Cozens near top of ‘Players to Watch’ list

Lethbridge Hurricanes’ Dylan Cozens leads a strong list of Western Hockey League players as NHL Central Scouting issued its preliminary “Players to Watch” list for the 2019 NHL Draft on Monday.

A total of 35 players from the WHL made the grade, led by Cozens, who is in a three-way tie for the WHL scoring lead with 10 points, including five goals, through four games.

NHL Central Scouting identifies players with a rating system that includes four categories. The ‘A’ rating indicates a first-round candidate, a ‘B’ rating indicates a second- or third-round candidate, and a ‘C’ rating indicates a fourth-, fifth-, or sixth-round candidate.

Hurricanes teammate Logan Barlage also made the list with a ‘C’ rating.

Also making the top grade were forwards Kirby Dach (Fort Saskatchewan/Saskatoon Blades), Nolan Foote (Engelwood, Colo./Kelowna Rockets), Peyton Krebs (Okotoks/Kootenay Ice), and Josh Williams (Langley, B.C./Medicine Hat Tigers). Making the top grade as defencemen were former Lethbridge Val Matteotti Golden Hawk Bowen Byram (Cranbrook, B.C./Vancouver Giants) and Matthew Robertson (Sherwood Park/Edmonton Oil Kings). All seven players who earned ‘A’ grades helped lead Hockey Canada to a golden performance at the 2018 Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August.

In total, 19 of 22 WHL teams are represented in the “Players to Watch” list. The Kelowna Rockets lead all WHL clubs with five players on this year’s initial list, followed by four for the league-leading Edmonton Oil Kings. The Saskatoon Blades have three while the Everett Silvertips, Lethbridge Hurricanes, Portland Winterhawks, Red Deer Rebels, Regina Pats, Seattle Thunderbirds, and Vancouver Giants each have a pair of players named to the list. Nine WHL teams have a single player ranked on the list.