Calgary, Lethbridge to showcase top players in Prospects Challenge

By Lethbridge Herald on November 18, 2025.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

Next week’s 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge will see top prospects that are eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft  from the Canadian Hockey League compete against the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program (NTDP) Under-18 Team in a two-game format.

“It’s an absolute premier showcase for the NHL draft,” said Dan MacKenzie, CHL president, in an interview with the Herald on Monday.

“If you’re a hockey fan and you want to see the future of the NHL, this is a pretty good event to get to  to see these guys before they take it to the next level.”

MacKenzie sees the Team CHL coaching staff, which is led by Medicine Hat Tiger head coach Willie Desjardins, putting players together that are the right fit with one another.

“They’re gonna be very good about making sure the right players are playing with each other,” said MacKenzie.

“I think the idea of seeing how quickly the CHL team can jell will be a pretty big part of this event.”

Desjardins will be joined on the bench by Jay McKee from OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs and Sylvan Favreau of the QMJHL’s Drummondville Voltigeurs  and they will have 15 A-rated prospects and seven B-rated prospects from NHL Central Scouting to work with.

A-rated prospects are players who are projected to be selected in the first round while B-rated prospects perhaps go in the second or third rounds of the draft.

“He’s gotta lot of talent,” said MacKenzie.

Fans will get treated some of notable top WHL prospects  including the likes of JP Hurlbert (A-rated) of the Kamloops Blazers who is the top point getter in the league right now with 38 as of Tuesday, former first overall pick in the 2023 WHL bantam draft  in Prince Albert Raiders defenceman Daxon  Rudolph (A-rated) , who has 16 points and is ranked 14th among WHL  defenceman in scoring and the Vancouver Giants Ryan Lin (A-rated) who is second among all defencemen in scoring with 24 points.

“You’re gonna be adding a significant amount of talent, and grit and speed and you’re gonna need that if you’re gonna be playing (the) U.S. national team,” said MacKenzie.

The first game of the Challenge is  on Nov. 25  at the Scotiabank Saddledome in  Calgary before heading to Lethbridge on Nov. 26 for the finale at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.

“Lethbridge is a really strong hockey market from the standpoint of always having  good attendance and having a very well-run franchise,” said MacKenzie.

“ You wanna work with franchises that are progressive and do (a) really good job promoting junior hockey in their markets.”

Both games start at 6 p.m.

Other WHL players include Medicine Hat Tigers Liam Ruck (B-rated), who was added on Tuesday to be an injury replacement, Carson Carels (Prince Geroge, A-rated), Chase Harrington  (Spokane Chiefs, B-rated), Harrington’s teammate Matias Preston (A-rated), Giorgos Pantelas (B-rated) of the Brandon Wheat Kings and Kelowna Rockets goalie Harrison Boettiger (B-rated).

There is expected to be over a couple hundred NHL personnel at both games.

Tickets, the full roster and player bios are available at http://www.chl.ca/prospectschallenge.

The inaugural Challenge was played in London and Oshawa last year.

Sixteen of the 22 Team CHL players from last year’s event were drafted to the NHL in June.