The referees and linesmen are set for the 2024 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects game, taking place January 24 in Moncton, New Brunswick.

Here are the officials for this year’s game:

  • Referee Tanner Doiron (#23)
  • Referee Harrison O’Pray (#53)
  • Linesman Sam Currie (#82)
  • Linesman David-Daniel Pendleton (#59)

All four currently work in the QMJHL. 

While this event is a showcase for the CHL’s top players, it’s also an opportunity to feature some of their best officials. Referee Graedy Hamilton, who worked last year’s Top Prospects game, has since been hired by the NHL and is expected to make his league debut later this season.

From the QMJHL:

In acknowledgment of their selection, the League’s Executives and members of the Officials Supervisors Committee extend their heartfelt congratulations to the appointed officials. Their dedication and expertise are what have earned them this significant opportunity.

More on the event from the Canadian Hockey League:

Annually held early in the new year, the Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game sees the top NHL Draft eligible talent from the CHL’s three member leagues – the Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL), and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) – compete before hundreds of NHL scouts and thousands of fans in an effort to improve their draft stock ahead of the NHL Draft.

Most recently, 37 of the 40 CHL players who competed at the 2023 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game were among those selected at the 2023 NHL Draft in June, a list that included first-overall pick Connor Bedard (Chicago Blackhawks/Regina Pats) and seven other CHL skaters chosen by NHL teams in the first round.

Last January, at the 27th edition of the Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in Langley, B.C., Team White, captained by 2023 Winnipeg Jets first-round pick Colby Barlow (Owen Sound Attack), defeated Team Red 4-2. Carson Rehkopf (Team White/Kitchener Rangers) and Riley Heidt (Team Red/Prince George Cougars), who months later went on to be selected in the second round of the 2023 NHL Draft, were named the Jim Gregory Players of the Game.

The 2024 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game will mark the 28th edition of the showcase and it will represent just the second time that this event has ever been held in the Maritimes (Halifax – 2013).

Since the reintroduction as the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game in 1996, the event has featured 16 players who were later selected first overall in the NHL Draft including Connor Bedard (2023), Alexis Lafreniere (2020), Nico Hischier (2017), Connor McDavid (2015), Aaron Ekblad (2014), Nathan MacKinnon (2013), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2011), Taylor Hall (2010), John Tavares (2009), Steven Stamkos (2008), Patrick Kane (2007), Marc-Andre Fleury (2003), Rick Nash (2002), Vincent Lecavalier (1998), Joe Thornton (1997), and Chris Phillips (1996)

 

Congratulations to the officials selected to work the 2024 Kubota CHL/NHL Top Prospects game!