilities and possibilities. And to some people that looks like cockiness but no, it's not that. Justin is a special guy for that.' Ask Carbonneau to describe himself, and he starts first with the word 'competitive' and credits his father, Pascal (a portfolio manager), his mother, Audrey (an HR manager), and his brother Jeremie (who played hockey at Cégep de Lévis) as influences. Nicknamed 'Carbo,' he's interested in studying finance and administration outside of hockey. He recently also switched agents, joining Wasserman vice president Olivier Fortier (formerly Momentum Hockey). Rumors of potential college interest followed, but neither he nor Fortier wanted to talk about them right now, preferring to focus on a big week at the combine. Ask Carbonneau about his game, and he calls himself 'an offensive power forward' who has 'speed, a good shot, can score goals, can make plays and can make some hits and take some hits.' Advertisement Ask him if he expected to have the season he had — to flirt with scoring 50 goals — and he says, 'You can't expect things.' Ask him about the combine this week, and that quiet confidence Riopel talks about comes out. He's interviewing with 26 teams, and by 4 p.m. on Tuesday, he'd already finished about half of them and was nonchalant about the process. 'To be honest, I know there's a lot of people that talk a lot about the combine and all this stress and all that but it's normal because it's a big opportunity, and to be honest, it's an opportunity I've been waiting for my whole life,' Carbonneau said. 'Everything you do here, you can work on so good or bad, I'll keep working on it, and I'll get better. This is where you really get better. The gym and the ice come together.' He feels like he's prepared for the testing, too. 'I've always been a strong kid, but JP helped me get more explosive, get more speed. He pushed me to the next level,' he said. After the combine's over, his focus will return to continuing to improve his skating. 'I'll keep improving my skating the next few days, next few weeks, next few months. My short-term goal is to keep improving my skating. I think I've taken a step, but the next level is faster, so I just have to keep improving that part of my game,' he said. 'For me, last summer with Yannick and JP, it was just work as hard as I could every single day to try to be better, and better, and better. It was really one day at a time, and it worked, so I'll keep doing it with those good people.'

Meet Jack Murtagh: 2025 NHL Draft prospect, lover of scoring goals, ‘gamer' and ‘freak athlete'

New York Times

26-04-2025

Sport
New York Times

Meet Jack Murtagh: 2025 NHL Draft prospect, lover of scoring goals, ‘gamer' and ‘freak athlete'

