For the next mist see summer hockey viewing,after our Development Camp ends:
On August 6th the Hlinka Gretzky Cup Tournament begins ...It used to be the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament held I the Czech Rep....but thus year it will be held in Alberta ...and all games will be televised by TSN in Canada and/or livestreamed on tsn.ca
Do not know if any games will be on mhl network in USA or not ..or if Team USA games streamed by their website or not.
In any case we Canadians are lucky to finally get TV coverage of this important u-18 tournament as it kicks off the scouting year to get more impressions on the talent available for the 2019 draft and maybe a few of the 2020 draft prospects ...most of the kids will be 17 yr Olds or turning 17 before Sept 15th with some younger 16 year olds identified as future stars included too...
Of particular I test to me will be to watch some of the top Centres eligible for the 2019 draft to try to get a better handle on ranking them..it appears to be a much deeper crop of centers than 2018 with a lot likely to go in the first 2 rounds with several of exclkent quality ...of course Jack Hughes is franchise Centre quality ..but several others will go high in round one..
There are several big centres for a change likely to go high in round one and so we gotta be careful on wishing for this great "rebound year " from our Blackhawks cause that could put us out of the running for the rare prizes .There are some good smaller centre's too ..not in the Hughes special category. .but still likely to go later in round one or early round two..But look at it this way. .IF it is another dreadful year from. The Hawks..it will be rewarded if we draft top ten again..we could bet our next top Centre of the future ..If we surprise and draft late round..well we might be looking at WI gers instead of centres or have to pluck another smallish Centre as the big ones with talent will be off the board..
I will post my impressions during the tournament ..
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