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It's a great time to be a hockey fan right now. Playoffs are underway or wrapping up across the country, the excitement is palpable and minor hockey players are leaving it all on the ice for the chance for one more game.

Here at HockeyNow, this is an especially exciting time as we get to witness most of our Player of the Year nominees come out in a big way for their teams. This year’s OHL Cup once again featured a ton of the Ontario players we’ve shortlisted throughout the year. Cole Perfetti, Stephen Halliday and Jamie Drysdale are all featured on this month’s preliminary POY list and all finished in the Top 10 in scoring at the OHL Cup.

Out West, we’ve also seen some big plays from a lot of our nominees for B.C. and Alberta. POY nominee Craig Armstrong and his Airdrie XTreme claimed the provincial AMBHL championship by defeating the St. Albert Sabres after coming out on top of their regional matchup against the Calgary Bisons – a team that includes other March POY shortlisted players Jayden Grubbe, this year’s #1 AMBHL scorer, and Brett Hyland. On Alberta’s school side, POY nominee and expected Top 3 WHL Draft pick Sean Tschigerl led OHA Edmonton to the CSSHL Bantam Prep title with a hat trick in the team’s 6-1 win over Rink Hockey Academy.

They may not have made it to the championship final, but fellow CSSHLers Ryan Guenther (Northern Alberta), Logan Stankoven (Yale), Jake Chiasson (Yale) and Zachary Funk (Yale) are all POY shortlisted players for March who finished alongside Tschigerl in the Top 10 scorers of the regular season.

There’s no question that we’ll hear many of these names at the WHL Bantam Draft in May, which promises to be another huge showing for the CSSHL. Make sure to check out this month’s feature on the start of the CSSHL and how far it’s come in nine short years. We’ve seen some huge talent come out of the league and I can’t wait to see what’s still to come.

Next month, we’ll be turning our attention to the rest of minor hockey and looking at some great new developments coming down the pipe.

In the meantime, we’ll keep watching these POY prospects as we’re only a few short months away from naming winners in B.C., Alberta and Ontario. And of course, we’ll be bringing you lots of great hockey from all ranks as the season winds down and spring hockey gets on deck.
As always, thanks for reading and we’ll see you at the rink!