The Toronto Titans Tournament kicks off next week, marking the start of the U16 season and the 2025 OHL Draft calendar. As the nature of the OHL Draft cycle means speaking to a new audience every year and to people who may not be super familiar with my work, I wanted to put together an introduction to get things going. The intent is to get you up to speed on what goes into my coverage, what you can expect to get out of a subscription over the season, and a brief overview of some of the top players on my radar entering the year.
About Me
I don't need to go into too much detail here, but I just wanted to share a quick synopsis of my history in hockey to give you some perspective into the person behind this all. I grew up playing competitive hockey, I certainly wasn't a player on the elite path that these U16 players are on, but I played. AA/AAA tweener who became a solid player in a Tier 2 junior league would be a fair assessment.
Following my playing days, I transitioned into coaching where I was an assistant & video coach with the Ottawa Jr Senators U18 program for six seasons. As this was before the league transitioned back to the current U16 model, this allowed me to work with players eligible for the OHL Draft and gain some insight into how the whole process works.
During the pandemic, I took an interest in the NHL Draft, watching prospects and dipping my toe in the water that is the scouting world. One thing led to another, and I landed at PuckPreps to kickstart their OHL Draft coverage. I started with the 2023 OHL Draft season, so this will be my third season covering the OHL Draft. The final thing I'll add here is that I'm always happy to chat or answer questions, feel free to contact me on Twitter @jordanmalette.
My Process
I'll start with some transparency; with over 50 U16 teams in Ontario to watch, creating an OHL Draft list as a single person is no easy task. There are so many teams to track, players to keep an eye on, and I just do my best to prioritize my time to get to the finish line with a top 100 I am happy to put my name on. For the 2024 OHL Draft season, this meant watching well over 200 games and just shy of 200 individual player views to get to an output I felt good with.
The general plan is at the outset of the year, I try to watch all teams as equally as possible, creating a long list of players I could see as worthy of inclusion in my final top 100. The goal is to build out a watchlist of players that catch my eye, leaving no stone unturned across the many teams, regardless of where they are in the standings. During this period, I am working through all 50 teams and saying yes/no to all of their players to ensure I give everyone a fair shake. Of course, as I can't watch every team 10+ times, there is some level of risk here in my filtering that I miss a player or two, but there's only so much time I can spend before narrowing my focus.
Once I hit the halfway mark, I typically have a list of around 200 players, and I really start to dial my viewings to ramp up my sample size on those I've identified as candidates to land on my top 100. Players have certainly come out of the woodwork in the second half of the year, but my primary goal is watching the right teams and players to add confidence in how I should trim down my long list of players on my watch list down to a final clean 100. All this means I will likely see teams like the Sun County Panthers and the Don Mills Flyers 20+ times and some lower-end teams only 5, but those are the things I need to do to prioritize my time to get to the finish line with as much confidence as possible.
The final caveat here is I am in no way looking to predict what will happen on draft day. Everyone sees things differently, values different elements, and has a different philosophy on how to approach the draft. Teams will value one thing, I will value another thing, and there is just no one right answer in this line of work, so mirroring what happens is never my benchmark. My goal is more to showcase what players I'd be vouching for and at what point in the draft if I had a voice in a team's draft room.
Articles and Rankings
My primary output over the year is reports from the high-profile tournaments: Toronto Titans, Whitby Silver Stick, Marlboros Holiday Classic, and, depending on what teams are in attendance, potentially the Steve Richey Tournament of Champions. These tournaments are the most efficient way for me to see many teams across the province over a weekend, against new teams and, in some cases, tougher competition than their respective league play. My goal for these events is to see every team at least 2-3 times and come away with extensive notes to formulate concrete writeups on how players fared over the tournaments. Here's an example from the Toronto Titans Tournament of what you can expect following a significant tournament, where I outlined all the players that caught my eye from the various GTHL squads.
Outside of the key tournaments, you can expect reports from most league showcases, like the Alliance Face Off, OMHA Crossover, or the HEO OHL Showcases and any All-Star / Top Prospects Game. Between the big tournaments and showcases, I may sneak in a report from league play between teams I may not have seen recently or a marquee matchup, but my main output is certainly around the high-profile tournaments and showcases.
Beginning in November, I'll release preliminary top-20 2025 OHL Draft Rankings. At the start of every subsequent month, this list will be refreshed and expanded to an eventual final top 100 following the OHL Cup. Along with the release of the monthly rankings, an article highlighting the key storylines over the month, any big risers, and new debuts will be shared to summarize my month's work.
Top Players to Watch
From the Port Huron Silver Stick to the OHF Championships and Draft Day Showcase, I've spent a good amount of time getting to know the incoming crop of '09 players eligible for the 2025 OHL Draft. As I only had so much time to give when working on the '08s, my intent with these U15 views was never to be an exhaustive check on every player and team but to start slowly putting the pieces together and building out a list of players to watch entering the year.
