CAN’T MISS NHL Prospects at the 2025 Memorial Cup

CAN’T MISS NHL Prospects at the 2025 Memorial Cup

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] All right, welcome back to Cherry Big. In today’s video, Babs and I are going to be looking at the most elite prospects to be looking out for at the Memorial Cup. We’ve got four teams in the Mem Cup. All the best junior teams from this season. Medicine Hat, got Monton from the Q, we’ve got London Classic, and then the host Ramusi who’s also in the QMJHL finals against Monton as well. So, it’s kind of deserved to be there as well. one of those years where there’s just not going to be a waxing, which is nice to see. Hopefully. Hopefully. I mean, last year pretty solid with Sagno going into the finals, but there’s loaded tournament, tons of talent here. Uh we’ll start with Medicine Hat and some of the players, two players that are drafted that we will see in the NHL, I think, either next season or in the upcoming seasons. And then we have uh one guy who hasn’t been drafted yet, though, who could be getting drafted, maybe. Let’s start with the two guys that have been drafted. Uh Tanner Mullandike, a guy that was on the world junior team the last two years, didn’t really play two years ago because he was hurt. But this year, a little disappointing along with the rest of the kind of uh team Canada, but very solid uh playoffs for Tanner Mullandike and a guy I think the Predators will be using soon. He’s really fast. The pres need to kind of shake stuff up, so bringing in some younger prospects is probably going to be a a solid a solid idea for them. But he moves the puck really well and that might help them with their um everything struggles. Yeah, just uh being able to being able to move the puck pretty well is obviously very important for an NHL defenseman bats. We all know it’s a it’s a clear point. But this next kid, Kaden Lindström last year, big big uh talking point in the draft going fourth overall the Columbus Blue Jackets despite them knowing that he had a very serious back injury and he was very serious indeed because he didn’t play the entire season. But he’s pretty special. Yeah. No, he’s a guy that’s big, but he moves like he doesn’t like guys his age usually when they’re that large, they tend to like look clunky. He doesn’t have any of that. So, it’s a good spot for him to be in. If he can stay healthy, I think, you know, he’s going to end up being a steal. Yeah. 6’4 center like Don Wedell coming over from Carolina last year. Obviously kind of forecasting for the future here with this Columbus team, even though they were on the cusp of making the playoffs this year. But you look at what uh Lindstöm did in the WHL uh championship. came back, played four games, had two goals, two assists before he got hurt last year, 46 points in 32 games, was on a huge point streak, point streak before he got hurt for the first time in December last season as well. So, I think he’s going to have a huge impact and I feel like a guy like this will have a huge impact on a tournament like this because the size difference like makes it makes a huge difference when you’re playing against uh like 17 18 year olds that are that are all there, right? So, yeah, can’t say anything else about that. That’s on point. Bryce Pikford. Bryce Pickford, yeah, defenseman. Uh he’s ranked actually right at number 100 for North American skaters by central scouting. Uh he’s having a really really good showing. Um and it’s maybe propelling him a bit higher up. These the central scouting rankings come out, but we know once we get into June stuff tends to play its way out. Uh he moves the puck, he shoots well. Um he does need to improve a little bit defensively, but he breaks the puck out, gets the shots on goal, and he’s just been having such a good run recently. And recency bias plays in so much to the draft. Absolutely. We could see him as a late round draft pick, I would have think, but every year guys drop around and he is a little older now. So, a lot a lot of recency bias goes into the draft. We saw it last year. We’ve seen it in many years when you’re looking at the Memorial Cup and this guy had a a brilliant WHL uh playoffs 24 points in 18 games more than Mullandike who is a first over or first round pick. So, uh definitely one of the guys who hasn’t been drafted on medicine hat to look out for. Looking at London, whose team is always stacked, they have the number one defenseman in the tournament. Uh, probably the number one defenseman in junior hockey this year, other than maybe Zayn Perk, but Sam Dickinson, 91 points, led the team in points. 91 points at 55 games. Get the same amount of goals as Eastston Cow. Like, this guy is incredible. Top notch. I don’t think there’s really anything bad you could say about him at this point. No, we watched him play. The only negative that really sits on him, and it sits on all the World Juniors players, is just the production wasn’t there at the international level. Um, but I you can chalk that up to kind of just a horrible team configuration. Uh, we watched him play in person. He he obviously stands out, but a guy of his caliber definitely has to at that point. Um, in the OHL um because he’s, you know, when you start to get to that certain age and you’re trying to decide if this guy’s going to be a guy that can hop over, you kind of start to see that with him. He will 100% be on the Sharks full-time roster next season. Um, and another player that we watched live who I have my doubts about and it’s not just because he’s a lease prospect, but Eastston Cal, this is a big tournament for him because he had a disappointing regular season. Certainly turned it on in the playoffs, but this mem Cup is going to be huge for count. He needs it. He needs a good stepping stone. The Leafs also need guys that are winning and coming in and don’t have the the fear of losing uh because that’s definitely bled into the organization a fair amount. Um the problem with Eastston Cowan and I think the reason why he gets negativity is he is a bit of a disturber and he also had been called especially against Kitchener previously last year for flopping. Um he dove I think it was twice last playoffs when I watched them eliminate the Rangers. So you have to you have to button that stuff up if you’re him. But overall he’s going to he’ll be with the Marlies at least a portion of the year. He’s going to be Toronto’s probably first call up throughout the season but he can’t play bottom six. He has to be a top six guy. So, I think that puts some additional pressure on him because there’s no other role for him to play other than being a scorer. There you go. Simple as simple as that. Yeah, they need someone to fill that top six role. If Mitch Mner does end up leaving, if they end up shaking up, whatever ends up happening with that forward group, uh there could definitely be a role there for Cowan, you know, if he plays well enough or if Greub sees fit. It’s just time will tell, but this tournament could be a stepping stone in that direction. And the last player we’ll talk about who’s already been drafted and a decent prospect and London filled with them. Another guy we’re not going to be talking about, but we could could be mentioning here is Landon Sim. You know, a guy I know you’ve talked about as well, but Casper Halden and Sharks prospect from what I’ve heard and see in this OHL finals. Probably the best shot in junior hockey right now. And what an addition this could be to the Sharks along with Sam Dickinson next year. I’m so excited to watch what he can do in this tournament. Yeah, it’s a good spot for him to be in because he he’s developed these skills. He did well in the AHL this year when he played a few games. He’s actually done okay internationally in Finland had its struggles, but he still was able to stand out. So, I think the this guy might or this guy might be like the like this guy can go. Yeah, you see where like any guy I feel like with like a wicked shot. It just depends how they can contribute in other parts of the game obviously when they get to that next level. But I think he’s the first player in OHL history to have hat-ticks in back-to-back OHL series finals because he had one last year and had one again this year. That I could be mixing up that stat. Something like that. It was something like that. And then the last two guys, two guys that haven’t been drafted yet, and we kind of talked about this before the show, Alexi Medvidev, the goalie here, who had really good numbers when he played in the regular season. But it just seems like Austin Elliott has been getting the starts here due to uh you know experience a little obviously he’s three years older than it’s a winning thing. The one disappointing thing with Mebadev is because we haven’t been able to see him play internationally and I think that’s a big factor with a lot of these Russian players in the draft this year. It’s harder to get that additional read because you get games against other players and start to evaluate the guy against uh more elite competition. But everyone’s still ranking this guy as a top 60 pick at minimum. So, it’s an for a guy who’s currently not playing, he could maybe get games, who knows how the tournament could go, but very interesting to see a guy who’s just not the starter potentially being that high of a draft pick. