Why the 2015 Young Stars Tournament Promises to be Fascinating

Photo Credit: Bill Streicher/USA TODAY Sports

The hype is at an all-time high. Hotels in Penticton, B.C. are booked solid and the tickets have sold at a record-breaking pace for this weekend’s 2015 Young Stars tournament. Always a big event in the Okanagan, Connor McDavid’s NHL debut has caused fan interest to spike even higher than usual.

All 2,000 six-game packages for the event sold out by the end of July. At this point, only a few single-game tickets are still available in the 5,000-seat rink at the South Okanagan Events Centre, while practices are free and open to the public. Penticton’s popular jazz festival also runs over the weekend so hotel, motel and Airbnb availabilities have all dipped to almost zero.

“Ticket sales the last five years have steadily increased,” SOEC marketing direction Carla Seddon told Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal, “but this year with Connor… We were hearing early on from Edmonton fans that they wanted tickets.”

“Connor,” of course, is Connor McDavid—the generational talent captured by the Edmonton Oilers thanks to the winning ping-pong ball at the 2015 draft lottery.

McDavid will make his debut in an Oilers jersey in Penticton—the headliner for a group of high draft picks and blue-chip prospects from all four participating Western Canadian teams.

Here’s a look at the Young Stars to watch in 2015.

Over their 45-year history, the Vancouver Canucks have rarely welcomed high-profile teenagers into their lineups. Most notably, Trevor Linden joined the team as an 18-year-old back in 1988, Cam Neely did it in 1983 and Petr Nedved followed suit in 1990. 

In 2014-15, Bo Horvat became the first teenager to earn a full-time spot with the team since Ryan Kesler did it back in 2003-04. Now, for the second straight year, first-round picks Jake Virtanen and Jared McCann go into this year’s Young Stars tournament in the same situation as Horvat one year ago—19-year-old forwards who are not yet eligible to play in the AHL.

Though the Canucks are already deep at right wing with Radim Vrbata, Alex Burrows, Jannik Hansen and Derek Dorsett, Virtanen in particular will be given every opportunity to follow in Horvat’s footsteps. The abrasive power forward posted 52 points in 50 games with the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen last season and played 10 playoff games with the AHL’s Utica Comets once his junior year was over. He also made his presence felt in Canada’s gold medal turn at the World Junior Championships last January.

After a summer of hard training with a focus on getting leaner and quicker, Virtanen will try to use his time in Penticton to prove that he’d benefit more from sticking with the Canucks than he would from another season in the WHL.

Jared McCann’s odds of avoiding a trip back to the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds are slimmer. A shoulder sprain after a hard hit at Team Canada’s Summer Showcase has slowed his training for the past month, but he is cleared to play in Penticton.

So is Cole Cassels, the Memorial Cup-winner who made waves when he helped shutdown McDavid in the OHL playoffs. Their rematch in Penticton on Friday could be the first chapter of an epic Pacific Division rivalry in the making.

In addition to 18-year-old McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers are bringing a pair of older top prospects to Penticton. Both are expected to make a strong case for inclusion on the club’s opening-night roster.

Chosen seventh overall at the 2013 Entry Draft, Darnell Nurse is a big 20-year-old defenseman who plays a physical style while 2014 third-overall pick Leon Draisaitl, 19, will be shifted from centre to wing as he tries to stick at the NHL level.

Matheson reports that the Oilers’ big guns may play just two of three games in Penticton. The Oilers rookies will face the University of Alberta Golden Bears at Rexall Place on September 16, so the coaching staff will be reluctant to start off their prized prospects with four games in six nights.

Like all teams at Young Stars, Edmonton will likely shuffle its lineup for each game of the tournament. Watch for the Oilers coaches to avoid dressing McDavid, Nurse and Draisaitl in both of the back-to-back contests against Vancouver on Friday night and in the Battle of Alberta against Calgary on Saturday.

Sam Bennett, who is no longer 18-years-old (thank goodness), was so prominent during the Canucks’ first-round loss to the Calgary Flames that it’s easy to forget that he appeared in just one regular season game last season.

Chosen fourth overall in 2014, Bennett is now 19 and still junior eligible. He’ll try to crack the Flames lineup out of training camp this season after missing a good part of last year recovering from shoulder surgery.

Other prominent draft picks who should be on the cusp of competing for NHL jobs include left wings Emile Poirier (chosen 22nd in 2013) and Morgan Klimchuk (chosen 28th in 2013). Cole Cassels’ Oshawa Generals teammate, 6′ 7″ Hunter Smith, was chosen in the second round in 2014 but is coming off of an excellent run at the Memorial Cup tournament and will also be worth following.

The Winnipeg Jets will bring a deep, patiently-constructed pool of prospect talent to their second Young Stars tournament.

Danish sniper Nikolaj Ehlers, 19, will be the man to watch—he’s determined to turn pro after two consecutive 100-plus seasons in the QMJHL.

Ehlers has said that rather than return to junior, “Switzerland is at the top of my list if I’m not going to play in the NHL in the upcoming season,” according to Swiss Hockey News.

Other top Jets prospects will include two-time World Junior alumni Nic Petan and Josh Morrissey as well as two impressive young goaltenders with World Junior experience: Eric Comrie of Canada and Connor Hellebuyck of Team USA.

If you can’t get tickets for the tournament, follow the action via livestream on the teams’ respective websites.