Five North Bay Battalion players have caught the early eye of NHL scouts already this season as the preliminary list of players to watch was released by the National Hockey League central scouting department this week.
Centre Liam Arnsby and defenceman Ty Nelson received B ranks, meaning they are considered to be candidates for selection in the second or third rounds, while goaltender Dom DiVincentiis, defenceman Tnias Mathurin and centre Dalyn Wakely are ranked as C candidates, for the fourth through sixth rounds of the seven-round process.
“It’s always a nice day when your players receive recognition for the hard work that they’ve put in,” said general manager Adam Dennis in a release.
“We’re very happy for our five players and feel that as the season progresses other players’ names could emerge on these lists. For now, there’s much to work on as a group and, if we can build on some of our early-season successes as a team, the individual recognition will continue to come.”
Arnsby, a five-foot-11, 181-pound resident of Ajax, Ont., was North Bay’s first-round pick in the 2019 Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection from the Don Mills Flyers minor midgets. He has two goals and three assists for five points in five games this season after scoring four goals and adding 16 assists for 20 points in 55 games in 2019-20.
The Battalion captain turns 18 on Nov. 20 but, by NHL rules, has to wait until the upcoming draft to be considered for selection. Players are first-time eligible for the NHL draft in the year in which they turn 18, unless they were born Sept. 16 or later, in which case they must wait until the following year.
Nelson, 17 and the first-overall choice in the 2020 Priority Selection from the Toronto Jr. Canadiens, is a five-foot-10, 197-pound Toronto native who has one goal and three assists for four points in five games in his rookie OHL season after the 2020-21 campaign was lost to the coronavirus pandemic.
DiVincentiis, six-foot-two and 181 pounds, is a Bolton, Ont., resident who has played in two games this season, posting a won-lost-extended record of 0-1-0 with a 2.85 goals-against average and an .879 save percentage. The 17-year-old was a sixth-round pick in the 2020 Priority Selection from the Vaughan Kings minor midgets.
Mathurin, a third-round selection in 2020 from the Ajax-Pickering Raiders minor midgets, has three assists in five games and led the OHL in plus-minus at plus-11 through weekend play. The Ajax resident, who turns 18 on Jan. 15, stands six-foot-three and weighs 197 pounds.
Wakely is a Port Hope, Ont., resident who measures six-foot-one and 182 pounds. A second-rounder in the 2020 Priority Selection from the Quinte Red Devils minor midgets, the 17-year-old has one goal and one assist for two points in five games.
Centres Matthew Poitras of the Guelph Storm and Shane Wright of the Kingston Frontenacs are the only OHLers among 23 skaters rated A, as first-round candidates. Sixty-six OHLers, numbering 45 forwards, 16 defencemen and five goaltenders, are among a total of 397 names from North America and Europe.
The London Knights have eight skaters and goaltenders listed, while Guelph and the Sudbury Wolves have six apiece. North Bay and the Niagara IceDogs are next in the OHL with five each.
The 2022 NHL Draft, considered to be the 60th, although its format has changed dramatically since the nominal first in 1963, is scheduled to be held July 7-8 at Montreal.