I have a long list of 100+ names I could highlight that I've flagged from preliminary views, but I have to draw the line somewhere, and these are the ones I am most confident in as players worthy of consideration on my initial top 20. Looking back to last year, there were a handful of players who weren't really on my radar who started the year in my first round. Players like Tyler Challenger and Ryder Cali weren't on my radar entering the year but opened the year on my initial list after impressive showings at the Toronto Titans Tournament, so there surely is a chance for a repeat this season and someone I don't mention catches my eye and deserves a spot.
Entering the year, I would say Camryn Warren is the favourite to go 1st overall. Warren played up with the U16 North York Rangers last season and was the heart and soul behind a lot of their success, which is a remarkable feat on a top-end GTHL squad. I thought he was more dominant than Adam Valentini was as a U15 playing up an age category, making me very optimistic about his game entering the season. The Jr Canadiens were a top team in the province last season and have since added a top talent like Warren, so I'd expect them to get no shortage of attention this year. Keaton Ardagh and Noah Laus are two other JRC members that I expect to start the year in my top 20, with Jax Pereira a player on my radar as I look ahead to expanding to 40.
If I were making a list today, I would probably start with Jaakko Wycisk in the two slot. At the OHFs and Draft Day Showcase, I would say pretty comfortably he was the best player and just really took over whenever he was on the ice. His puck skills and playmaking are both top-end, all in an impressive package of physical tools, making for a very exciting player. The Sun County Panthers will be one of the top teams this season, with players like Eamon Edgar, Brayden Lappalainen, Alexander Lisi, Eric Wood, and Matthew Mesman all being noteworthy players eligible for the 2025 draft that I have on my watchlist for inclusion at some point in the year.
Beyond Warren and Wycisk, I have a rough idea of players who will start the year within my first round, but in what order is still up in the air. Brock Chitaroni is another who played up an age group last season with the strong Barrie Colts, who had numerous first-round draft picks. It took him a while to get up to speed at that level, but around the halfway mark, he looked confident, fully utilizing his tools to take over the game and be a big part of their offence.
The Don Mills Flyers, who captured the OHF U15 title back in the spring, are another team I fully expect to be a top team in the province. Charlie Murata has been my favourite on that squad, and I imagine he will open the year somewhere within my top 10 when my first list is released. It took a while to fully appreciate his game, but Caden Bell is my favourite defender entering the year and another Flyer who will presumably debut high on my initial list. Add in Tyler Lee, Peter Green, Lincoln Edwards, and Evan Nicholson, and there is no shortage of potential 1st/2nd rounders on this Don Mills squad, making them a must-watch team.
As always, the Toronto Malrboros have several notable players eligible for the 2025 OHL Draft. Whenever I watched the U15 Marlies last season, Cannon Thibodeau and Kingston Harris were my two favourites, and they were always the ones driving most of the play and offence for the Marlboros. I feel pretty confident in these two openings the year somewhere in my top 20, but as for the rest of the Marlies squad, I still need time to get to know them more before stapling them as a top 20-40 prospects. I'm sure some will emerge throughout the Toronto Titans Tournament, but as of now, Thibodeau and Harris are the two I have the most confidence in.
The Toronto Titans are yet another GTHL team with an impressive combination of talent. Jeremy Freeman and Maxime Delisle have been the top two forwards on that squad whenever I've checked them out, and players earmarked for consideration on my initial top 20. Across all my viewings of JRC U15, Brayden Bennett was one of my favourite forwards, so bringing him on board to an already powerful Titans squad is a major addition. And finally, Michael Tang is another name to look out for on the Titans' side, rounding out an impressive core of forward talent.
I would say those are the big five teams with the highest concentration of players on my radar for top 40 picks entering the year. After that, plenty of teams have a duo or a one-off player on my radar. Kaden McGregor (OVT), Ryerson Edgar (YSE) and Gensen Geldart (VK) are a trio that, across every viewing of their strong teams, have been the top performer, making them obvious considerations for a future top 20. Kieran Raynor (NNS) and Johnny McLaughlin (SAR) both looked good last season, playing up with the '08s, earning them places high on my watchlist entering the year. Alexander Forrest (OAK) and Matthew Henderson (HPL) are two defenders I've liked across many viewings and would flag as potential inclusions on my initial top 20.
Every year, I've learned from my process to make improvements for the following year, and this year, the big change I made was spending more time watching the U15 circuit to make life easier come the U16 season. I'm surely not an expert on the class of '09s, but the goal was just to get familiar with some of the top teams and players to have a foundation of the landscape. There are many players I've grown quite optimistic on in the early days of getting to know the class, and I am looking forward to further untangling this puzzle throughout the year.