The 2023 OHL Cup starts on Tuesday, as the 54th annual tournament looks to crown the top team in Ontario youth hockey. Fifteen teams have already secured spots in the round of pool play. Ten more teams look to play their way in via Wild Card matchups. Here’s how the tournament stacks up so far:
| GTHL #1 Toronto Marlboros #2 Toronto Jr. Canadiens #3 Mississauga Senators #4 Mississauga Rebels | OMHA #1 Peterborough Petes #2 Southern Tier Admirals #3 Halton Hurricanes #4 York-Simcoe Express |
| ALLIANCE #1 London Jr. Knights #2 Huron-Perth Lakers #3 Waterloo Wolves #4 Sun County Panthers | HNO Representative Thunder Bay Kings NOHA Representative Team NOHA U.S. Representative TPH Hockey |
With 15 of the 20 spots for pool play already awarded to the teams listed above. The final five spots will be determined on Tuesday through Wild Card matchups. The winning team from each of the games below will advance to the next round.
Tuesday March 28, 2023
WC 1, 5:45pm – Ajax-Pickering Raiders vs. Toronto Young Nationals
WC 2, 7:15pm – Barrie Jr. Colts vs. Lambton Jr. Sting
WC 3, 7:30pm – Hamilton Jr. Bulldogs vs. Vaughan Kings
WC 4, 9:00pm – Burlington Eagles vs. Don Mills Flyers
WC 5, 9:15pm – Whitby Wildcats vs. Central Ontario Wolves
Pool play is slated to begin on Wednesday. The 20 remaining teams will be split into four groups of five. They will compete in four round-robin games on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Then, the top two teams from each of the four groups will advance and be seeded for an eight-team, single-elimination playoff. These are the groupings pre-Wild Card games.
| SHANAHAN DIVISION #2 GTHL Toronto Jr. Canadiens #4 OMHA York-Simcoe Express #4 ALLIANCE Sun County Panthers HNO Thunder Bay Kings Wild Card TBD | NASH DIVISION #1 GTHL Toronto Marlboros #2 ALLIANCE Huron-Perth Lakers #3 OMHA Halton Hurricanes US TPH Hockey Wild Card TBD |
| LINDROS DIVISION #1 OMHA Peterborough Petes #3 ALLIANCE Waterloo Wolves #4 GTHL Mississauga Rebels NOHA Team NOHA Wild Card TBD | SUBBAN DIVISION #1 ALLIANCE London Jr. Knights #2 OMHA Southern Tier Admirals #3 GTHL Mississauga Senators Wild Card TBD Wild Card TBD |
Expect all three league champions London Jr. Knights, Toronto Marlboros and Peterborough Petes to advance out of pool play. The Toronto Jr. Canadiens can be seen as an early favorite to come out of the Shanahan Division as well. With only eight teams advancing to the playoffs, a lot is still left to be determined in the next four days at Scotiabank Pond.
The top nine teams ranked in the Top 10 in Canada will be in Toronto competing for the 2023 OHL Cup. William Moore and the No. 1 Toronto Marlboros are at the forefront, coming in as champions of the GTHL. Highly-touted prospect Ryan Roobroeck brings the No. 4 London Jr. Knights into action as well. Plus, Kaiden Harmon’s triple overtime goal pushed the No. 2 Peterborough Petes into top position of the OMHA as well.
A couple early matchups to pay attention to is when No. 6 Halton Hurricanes take on the top-ranked Marlies on Thursday night. Another Top-10 tilt takes place prior to that, with No. 3 York-Simcoe Express taking on the No. 5 Toronto Jr. Canadiens at 4 p.m. EST. The No. 8 Mississauga Rebels will get a shot at the higher ranked Petes on Friday afternoon.
The Subban Division, despite still having two spots yet to be decided, is the only division with three ranked teams in the grouping. The aforementioned Jr. Knights are joined by the No. 7 Mississauga Senators and No. 9 Southern Tier Admirals. All three will take the ice against each other in Thursday-Friday matchups, that could potentially determine which two will advance out of the group.
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On March 14th, forty-five of the top American hockey players from the 2007 birth year were announced as invitees to USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (USNTDP) evaluation camp. The camp, which will help select the 2023-24 U.S. National Under-17 team, is currently underway and will run through March 22nd at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan. All games are open to the public.
Participating players will be split into two teams and participate in on-ice practices, off-ice training and games. Click HERE for the full roster and game schedule.