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like you don’t necessarily see that be the case, but goalies definitely bloom a lot later than you see the rest of these forwards and stuff. You know, you don’t really see too many goalies go in the first round unless they’re already proving to everyone that they can put up numbers. And like to Medvidev’s credit, he has done it. Just sample size is a little small. Um, and the other guy who top 60 prospect, first second round guy, depending on how this playoffs goes probably, but Henry Brushitz, whose player or sorry, excuse me, player brother is a player in the NHL, drafted by the Canucks, uh, now on the Calgary Flames, uh, was moved and I can’t remember the deal, but it was one of the bigger deals. I think it was the Lynhome trade, maybe. Anyway, he was a OHL legend and his brother’s kind of starting to get to that point. Not putting up the same numbers that Hunter put up in Kitchener uh in his first full season in the OHL, but a really solid big defenseman that uh should be able to kind of kind of skyrocket his draft stock at the Memorial Cup. He’s not the same player as his brother. Um but there will be some comparisons made. One thing he does really well, and it’s something you don’t necessarily see out of young talented defenseman, is just being able to get the puck out of your zone under multiple different situations, whether it’s a breakout pass, you’re skating it out yourself, or you’re having to just rip it off the glass. Um, he does this like flawlessly. It’s one of the things that stands out the most with him. I noticed it when we were watching him play is he clears the zone for his team. So, it’s a really good building block to have. You can work on some other stuff, but for him, if he continues to do what he’s doing, he’s going to be a very serviceable shutdown defenseman and a guy that can he can still pass, too. So very very good position for him to be in, especially if he does a little bit of offensive work, it could go a long way in the Memorial Cup final for him. And then the looking at the two teams from Quebec Mhm. and the QMJHL for the most part the last like five or six years definitely fewer higherend prospects coming out of that league. I would say like Alexi Lafrener. Um I think I’m missing some right now, but uh the development in Quebec hockey has been a lot worse over the last 10 years or so. And I think that’s part of the reason why you’re seeing that. But one of the players who is a probably the highest rated prospect in this year’s draft is Caleb Denier on the Monton Wildcats. A guy who I think could see the Senica bump that he got last year after his OHL playoff performance. 30 points in 19 games for Denier on this Monton Wildcats team. Uh he’s everything you want in a center. Honestly, very similar player to Kane Lindstöm. So seeing them go headto-head was going to be great. Yeah. And people describe this guy as raw. So there’s a lot of potential here. So he’s definitely not done developing, but one of the things that stood out is his skating. So he can blow past guys. He’s very good on the rush. He has some pieces he has to work on. But overall, I think again as another larger player who can still move and skate quite well. Um he works on that shot stick handling and everything like that and then he’s going to be an absolute steal for a team that ends up grabbing him up. But yeah, we’ve talked about it every single year and the the queue was kind of starting to dip and you just see it here based on who we’re going to end up talking about is there’s there’s just not the talent available there. Part of that could play into the fact that there was a lot of guys going to play in the USHL and going a different route next season. We actually don’t know how this will all look. So the the CHL league could be a lot more built up. The USHL could be weaker and that would mean more prospects ending up in the queue as a process of that. So very interesting to see which would be very needed for this league right now because as we mentioned there’s Caleb Dunway on Monton. Now there are definitely other great players on Monton. We’re not discrediting that but looking at a player from each team and looking at prospects that could potentially go in the draft. The only other one that we’re looking at in this league on Raooki is their goalie and he’s one of the only reasons why they made it as far as they did in the QMJHL Championship. His numbers were absurd. Yeah, he has a 1.57 goals against average this year and throughout like know throughout the playoffs which is absolutely crazy. Uh and this could be you know if Ramuski wins a game or is competitive there’s a lot of eyeballs on this tournament. Could this be like an audition for this kid? I think yeah basically I think this is audition to probably be drafted next year. So he does really well here. He has a good regular season next year. I think you could set up where he’s going to get an opportunity with goalies. It’s hard and the NHL struggles at this all the time is some guys develop later on in the cycle and they end up you going oh why I’m surprised this guy wasn’t taken and then you start to see it’s just the staging of how it works out and there’s only so many goalender spots. So unfortunately, you know, you have really talented goalies at this level that could deserve a shot, but you only have so many places to place your prospects. So it’s hard to draft them and and you know, some of these guys get taken later and then, you know, they get filtered through the minor system and then sometimes they get their chance eventually and this could happen with Matis Lan in Ramusi is the goalie right now. Try to get that pronunciation, that name out there. I was leaving that one for you. Um, but those are the 10 prospects to look out for. Mhm. Babs, who is your Memorial Cup winner? I’m going to go Monton and just have it be a major upset. Um Dan May has performed really well when he’s played nationally. So, he could quarterback and put, you know, put everybody on his back and just and will them there if he does plays the way that he has at major tournaments before this. And they have uh uh McDonald uh the old New Brunswick coach, UNB coach. Yes, that’s the other reason why I like them. He’s a winner. He wins. I can’t remember. McDonald something. McDonald. I can’t remember his name. Someone will remind us in the comments. Uh I’m going to go with Medicine Hat. Haven’t won a um a Memorial Cup since the 80s. Have had a couple appearances in the early 2000s, but I really like this Medicine Hat team. You also have Gavin McKenna. Obviously, he’s not coming up in this year’s draft, but will be in this video next year when we’re talking about it cuz I could see Medicine Hat being in a very similar position, but would love to see Kitam get some success here. It would be a really cool comeback story. So, that is my pick. Those are the 10 prospects to look out for. If you guys like this style of video, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and please just let us know in the comments what other type of hockey videos and prospect videos you guys want to see.

