Over two days in Calgary and Lethbridge, many of the top prospects eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft competed this week in the second annual CHL USA Prospects Challenge.

I was at the Scotiabank Saddledome and VisitLethbridge.com Arena for the pair of games between Team CHL and the U.S. NTDP. So were a league’s worth of scouts. Here are my standouts and disappointments, plus some other takeaways.

Big names disappoint

A year ago at this event, Matthew Schaefer cemented himself as the No. 1 prospect in the 2025 draft class and looked head and shoulders above his peers. This week, that player wasn’t here. If scouts who’ve been critical of Gavin McKenna’s play were looking for one of the bigger names in the CHL to impress them, that didn’t happen this week.

Ethan Belchetz, who has impressed a lot of folks over the course of this season, wasn’t at his best and was moved off the top line after two periods in Game 1. And I don’t think Ryan Roobroeck is even in the “big names” conversation anymore. He hasn’t had a good year in Niagara, frequently leaving scouts wanting him to be more involved, and he was barely noticeable over the two games, and didn’t play much. I wonder if he’s a little banged up, but it’s also become par for the course with him.

Three of the big names on Team CHL’s defense didn’t help their stock, either. Chase Reid and Daxon Rudolph each made a couple of plays but also coughed up a lot of pucks and had some tough moments in their own zone (which is a little uncharacteristic of Rudolph, who typically has more polish than the rawer Reid). Xavier Villeneuve had his moments — including a big one to make it 4-3 on the power play late in Game 2 — but was also scrambly and careless at times over the course of the two games. I did appreciate that he didn’t seem to back down from the fight, though.

I did think the top pair of Carson Carels and Ryan Lin was solid. Carels played his usual firm, hard game. I thought Lin had the strongest series of their big five defensively, though I would have liked to see him make more plays. He’s a smart, competitive, effective player, and was the only CHL D who consistently executed his first pass on the breakout.

There are plenty of scouts who’ve been critical of McKenna’s play this year, but for all of the chatter about his spot at No. 1, there weren’t any challengers in Calgary and Lethbridge this week. I don’t think North Dakota right-shot D Keaton Verhoeff and Muskegon center Tynan Lawrence are first-overall calibre, either, though it was positive to see Lawrence return from injury on Wednesday and have a two-point night. Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg remains closest to McKenna for me, but it’s going to be hard for an organization to step to the stage and call a winger’s name over McKenna’s, with his mainstream fame in the hockey world.

A week to build on for the NTDP

These U18s had won just a handful of games all season coming into this week. Sammy Nelson, who’s in the 2027 class, is viewed as the best NHL prospect. The age group and the program have taken their lumps from scouts and the media. But they picked up their first win of this event in Game 1 and played Team CHL tight in Game 2. They can build on this and use it as a template for how they need to play.

They’ve also been waiting for a player to really step up and become The Guy for them offensively, and Wyatt Cullen has looked like that player through his first seven games of the year with the U18s since returning from injury. He left Game 2 with an injury with five minutes left in the second period, but before that, he looked like their best NHL prospect for 2026 through almost five periods. Victor Plante and Michael Berchild were both noticeable on the puck, with Plante scoring the overtime winner to decide the series, but they’re undersized wingers. Cullen, a Minnesota commit, is one of the youngest players in the draft. He has had a huge growth spurt since arriving at the program and was very noticeable on the puck, cutting laterally and finding inside ice. He looks like a second-rounder for me, and scouts will be watching him closely in the second half, presuming he can stay healthy.

I did think NTDP defenseman Luke Schairer, who has a bullishness to his game but has had some tough outings this season and hasn’t produced, had a positive two games as well. He has some tools, and while his game is very instinctual, he’s a pro prospect.

Giorgos Pantelas struggles

Pantelas, who has had a good year and emerged as a potential late-first candidate for some, didn’t look like a first-rounder this week. He really struggled in both games, both moving pucks out of the defensive zone, defending and moving pucks at the offensive zone blue line. He really struggled to make simple passes under pressure and bobbled a lot of pucks.

The bright spots for Team CHL

I thought captain Caleb Malhotra was Canada’s best player (particularly in the second game, where he was excellent) and that Remparts forward Maddox Dagenais was their most consistent.

Malhotra played with poise, held onto pucks and found his way out of trouble when many of his teammates didn’t on this stage, which I think is usually telling at these events. His line with Adam Novotny and Mathis Preston, which was put together for the third period of Game 1, was the only one that created good looks for long stretches of both games; Preston’s maneuverability on the puck and Novotny’s strength and competitiveness were both largely positive. Malhotra also made some skill plays. Belchetz is still the top forward prospect from this CHL group for the draft despite his quiet two games, but Malhotra looked like the No. 2.

And Dagenais was engaged, went to the net, won board battles and had positive shifts, which NHL scouts know he has in him and wanted to see out of him this week, while also protecting pucks well and showing some skill.

Wanted more from Nikita Klepov and J.P. Hurlbert

Klepov and Hurlbert are among the CHL’s leading scorers this season, and while both had the puck their fair share, I didn’t love them this week.

Hurlbert, who has played both center and wing in Kamloops but much more of the latter over the last two years, played in the middle in both games and on the top power play for Team CHL. While he picked up a couple of points, I thought he was a bit of a non-factor in Game 2 and didn’t like his shift length and decision-making in Game 1.

Klepov was better in Game 2 (he also took a penalty right after I’d complimented a couple of his shifts in my notes) and felt the puck more, but I didn’t like him in the opener. Hurlbert has some big believers and is still trending way up and will be a high pick. Klepov has to establish himself as a first-rounder as a sub-6-foot winger, and I could see him finishing as a late-first/early-second type even with the impressive production.

Reported from Calgary and Lethbridge, Alberta