Although he is only 17, there isn’t a form of representative play in which forward Cole Reschny of the Victoria Royals hasn’t participated. He has worn the provincial colours of green and gold in leading his native Saskatchewan to the silver medal in the 2023 Canada Winter Games and the red and white of Canada at the 2023 World U-17 Challenge and in being team co-points leader in pacing Canada to the gold medal in this year’s U-18 Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Tonight provides a new forum, quite literally, as Reschny will don a Canadian Hockey League jersey in the first Prospects Challenge series between the CHL and the USA U-18 development program at Canada Life Place in London, Ont., and Wednesday at Tribute Communities Centre in Oshawa, Ont., (both games 4 p.m. PT on TSN).
It is a landmark series on many levels as the U.S. development system has risen dramatically in recent NHL drafts to challenge the CHL’s former dominance, making this a potentially revealing two-game set between two nations’ rival fashions of developing players. This is, in a sense, a battle of hockey cultures.
“It is that, and this series is the first of its kind,” said Joey Poljanowski, vice-president of hockey operations for the Royals, who is in London, Ont., for tonight’s game.
The centralized U.S. U-18 players go on to the collegiate NCAA. The CHL is the umbrella organization which encompasses the major-junior Western Hockey League, in which Reschny and the Royals play, and the Ontario Hockey League and Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League.
Reschny, in a promotional CHL video for the series, said: “I think it’s pretty cool they switched to [this format]. I definitely want to beat the USA. It’s definitely motivating. You can say it’s Canada versus the U.S. You never want to lose to them.”
Hanging over this week’s series, however, is the recent NCAA ruling allowing players to move freely between the NCAA and CHL, so there could be a lot of mixing regarding player movements in the years ahead.
“It’s all about opportunities for the players and will come down to who will have the best program for players,” said Poljanowski.
The Prospects Challenge, planned to be an annual series, is open to players eligible for that season’s NHL draft. Fourteen of the CHL team players are ranked by Central Scouting for the first round of the 2025 NHL draft, including Reschny.
“This isn’t an all-star game. They are competitors and they want to win and that’s the main focus, and to up their draft status,” CHL team head coach Kris Mallette, from the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets, said in his media scrum Monday.
“We know what they are capable of with their club teams. Now playing best-on-best with the rest of the guys in the CHL is really going to showcase them. These guys are ultra elite and talented. [But] they need to perform on demand.”
Ten of the 22 CHL players selected for the inaugural Prospects Challenge this week are from the WHL, including the Royals’ playmaking centre Reschny.
“Any time you are in an environment like that, you soak it in and embrace being around that,” Reschny has said, about his previous experiences in representative play.
Next year’s Prospects Challenge series is scheduled for WHL venues, which are to be determined.
