Tony Ferrari

I watched a ton of OHL hockey.

I watched the NTDP on a regular basis.

I'm seeing these guys up close and personal and it's just not where it was, right?

The guys at the end of the day, like a Liam Green tree on the Windsor Spitfires, uh,

He's kind of the anomaly.

He's the 20-year-old that's a high-end player that's still playing in the CHL.

A lot of these guys are signing entry-level contracts, going to play in the AHL, or they're joining a team in the NCAA.

We're not seeing that dominant 20-year-old anymore.

We're seeing all those guys kind of move up to the NHL and play bit roles.

At the end of the day, think about it with Zane Burak.

He's a guy that could have easily been in the OHL this year, absolutely courting everybody.

But the Calgary Flames went, we don't want to see that for a third, fourth year in a row.

So we're going to put you in the NHL, even though we don't have that AHL option.

And now with the possibility of AHL teams having the ability to have one 19 year old from the CHL going forward, we're going to see even less of that.

So it's going to be interesting to see how the CHL in general adapts over time, because I think it's going to be go from a league that's,

primarily focused on the 18 to 20 year olds to a league that's primarily focused on the 17 and 18 year olds really pushing play so if if that reality comes into fruition let's say a year from now two years from now who are the guys you're looking at that maybe get dinged for that outcome i don't love saying it but i think a guy like club is a perfect example i think he's a guy that hasn't had his

draft stock's super super inflated but the one guy i look at this year that kind of sticks out is caleb malhotra and i think he's a very good player and i always have to preface this because whenever you're talking about a negative or you're talking about this guy might not work out you you kind of feel bad about it but the reality is this is a player that's incredibly good like he deserves to be drafted high in the first round and if he doesn't end up being a top line center i'm

Part of that's because we don't have centers in this draft class, so teams are grasping at straws because centers are extremely valuable.

And the other part is the CHL is a little bit worse than it has been in recent years.

So when Caleb Malhotra has the kind of season he's had, the kind of playoffs he's had, which has been absolutely fantastic,