Connor Bedard will be the star attraction, but If you’re looking for a local point of interest at the 2023 NHL Draft, it could become the Carson and Colby show.
Owen Sound Attack wing Colby Barlow, an Orillia native, is in the midst of an outstanding season and is expected to be a lottery pick in Nashville on June 28. Further down the draft ledger, Kitchener Rangers centre Carson Rehkopf is pegged in the second round when the draft reconvenes the next day.
Rehkopf grew up in Utopia, just outside Barrie. He’s in his second season with the Rangers and recently earned team player of the game honours at the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in Vancouver.
Barlow has staked his claim all season and will likely go in the top 10 of a strong class. While still generally impressed, scouts have more mixed feelings on how Rehkopf projects as a pro.
“I have him somewhere between 30 and 40,” said Kyle Woodlief, chief scout of Redline Report, an independent scouting newsletter based in Lake Placid, N.Y., who counts most of the NHL’s 32 teams as his customers.
“Rehkopf has got a very nice combination of size and skill (and) he’s an even better stickhandler than I realized at first.”
Scouts, a fickle and critical bunch at the best of times, are sometimes left unimpressed by Rehkopf’s consistency and ability to take charge. One scout pointed out that at a recent viewing, he spent “way too much energy” trying to draw a penalty and seemed generally unfocused.
How could Rehkopf squeeze into the first round? Scouts, while pointing out he likely would have in last year’s weaker crop, think it’s possible, but it will take a huge stretch run and perhaps a different approach.
“You just want more from him,” said the scout for an NHL Eastern Conference club. “To be fair, the situation in Kitchener is not the best right now, so that could be having a negative effect. There are times I would just wish he’d bear down and just play.”
Like in Vancouver. Rehkopf scored and added an assist to earn Team White’s top player award. Barlow, who served as captain of that squad, also scored as Team White defeated the Bedard-led Team Red, 4-2.
Through Saturday’s games, Rehkopf has 21 goals and 20 assists in 45 games as the Rangers are hanging precariously to the eighth and final playoff spot in the Ontario Hockey League’s Western Conference. The Rangers’ struggles have come despite loading up at the OHL deadline.
So far, Barlow has 36 goals and 27 assists in 43 games for the Attack, a team that has shown some promise in the crowded Western Conference.
“He’s a classic, modern-day scoring winger,” explained Woodlief. “I expect him to go in the top 10 and I have him there.”
Though they both are local, Barlow (Toronto Marlies) and Rehkopf (Jr. Canadiens) played their final years of minor hockey in the Greater Toronto Hockey League.
Local players Isaak Phillips (Chicago) and Philippe Daoust (Ottawa) were both selected in the NHL Draft three years ago but were taken much later in the process than where Barlow and Rehkopf are expected to go.
A decade ago, local products Zach Nastasiuk (Detroit) and Chris Bigras (Colorado) were both second-rounders. Incidentally, both also played for the Attack, as did Garrett Wilson, who was drafted by the Florida Panthers in 2009.
Though it’s now been 40 years and Barrie (and the draft) was a very different place, Hall of Famer Mike Gartner remains the highest-picked player from the Barrie area. He was selected fourth overall by the Washington Capitals in 1979. Shayne Corson was taken eighth by the Montreal Canadiens in 1984.
Suffice to say, it’s rare to have two players from the local area taken in the same draft and virtually unprecedented for two to be taken in the first round. If their current projection holds, Barlow and Rehkopf will become the highest pair selected in the same draft.
Colts defenceman Beau Akey will also be drafted in June. Akey has flourished this year with more responsibility, especially as the Colts dealt with injuries on the back end and were awaiting word on Brandt Clarke’s status with the Los Angeles Kings.
“Right now, I have him about 60, near the end of the second round,” said Woodlief, “but I can see him moving up and I think he probably will. With those types of offensive skills, it’s (likely) that a team will step up and take him more toward the middle of the second round.”
