The coaches are set, with former Canucks Daniel and Henrik Sedin, Stan Smyl, and Blackhawk Brent Seabrook behind the benches.
The rosters have been announced, with Connor Bedard heading up a lineup of 40 of the top NHL prospects currently playing in the Canadian Hockey League
Now, we’ve got the stripes.
Here are the Referees and Linespeople working the 2023 CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game.
REFEREES
Graedy Hamilton (#57 – WHL)
Taylor Burzminski (#83 – WHL)
LINESPEOPLE
Nick Albinati (#3 – WHL)
Brennan Walker (#143 – WHL)
Hamilton is coming off a trip to the World Juniors, where he officiated the Bronze Medal game between the US and Sweden. The Duncan, B.C. native made his WHL debut at age 19. Two years later, he took the ice in the American Hockey League for his first professional game as the Abbotsford Canucks hosted the Ontario Reign. Hamilton has also worked a BCHL Championship, the Hlinka Gretzky Tournament, the Canada Winter Games, and a World U17 Championship.
Burzminski, who hails from St. Albert, Alberta, also has a Hlinka Gretzky appearance under his belt, skating alongside fellow Top Prospects official Nick Albinati, along with a trip to the 2022 World Junior A Challenge in Cornwall, Ontario.
Albinati currently works the lines in the WHL and AHL. A Prince George native, he officated the 2022 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and took the ice at the 2017 Telus Cup.
Walker, from Agassiz, B.C., is also doing double-duty in the WHL and American Hockey League. He made his AHL debut alongside Hamilton on October 29, 2022.
Burzminski and Albinati also took part in Hockey Canada’s National High Performance Selection Camp in October; Walker skated at the Men’s West Regional Camp in B.C.
The 2023 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is set for Wednesday, January 25, at B.C.’s Langley Events Centre. The game will be broadcast live on TSN, TSN.ca, the TSN App, and RDS in Canada, and in the U.S. on the NHL Network at 10 p.m. Eastern/7 p.m. Pacific.
Congratulations to the officials selected to work this year’s CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game!
