Neutral Zone’s Ontario staff met in Toronto for our Mid-Term OHL Draft rankings and sent our 10 scouts into the rinks to cover as much minor midget action as possible at the Toronto Marlies Showcase. The tournament featured some of the top talent in the province and we saw almost every team at least once, and most two or three times. We have written up the top 165 performers as well as 26 honorable mentions who showed us enough to be mentioned, but will need more viewing before we can rank them.
The rankings below are broken up into A, B and C’s. Their ranking is not an indication of how good the players are overall, rather a grading of how they played at this particular performance. Most players had multiple evaluations so we combined them and made a consensus evaluation but some players we attached several.
Michael Vukojevic #51 Mississauga Rebels (LD, 6-2/185, 2001)
Vukojevic looks and plays like a big time prospect every time we see him. He’s got great size and athleticism and plays a physical, focused defensive game. He’s arguably the best gap control defenseman in the province, uses his long reach to poke pucks off sticks and takes the body whenever an opponent tries to cut in on him (which doesn’t happen often). He is controlled, confident and zips passes flat across the ice either D to D or up ice to his forwards. He is able to get to pucks on dump ins and even if he’s not the first one in there he uses his strength and physicality to win the battle and quickly turn the puck up ice and break the puck out. He is used in every situation for the Rebels, he blocks shots and kills penalties with powerful clears and an active stick to cut down passing lanes, and he has a heavy shot and powerful presence on the power play. A major talent. College: Michigan
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