The Class of 2011 on TPS (Apr - May)

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The final two months of prospect hockey for the 2010-11 season is highlighted by the CHL playoffs and the Memorial Cup which is preceded by the NCAA's Frozen Four. By the end of May, full focus is on the NHL entry draft and the start of most mainstream media's draft coverage begins with the NHL combine in Tornoto at the start of June.

April on TPS saw two of the annual shows that we consider as our second and third "majors" in the season. April saw The Frozen Four was in Minnesota which meant the annual Coach's Show where all four bench bosses joined us to preview the event. The CHL version came in the days leading up to the Memorial Cup in Mississauga and 3 coaches and a General Manager were part of that big show.

But of course the focus of this blog post is on the players eligible for the 2011 NHL Draft and there was certainly no shortage of guests in that regard. Here's the recap...

Saturday Morning Special - May 14th

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Our season-long build up to the NHL Draft continues each week and as the big event gets closer we start escalating things even more. Each show we speak with another prospect eligible for the draft but now we've upped that to two or even three draft-specific guests each episode. Saturdays means a visit from our NHL Insider and this week we also went to Kingston to try and get a read on what that franchise has done lately plus hit on several hot topics as well.

Top 5 Tuesdays: Western Canadians for U18s

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The 2011 World U18 will be held in Dresden Germany beginning on April 9th. As always, that start time means Canada will be severely shorthanded as most of their best players will still be playing in the CHL playoffs. That will also affect some European teams as they may have two or three players overseas in the same situation.

Team USA, however, is hardly affected at all since the vast majority of the team that will head to Germany next month will consist of the U18/U17 program out of Ann Arbor. There may be a player added from outside that mix, perhaps two like last year when Austin Watson (Peterborough, OHL) and Connor Brickley (Des Moines, USHL) were added. It's not a coincidence that USA has had their way at the event over the last several years because of this.

Canada will enter a team made up of players who failed to reach the post season in the CHL or were eliminated quickly in the first round. They will be able to draw from some of Jr.A teams and NCAA clubs too. With the Frozen Four ending ending on April 9th, that may be cutting it too close for the two teams in the Finals but, for the purpose of today's list, let's assume it's not.

We'll also go by the WHL standings as of today - things may change but the team outside of the playoffs and therefore available for Hockey Canada are: Calgary, Regina, Swift Current, Lethbridge, Kamloops and Seattle. Also keeping in mind that players must be born in 1993 or more recently.

Here now are the top 5 players available to Hockey Canada that meet all the above terms and conditions...