The 2025 Memorial Cup is here — and on this week’s episode of Cherry Picking, we break down 10 must-watch prospects from this year’s tournament. From top NHL Draft picks to future fan favorites, this is your ultimate Memorial Cup preview.

We cover the best players from the WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers, OHL powerhouse London Knights, QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats, and host team Rimouski Océanic. Whether you’re watching for future NHL stars or just here for the chaos, we’ve got you covered.

🏒 Prospects featured in this episode:

Tanner Molendyk (Nashville) – blazing speed from the Tigers’ blue line
Cayden Lindstrom (Columbus) – big, skilled power forward
Bryce Pickford – breakout WHL defenseman and 2024 draft sleeper
Sam Dickinson (San Jose) – the best defenseman in the Memorial Cup
Easton Cowan (Toronto) – relentless and reliable for London
Kasper Halttunen (San Jose) – elite shot and AHL-tested
Alexei Medvedev – top 60 projected goalie from Russia
Henry Brzustewicz – smart puck mover with NHL bloodlines
Caleb Desnoyers – projected top 10 pick, explosive skater
Mathis Langevin – Rimouski goalie trying to earn a draft spot

We also go over drafted players, team records, and NHL Draft-eligible prospects from each Memorial Cup team, including picks from Nashville, Columbus, San Jose, Toronto, Philadelphia, Calgary, Edmonton, Minnesota, Utah, Anaheim, Vegas, and more.

For more quality sports content,
Subscribe here ➡https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGwW8ULG8P44ImKry22XIxQ?sub_confirmation=1
🔔 Turn on notifications to stay updated with new uploads!

Follow OwnersBox:
Join Our Discord: https://discord.com/invite/Czs98kw
Website: https://ownersbox.com/home/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ownersbox/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ownersbox
Tik Tok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZM8n5ccjY/
Blog: https://blog.ownersbox.com/

Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.