Per USA Hockey, the invitees represent 17 different states, including Minnesota (12), New York (6), California (5), Michigan (4), Illinois (3), Massachusetts (2), North Dakota (2), Pennsylvania (2), Alaska (1), Arizona (1), Colorado (1), Connecticut (1), Florida (1), Maine (1), Maryland (1), Washington (1) and Wisconsin (1).
30 of the camp’s invitees have been playing their 2022-23 seasons on various U.S. and Canadian teams Ranked among the Top 10 in their respective countries.
A majority of these invitees will continue their ’22-23 seasons following the camp, with their clubs competing in 2023 USA Hockey Nationals.
The camp will run through March 22nd, with final selections to follow. To stay up to date on this camp, as well as more coverage of the top teams and top players in youth hockey be sure to follow WHH on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, Discord and YouTube!
On Wednesday, the Top 10 finalists for the 2023 Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the top U.S. college hockey player, were announced. Two of the nominees — Devon Levi and Yaniv Perets — were goaltenders who both spent time together with the Lions Lac St-Louis during their youth hockey days. It is the second time both players have been nominated for the Hobey Baker, with their first nominations coming last year.
Levi and Perets are natives of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec, Canada. While Perets is a year older, the two shared goaltending duties during the 2014-15 season in Quebec’s M15 AAA Elite league. Together, they went 27-15-5 with two shutouts, combining to allow 2.40 goals against for the Lions.
They backstopped a Lac St-Louis team that also featured 2018 second-round NHL Draft pick Gabriel Fortier.
Perets, who played in 20 games during that season according to Elite Prospects, won 13 games with a 1.90 goals-against average. Levi won seven games and posted a 2.37 goals-against average in 12 games. The Lions went on to finish second in the region and third overall in the province that season. Levi played four more seasons for Lac St-Louis before playing junior hockey in the CCHL. Perets played one more season of youth hockey before spending the next four seasons between the CCHL, NCDC and BCHL. Both entered the 2020-21 seasons as college freshmen before coming into starting roles for their respective schools last season.
The two have not only been linked for the Hobey Baker, but are also semifinalists for the 2023 Mike Richter Award, awarded to the top goaltender in NCAA Division 1 hockey since 2014. Levi won the award last year, with Perets named as a finalist.
Perets is currently in the middle of his sophomore season with the Quinnipiac Bobcats, who play in the ECAC. He picked up where he left off last season, compiling a stellar 30-3-3 record, with a 1.52 goals-against average, .927 save percentage and nine shutouts. On March 10th, he recorded his 20th career shutout, setting a new ECAC record. Doing so in his 68th career game, it also set a new mark for fastest games to reach 20 shutouts, breaking Ryan Miller’s previous mark of 69 games.
Levi has been just as reliant between the pipes for the Northeastern Huskies in Hockey East. After an injury sidelined him for his freshman year, he burst onto the scene last season and has certainly made up for lost time. This season, Levi has gone 17-12-5, with a 2.24 goals-against average, .933 save percentage and six shutouts. He also backstopped the Huskies to their eighth Beanpot championship earlier this year against Harvard University, coming up with crucial stops in the shootout. Levi was awarded tournament MVP honors as well as the Eberle Trophy, given to the Beanpot’s best overall goaltender.
.@GoNUmhockey takes the Beanpot in a shootout!!! #NCAAHockey pic.twitter.com/k4oFWQQxSn
— NCAA Ice Hockey (@NCAAIceHockey) February 14, 2023
Northeastern’s season is over after a 2-1 overtime loss to Providence College in the Hockey East playoffs. Perets and the Bobcats are preparing for the next stage of the ECAC playoffs, taking place this weekend in Lake Placid, New York. As one of the top nationally ranked teams in the country for the majority of this year, the Bobcats are likely to qualify for the national tournament, regardless of the outcome at ECAC playoffs.
The pair has remained close friends since their youth hockey days in Quebec and even train together during the offseason.
Here is a full list of the 2023 Hobey Baker Top 10 finalists and their youth hockey ties.
Logan Cooley – University of Minnesota
Adam Fantilli – University of Michigan
Sean Farrell – Harvard University
Collin Graf – Quinnipiac University
Lane Hutson – Boston University
Matthew Knies – University of Minnesota
Devon Levi – Northeastern University
Yaniv Perets – Quinnipiac University
Blake Pietila – Michigan Tech University
Jason Polin – Western Michigan University
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On Wednesday, USA Hockey unveiled the groupings, schedule and information regarding the 2023 national championships. In doing so, the four at-large teams for each of the 14U, 15O and 16U tournaments were announced, finalizing the field of 16 teams at each age level. Additionally, the groupings for each of the 16 teams were released, accompanied by complete pool-play schedules.
