The next wave of great players are at the OHL Cup

I’ve been shooting at the OHL Cup tournament this week at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga.

If you’ve never heard of it, the OHL Cup is the championship tournament for minor midget hockey players (15 year olds that are eligible for the OHL draft in May) and it’s usually a sneak peek at the next players that will be making headlines in the OHL and then the NHL.

Every year, there is a hotshot that has all of the scouts talking. Three years ago, it was Steven Stamkos from the Markham Waxers. The year before that, it was John Tavares with the Toronto Marlies. All four of the Staal brothers have come through the tournament as has Corey Perry, Sam Gagner and Drew Doughty.

This year, the kid making the most noise is a slick centre named Daniel Catenacci. He plays for the York Simcoe Express and while the team was named long before Catenacci came along, Express is a fitting description of their captain. He has “another gear” which is what the scouts say about a player that can find an extra burst of speed to create a scoring chance.

Catenacci had the stands buzzing when he scored the team’s first goal of the tournament in a win over the Jr. Canadiens on Wednesday afternoon. He was sandwiched between a pair of defenders when he picked up a pass at the blueline, blew past one of them and then carved his way by the other to break in alone on the net. He saved his best move for the goalie, roofing a backhander that tied the score at one. He scored again on a powerplay in the opening seconds of the third period and that goal held up as the game-winner.

The stands were full of OHL scouts and general managers - including Dale Hunter from the London Knights and Kingston Frontenacs’ coach Doug Gilmour. Every one of them was salivating at the prospect of having Catenacci fill one of their uniforms next season.

This group of prospects - known as the ‘93’s because of their birth year - has other highlights.

Alan Quine from the Jr. Canadiens also stood out in that game and Boone Jenner from the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs also has top-end talent. Catenacci’s teammate, defenceman Ryan Murphy, has tremendous vision and has drawn favourable comparisons to Windsor Spitfires’ star Ryan Ellis.

These guys will all go in the first round of the OHL Priority Selection. Last year, John McFarland dominated the tournament headlines and led the Jr. Canadiens to the championship. He went first overall to the Sudbury Wolves last year and after a productive rookie campaign, he is poised to break out as a star and top-end NHL prospect next season.

Give Catenacci a couple of years and he’ll be the talk of the rink again - next time as a future NHL star.

You can follow the tournament online at http://www.ontariohockeyleague.com/ohl-cup-news-s10858

The lighting at Rink 2 in the Hershey Centre isn't great so it was tough to shoot any faster than 1/500. The Catenaccie shot at the top was at ISO 2500, 1/500th at f2. Shot with Nikon D700 with a 200mm f2 up in the stands over the glass. The main bowl has some better options and the one below of Andrew Fritsch of the Brantford 99ers was shot from the end of one of the team benches. D700 again but 1/800 at f2 and ISO 2000.