NHL Prospect Roundup: Red Wings’ Carter Mazur deserves your attention

Steven Ellis
Steven Ellis
NHL Prospect Roundup: Red Wings’ Carter Mazur deserves your attention
Credit: Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

If it isn’t clear, the NCAA is full of must-watch hockey this season.

The biggest standout has been 2023 NHL Draft prospect Adam Fantilli, who has 20 points through 10 games. He’s the only player with at least 10 games played to have hit the 2.00 points-per-game mark. At this pace, he could blast past Jack Eichel’s 71-point freshman campaign ahead of the 2015 Draft, which established him as one of the best prospects to ever come from the college level.

But that’s a story for another day. Whether it’s the exploits of Luke Hughes and Lane Hutson, or the offensive stylings of Carter Mazur and Massimo Rizzo, there’s been no shortage of reasons to keep an eye on the college ranks this season.

And that’s where we’ll kick off this week’s NHL Prospect Roundup:

NCAA

– On a World Junior Championship team with Luke Hughes, Thomas Bordeleau, Logan Cooley and Matt Knies among others, it was easy to overlook USA’s Carter Mazur. But he immediately proved how important he was to the roster with five goals and seven points in just five games, earning him some early MVP chatter before USA’s untimely exit. Now a sophomore at the University of Denver, Mazur has picked up exactly where he left off with 10 goals and 13 points in just 10 games, good enough to earn the NCHC player of the month award for October. The Detroit Red Wings prospect has been on a tear since going 70th overall in 2021 and is showing a scoring side that’ll make him dangerous at the next level.

– Massimo Rizzo deserves a special shoutout for the work he’s done in helping Mazur produce this year. The Carolina Hurricanes seventh-rounder has tallied 17 points of his own through 10 games. Rizzo had a fantastic freshman season with 36 points in 39 games after missing the prior season due to COVID-19 restrictions in Canada. Rizzo showed promise with the BCHL’s Penticton Vees before getting taken with the second-last pick in 2019. It was hard to predict he’d pop off like he has in the NCAA, though. What a selection for the Hurricanes.

– New Jersey Devils fans might focus on Luke Hughes when watching Michigan, but what about Seamus Casey? The 2022 second-round pick has 10 points in 10 games as a freshman, which is enough to outscore Hughes. Casey is looking like quite the pickup for the Devils, adding to one of the game’s most promising defensive prospect pools. Casey is just 5-foot-9, but size clearly isn’t causing him any issues in his college transition.

AHL

– A second-round pick in 2018 by the New York Islanders, Ruslan Iskhakov‘s transition to the AHL has been remarkably successful. He has 14 points in 10 games, highlighted by a three-assist effort on Saturday night against Hartford. On a team with AHL vets like Andy Andreoff and Chris Terry, seeing Iskhakov thriving early is a big boost for the Islanders’ farm system.

– The Calgary Wranglers have a few notable prospects this season, including Connor Zary and Jakob Pelletier, But Jérémie Poirier has turned heads as a first-year pro after leading the Saint John Sea Dogs to the Memorial Cup last season. The offensive defenseman has eight points in nine games, tying Grand Rapids’ Simon Edvinsson for first in scoring among U-21 defensemen. There’s an argument to be made that Poirier deserves a look with the Calgary Flames, but it’s probably best to give him ample development time.

– Oskari Salminen‘s first foray into the North American hockey scene has been a strong one. Salminen, who spent his entire pro career in the Finnish league before 2022-23, has a 4-1-0 record with a shutout and a .928 save percentage through six games with the Manitoba Moose. He’s having one of the best starts to the season of any AHL goalie prospect, something that might not have been easy had Mikhail Berdin not left the team in October. It’s not clear where the 23-year-old prospect sits in the Winnipeg Jets‘ system, but he’s giving them something to think about right now.

WHL

– When the Dallas Stars selected Logan Stankoven 47th in 2021, it was clear they were getting a steal. Standing at 5-foot-8, he silenced doubters with a 45-goal, 104-point regular season and a WHL-leading 31 points in the playoffs. That earned him the CHL’s player of the year award, only to be one of Canada’s most integral scoring pieces at the World Junior Championship a few months later. He’s off to a hot start with 10 goals and 20 points in nine games as captain of the Blazers. All the 19-year-old does is put points on the board, and he’s quickly becoming one of the most dangerous prospects.

OHL

– The Vancouver Canucks took 5-foot-9 center Connor Lockhart in the sixth round in 2021, but he isn’t your average sixth-rounder. He was highly regarded growing up, going third overall to Erie at the 2019 OHL Draft, but he struggled to find his footing as a rookie and lost his second season due to COVID-19. After a ho-hum 2021-22, Lockhart was moved to Peterborough, where he currently sits tied for second in league scoring with 24 points. This is more like what we expected from a player with his skill level, but it took a while to find his footing. This would have been his fourth OHL season under normal circumstances, where a performance from one of the older players like this would make sense. But it seems like he’s starting to make up for lost time right now and Canucks fans should take notice.

QMJHL

– One of the top scorers in the QMJHL, Riley Kidney has easily built upon his 100-point campaign from a year ago. More of a passer than a shooter, Kidney has nine goals and 26 points in 2022-23 – putting him on pace to slightly edge out his previous career high. The Montreal Canadiens selected Kidney with the 63rd pick in 2021, and he’s done anything but disappoint ever since.

Liiga

– After a one-year stint with Kingston in the OHL, 20-year-old Leevi Meriläinen is back home in Karpat for his first season in pro. So far, he has a 6-4-1 record, three shutouts and a .921 save percentage through 13 games while outplaying Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Joel Blomqvist for playing time. The only U-21 goalie with better numbers in the Liiga this year is KalPa’s Juha Jatkola, who stole Meriläinen’s net during the World Junior Championship last summer. Regardless, the Ottawa Senators have solid goaltending depth, and Meriläinen is performing exceptionally as a Liiga rookie.

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