All three age groups will get underway on March 29th, with championship games taking place on April 3rd. The 14U age group will compete in Plymouth, Michigan, while the 15O age group will compete in Wayne, New Jersey. Both the 16U and 18U age groups will bein San Jose, California.
Nine of the Top 10 teams in the U.S. will be in Michigan for the 14U USA Hockey Nationals. Preliminary-round groupings include No. 1 Shattuck-St. Mary’s sharing the USA Pool with No. 4 Dallas Stars Elite. The two teams have yet to meet this season, and will clash for the first time on the second day of the tournament at 10:30 a.m. They’re joined by Little Caesars — who once ranked as high as sixth in the country — and split-season squad Team North Dakota.
The Olympic Pool is loaded with three Top-10 teams, including No. 2 Chicago Mission, No. 5 Bishop Kearney Selects and No. 10 Pittsburgh Vengeance. The fourth and final team is unranked Carolina Jr. Hurricanes, who earned an automatic bid with a Southeastern District championship. Mission won the 14U tournament in 2022. While the ‘07s who brought home gold have graduated to the 15O tournament this year, the 2008s will look to repeat as champions for the program in 2023.
No. 3 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite come in as the highest ranked at-large bid in the tournament. They will be joined by No. 8 Boston Jr. Eagles, and again, two top-ranked teams that have yet to meet this season. Unranked Valley Forge Minutemen and split-season Minnesota Lakers will round out the four teams in the NHL Pool.
The Liberty Pool is highlighted by No. 6 Los Angeles Jr. Kings and No. 7 Mount St. Charles. Those two teams won’t meet until the final day of pool play, and in all likelihood, should determine the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to come out of this group. Unranked Oakland Jr. Grizzlies and Team Wisconsin will have their hands full in this four-team group.
| USA #1 Shattuck-St. Mary’s #4 Dallas Stars Elite Little Caesars Team North Dakota | OLYMPIC #2 Chicago Mission #5 Bishop Kearney Selects #10 Pittsburgh Vengeance Carolina Jr. Hurricanes | NHL #3 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite #8 Boston Jr. Eagles Minnesota Lakers Valley Forge Minutemen | LIBERTY #6 Los Angeles Jr. Kings #7 Mount St. Charles Oakland Jr. Grizzlies Team Wisconsin |
They’ve been the No. 1 ranked team in the country for 18 consecutive weeks. Little Caesars’ reward for their dominance in ‘22-23? Arguably the toughest draw in the tournament. Both No. 8 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite and No. 9 Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers will be looking to take down the giant that’s been Caesars this season. Split-season squad Team North Dakota will have its hands full as the only unranked team in the USA Pool.
No. 3 Chicago Mission comes in as defending national champions of the 2007 birth year. They’re joined by No. 5 Long Island Gulls, Carolina Jr. Hurricanes and Compuware in the Olympic Pool. Mission and Long Island have yet to meet this season, but are set to do so for the first time on the last day of pool play. That game could potentially determine the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to advance to the quarterfinals.
Shattuck-St. Mary’s came up just short in the national championship last season. This ‘07 group has played with something to prove all season long, entering the tournament ranked No. 4 in the country. They’re joined in the NHL Pool by two teams they have already beaten this season in No. 6 Mount St. Charles and unranked Team Wisconsin. The fourth team in the mix is Dallas Stars Elite, who’s just 5-5-0 in their last 10 games.
The Liberty Pool is headlined by No. 2 Bishop Kearney Selects and No. 7 Los Angeles Jr. Kings. They’ve met twice this season, with each team picking up a win over the other. The swing game in the series comes on the final day of pool play, where they’ll likely determine the top two teams advancing to the next round. Unranked Neponset Valley River Rats and New Jersey Rockets will look to disrupt that narrative.
| USA #1 Little Caesars #8 Pittsburgh Penguins Elite #9 Mid-Fairfield Jr. Rangers Team North Dakota | OLYMPIC #3 Little Caesars #5 Long Island Gulls Carolina Jr. Hurricanes Compuware | NHL #4 Shattuck-St. Mary’s #6 Mount St. Charles Dallas Stars Elite Team Wisconsin | LIBERTY #2 Bishop Kearney Selects #7 Los Angeles Jr. Kings Neponset Valley River Rats New Jersey Rockets |
The 2005-born Bishop Kearney Selects won last season’s national championship, and the ‘06s will look to repeat as champions for the program. They come into the Liberty Pool ranked No. 5 in the country, but may not even be the favorite in their own group. No. 3 New Jersey Rockets are ahead of them in the standings. Plus, a pair of West Coast teams look to play spoiler in the Anaheim Jr. Ducks and Phoenix Jr. Coyotes.
