44 OHL’ers Named On NHL Central Scouting’s Players to Watch List

If you are a fan of the Ontario Hockey League and the National Hockey League Draft is your thing, you might want to wait until day two of the two day event to be held June 21 and 22 from Vancouver, British Columbia.

The 2019 draft is considered to be a strong and deep draft with strength at every position. While it is still very early, the fact that this could be a down year for the OHL as it pertains to the draft is proving to be just that.

Just two OHL’ers, Ryan Suzuki of the Barrie Colts and Arthur Kaliyev of the Hamilton Bulldogs are listed on NHL Central Scouting’s players to watch list as “A prospects.” An A prospect is considered to have first round potential.

It gets slightly better for “B prospects”, typically considered to have second and third round potential. That list includes goaltender Mack Guzda of the Owen Sound Attack, widely considered the top goaltender available from the OHL.

The OHL could be hard pressed to reach the 35 players selected from their league in 2018 and might be closer to the all time low of 31 selected at the 2015 NHL Draft. It’s a far cry from the 56 drafted in 1999. In the past 28 years, on average, 43 players have been drafted from the OHL.

Here are the OHL players listed on Central Scouting list: