TWO grads of the Hollyburn Country Club Minor Hockey Association cracked the top-10 for North American skaters in the National Hockey League's central scouting mid-season rankings of draft-eligible players.
Vancouver's Morgan Rielly, now with the Western Hockey League's Moose Jaw Warriors, was ranked fifth while West Vancouver's Griffin Reinhart, now a member of the Edmonton Oil Kings, was eighth. The rankings put both players on course to be first-round picks at the 2012 NHL draft.
Rielly, listed by central scouting as a 5-foot-11 defenceman, has racked up 18 points in 18 games with a plus-six rating with the Warriors this season while taking just two minutes of penalties.
Reinhart, also a defencman and listed at six-foot-three, has 23 points - including nine goals - in 34 games with a plus-13 rating for the Oil Kings. Reinhart is the son of former NHLer Paul Reinhart and Griffin's brothers, Sam and Max, are also highly touted junior prospects, both of whom play for the Kootenay Ice. Max was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2010 while Sam is in his first full season in the WHL and has scored 33 points in 37 games.
Rielly and Reinhart are joined near the top of the list by North Vancouver's Colton Sissons who is ranked 14th amongst North American skaters. He's the highest-rated draft eligible forward in the WHL.
A six-foot-one centre, Sissons is in his second season with the Kelowna Rockets. He's put up 30 points in 42 games and leads the team with 21 goals.
Another North Shore defenceman is also making a big impression at the junior level. North Vancouver's Dalton Thrower was named the Western Hockey League's Jan. 2 player of the week after scoring three goals and eight assists in four games as his Saskatoon Blades registered two wins and two losses.
Much of the scoring came in a 9-4 drubbing of the Prince Albert Raiders on Dec. 30 in which Thrower racked up two goals and four assists. He followed that up with another goal and three assists in an 8-2 win over Brandon Jan. 1. As of Jan. 9 Thrower was tied for 10th in scoring amongst WHL defencemen with 31 points in 41 games. He's also second on the Blades with 74 penalty minutes.
Thrower is eligible for the 2012 NHL draft and was ranked 30th overall amongst North American skaters in central scouting's mid-season rankings.
West Vancouver's Alex Kerfoot also made the rankings at No. 81. The five-foot-nine forward for the Junior A Coquitlam Express was the second highest-ranked BCHL skater on the list.