Top-ranked Shattuck-St. Mary’s headlines the USA Pool, with No. 8 Chicago Mission and split-season squads Boston Little Bruins and Team North Dakota. Shattuck has been the No. 1 ranked team in the country for 26 consecutive weeks, and will look to go wire-to-wire as the undisputed top team in America. A Friday matchup with Mission may be the only resistance Shattuck sees in pool play. Even then, the Sabres have a 4-0-1 head-to-head record against Chicago and could very easily run the table.
The NHL Pool features No. 6 North Jersey Avalanche and No. 7 Little Caesars. Unranked Cleveland Barons and Seacoast Performance Academy enter the tournament on the heels of automatic bids earned through their respective district playoffs. Caesars enters pool play as the only team with wins over all three of its future opponents, defeating the Avs twice, the Barons twice and splitting with Seacoast.
No. 2 Long Island Gulls, No. 4 Compuware, No. 10 Mount St. Charles and unranked Nashville Jr. Predators make up one of the toughest foursomes in the country in the Olympic Pool. The top three have been among the Top 10 in the country virtually all season. Only Long Island and Mount have played each other this season, clashing four times in close games separated by an average differential of 1.75 goals.
| USA #1 Shattuck-St. Mary’s #8 Chicago Mission Boston Little Bruins Team North Dakota | OLYMPIC #2 Long Island Gulls #4 Compuware #10 Mount St. Charles Nashville Jr. Predators | NHL #6 North Jersey Avalanche #7 Little Caesars Cleveland Barons Seacoast Performance Academy | LIBERTY #3 New Jersey Rockets #5 Bishop Kearney Selects Anaheim Jr. Ducks Phoenix Jr. Coyotes |
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There’s a new club at the top of the ‘07 rankings in Russia, and it’s the first time they’ve been there since Dec. 21st. Following a solid stretch of play that saw them nab victories over No. 3 CSKA Moscow, Atlant Mytishchi and Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, Dynamo Moscow is back as No. 1. Mikhail Melikov, the club’s leading scorer, tallied four points in the 9-1 victory over Atlant. This season, he has produced 27 goals and 47 points.
While Dynamo was a familiar name in the No. 1 spot in Russia, a new team cracked the Top 10 among 2007-born teams in the U.S. With a strong 10-2 victory over Compuware, No. 10 Victory Honda’s offensive outburst gave them enough of a jolt to catapult over the previous spot holder. Braden Wade and Nolan Makinski both notched hat tricks and Luc Plante scored a goal and four assists in a five-point night. The victory also continued a nine-game unbeaten streak for the team, which ended the following day with a 3-2 overtime loss to Fox Motors.
The regular season concluded over the weekend, and with it, brought some movement among Top-10 teams. In these final matchups before playoffs, No. 3 Ilves and No. 5 Jokerit experienced some decent boosts from crucial wins. Ilves got its business done in two matchups versus No. 4 Kärpät, winning by scorers of 13-3 and 4-0. In the 13-goal explosion, seven skaters notched two or more points, led by Jalmari Melanen’s one goal and four assists.
Jokerit put forth a solid team effort in a 4-1 victory over No. 6 Lukko. Aapo Niemelä (2G) and Taavi Aarvala (2A) connected for the final two goals of the game, solidifying both the win and two-point performances.
With strong finishes to group play, both Ilves and Jokerit earned spots in the top four of the overall group standings. As a result, they have earned first round byes in the playoffs, along with No. 2 Tappara and No. 1 Kiekko-Espoo. They will now await the winners from the first round to see who they will open their playoff schedules against.
The opening round of Sweden’s U16 SM-playoffs has come and gone, and No. 3 MoDo Hockey has raised eyebrows with its performance thus far. The power trio of Elton Hermansson (3G, 3A), Vincent Wedin (2G, 4A) and Erik Häggblad (1G, 5A) have lifted their club to new heights. By securing wins over fellow ranked opponents like No. 1 Nacka HK and No. 4 Djurgårdens IF, its position among the country’s elite has been strengthened.
The road doesn’t get any easier, as entering the second round MoDo finds itself in the dreaded ‘group of death’ along with top-ranked Nacka, No. 2 Täby HC and No. 6 Södertälje SK.
Be sure to check out the complete world rankings, including Top 10s by country and World Top 25s for each of the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 birth years.