Ryder Cali leads five members of the North Bay Battalion who have been named in the ‘Players to Watch’ list announced Monday by the National Hockey League’s central scouting department.

The 2026 NHL Entry Draft may be a very exciting one to follow for North Bay Battalion fans next summer. 

Ryder Cali tops the list of five members of the North Bay Battalion who have been named in the ‘Players to Watch’ list announced Monday by the National Hockey League’s central scouting department.

Left winger Cali is joined by right winger Parker Vaughan, centre Ryder Carey, along with import forwards Evgeny Dubrovtsev and Arseny Pronin on the list prepared in advance of the 2026 NHL Draft, which is to be held at a date to be determined.

Cali received a B rating, projecting him as a second- or third-round candidate, while Vaughan drew a C as a potential fourth- or fifth-rounder. Carey, Dubrovtsev and Pronin were rated W as sixth- or seventh-rounders in the seven-round draft, although those projections do not include Europeans.

The Troops are among 78 Ontario Hockey League skaters listed in addition to 14 goaltenders, part of a group of 233 from across the Canadian Hockey League, which includes the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League and Western Hockey League. The list of players includes 54 OHL forwards and 24 defencemen.

Cali was a first-round pick, 18th overall, by the Soo Greyhounds in the 2024 OHL Priority Selection from the Markham Majors U16s. Acquired in a trade Sept. 13, 2024, he has a team-leading seven goals and two assists for nine points in 11 games this season. The Penetanguishene, Ont., resident turned 17 on Sept. 6.

Vaughan, a 2024 first-rounder, fifth overall, acquired from the Barrie Colts in a trade last Jan. 5, has three assists in 11 games. The St. Thomas, Ont., resident, who was chosen by Barrie from the Elgin Middlesex Canucks U16s, turned 17 on March 6.

Carey, who has been sidelined by injury, has scored two goals and earned one assist for three points in four games. The Battalion took the resident of Millgrove, Ont., in the first round, 16th overall, in 2024 from the Oakville Rangers U16s. He turned 17 on Aug. 2.

Dubrovtsev, a first-round selection in the CHL Import Draft in July, has two goals and three assists for five points in 11 games. A resident of St. Petersburg who turned 17 on March 18, he played last season for SKA Yunior Krasnogorsk in Russia’s Junior Hockey League, or MHL.

Pronin, a native of Minsk, Belarus, who turned 18 on May 16, was a second-rounder in the same Import Draft. He has four goals and one assist for five points in 11 games after playing last season in Russia with the MHL’s Loko-76 Yaroslavl.

Players are first-time eligible for the NHL Draft in the year they turn 18, unless they were born Sept. 16 or later, in which case they must wait until the following year.