FRISCO, Tex. — The first word Shayne Stockton uses to describe Jack Murtagh is 'gamer.' In his two seasons coaching Murtagh with the Bishop Kearney Selects' U14 and U15 teams, Murtagh was the kid he always knew he could turn to when the team needed something. 'In the biggest moments Jack came up big almost every time, whether we needed a goal or whatever,' Stockton said on a recent phone call. 'Our schedule was absurd and we played the big dogs every night and Jack just brought it. He had some big, big time goals for us.' Advertisement He was also the kid who kept the room light, and made sure everyone was having fun. But it's the gamer in him that Stockton will always come back to when people call to ask about Murtagh. He's not alone, either. Two years after leaving Bishop Kearney, Greg Moore, Murtagh's head coach at USA Hockey's NTDP, talks about him in the same way. Off the ice, he's a fun-loving guy who Moore said 'has been really awesome getting to know (and) the team really gravitates around his personality.' But on it, he's still that gamer and still scoring big goals for a team that needs it. That team is the 2007 age group at the program, a talked-about-amongst-scouts down year for USA Hockey that doesn't have the typical top-of-the-draft talent that James Hagens represented for its 2006s, and Will Smith, Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault represented for its 2005s, and Logan Cooley and Cutter Gauthier represented for its 2004s, and on and on. In the absence of that, Murtagh has become one of their top players. Earlier this year, when they needed a big goal against the Swedes in the opening game of the fall Five Nations tournament, he scored two in a 3-2 win, including the overtime winner. At the CHL USA Prospects Challenge in November, he scored two of USA's three goals across the two games there as well, and was the only player in the event who scored twice for either team. When NHL Central Scouting released its final ranking for the 2025 NHL Draft class in early April, he ranked 30th among North American skaters. Entering U18 worlds in Texas, he'd registered 20 goals and 46 points in 47 games. His seven power-play goals and 138 shots on goal both led the team as well, despite missing 10 of their games due to an early-season injury. Advertisement After picking up an assist on the empty-netter in USA's tournament-opening 4-2 win over Czechia, he scored the first goal of the game against Switzerland on Thursday just 1:13 in, set up the 3-0 goal with a drive of speed into the offensive zone, and then hit linemate Cole McKinney backdoor for a third point of the game and fourth point through two games. 'Jack is a pure goal scorer with a love and passion for scoring goals. It has been interesting as of late to watch Ovechkin do his thing and become the all-time leading goal scorer. And I'm not trying to connect dots and project that he's going to be an Alexander Ovechkin but just in terms of the psychology of the passion of scoring goals, he has that in his nature,' Moore said. THE SHOT 📸 >> the shot 🏒#USHL #FallClassic #Hockey #USAHockey #USNTDP — FloHockey (@FloHockey) September 22, 2024 Murtagh said that love for scoring goals started as far back as he can remember in games of basement knee hockey with his brother Michael, who plays at UConn and is three years older than him. 'I love to celebrate. I love to score,' he said with a smile. 'I think it's just the excitement. It's a good urge to have and I just love doing it.' According to Moore and NTDP strength and conditioning coach Joe Meloni, he's got the natural ability and athletic gifts to be a college goal scorer (he's committed to Boston University for next season) and then a scoring winger in the NHL, too. NHL Central Scouting have his official listing at 6-foot-0.75 and 200 pounds and Meloni describes him as 'a big boy' and 'just a freak athlete' who is one of their team leaders in all of their testing metrics in the gym, GVN, at the program. 'He's one of those kids that was just born that way,' Meloni said. 'He's really solid. He has a lot of natural talent with his physical capabilities. He's fast and he's powerful.' Advertisement Murtagh said he has enjoyed the gym since he really started getting into it back in his Bishop Kearney days. 'We're in the gym every day with the NTDP and you've got to enjoy it to love,' Murtagh said. 'And I'm the kind of kid that just wants to work harder and get 1 percent better every single day.' On the ice, though Meloni said there are times when they think he can be more resilient through contact and really impose his physical will more, Moore said his strength 'allows him to win 50/50 puck battles, outmuscle guys, (have a) quick explosive couple strides to win pucks or get to the touch first, (and) allows him in open ice to separate himself from defenders and take advantage of ice in front of him.' It also gives that shot of his more pop than his peers. 'He has a powerful shot. He can really sling it. That's legs, that's core, that's upper body. He puts his entire body into his shot,' Moore said. 'He's a powerful skater. He can separate himself in wide ice, he can get to the net. There's a lot there.' He's more than just his strength, skating and shot, too, according to Moore. 'I think he thinks off of the puck really well offensively,' Moore said. 'He can play give-and-go hockey, which I don't think a lot of people recognize in his game. It's subtle but it's there and it's a really important piece to project as a strong NHL prospect.' There's still room for growth in his game as well, and Murtagh is excited to get to work on it with his skills coach Peter MacArthur (who's also the head coach of the ECHL's Adirondack Thunder) in their offseason skates in Glens Falls, N.Y. 'Much like all of these guys at this age, it's consistency and details and habits and the defensive side of the puck,' Moore said of his areas of focus. 'When he's on and he's choosing to do those things, he's a really impactful player for us, but like a lot of kids this age, it's finding the consistency in all of those team habits.' Advertisement Both Moore and Meloni point out that despite his physical maturity, he's also one of the younger players in the draft, with an Aug. 22, 2007, birthday that was just three weeks shy of being eligible for the 2026 draft. Given his age and the lost time at the start of his draft year, Murtagh is proud of his season and happy with the way his game is trending. 'I think I've had a pretty solid year and I still have a lot more to give at this tournament and prove,' he said. 'I'm a north-south winger who likes to shoot the puck and create offence and have a workhorse mentality.' Stockton expects him to continue to prove it up levels, too. 'He can switch the game at any point in time with his ability, his strong skating, his really good shot, or his breakaway speed,' Stockton said. 'It's not a shock to see his success at the NTDP and there's more success to come.' Photos: Rena Laverty / USA Hockey's NTDP

Latest news with #CHLUSAProspectsChallenge

Calgary & Lethbridge to be host cities for the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge

Calgary & Lethbridge to be host cities for the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge

Top 2025 NHL Draft prospect Justin Carbonneau blends power with skill and scoring

Meet Jack Murtagh: 2025 NHL Draft prospect, lover of scoring goals, ‘gamer' and ‘freak athlete'

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