Flyers prospects will be involved in the championship playoff rounds of all three CHL major junior hockey leagues.
The London Knights, featuring Flyers prospects Oliver Bonk and Denver Barkey, have won their second consecutive Wayne Gretzky Trophy as Western Conference champions of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL). The Knights defeated the Saginaw Spirit, four games to two, in the Western Conference Final.
The Knights will play the Eastern Conference champion Oshawa Generals. Oshawa defeated the North Bay Battalion, 6-1, in Game 7 on Monday to win the Bobby Orr Trophy.
In the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL), the championship round is set. The Drummondville Voltigeurs, featuring Flyers prospect Alexei Gendron, will play the Baie-Comeau Drakkar for the Gilles-Courteau Trophy. The Voltigeurs defeated the Victoriaville Tigres, four games to one, to advance to the finals.
The QMJHL Finals will start on May 9 in Baie-Comeau. Should the series go seven games, it will end no later than May 21.
In the Western Hockey League (WHL) Flyers defense prospect Carter Sotheran and the Portland Winterhawks advanced to the finals by defeating the Prince George Cougars in six games. Portland closed out the series on Monday with a 2-1 victory in double overtime to claim the Western Conference championship.
In the WHL Eastern Conference, the Saskatoon Blades and Moose Jaw Warriors are tied at three games apiece.
All four Flyers prospects -- Barkey, Bonk, Gendron and Sotheran -- have had significant roles in their respective clubs reaching the finals.
Ontario Hockey League
Barkey had a pair of assists in Game 6 against Saginaw. Continuing to play the same all-situations role he performed throughout his draft-plus-one regular season, Barkey has posted 16 points (3g, 13a) over the Knights' first 14 playoff games. During the regular season, the right wing racked up 103 points (35g, 67a).
In Game 5, defenseman Bonk scored a power play goal in a losing cause. He did not record a point in the deciding game but logged heavy ice time and played well defensively. Overall, he has eight points (4g, 4a) in 14 playoff games. During the regular season, Bonk came alive offensively with 24 goals -- a large percentage of which came from a bumper role on the power play -- and 67 points. Bonk, a traditional plus-28 during the regular season, also represented Team Canada at the World Junior Championships as a draft-plus-one player.
Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League
Gendron took first-star honors in the Game 5 clincher against Victoriaville as he scored two goals including the overtime winner in a 3-2 victory. Overall, he has 13 points (8g, 5a) in11 playoff matches.
During the regular season, Gendron spent the first half of the campaign in the American Hockey League with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, which was allowable under the CHL/AHL Age Rule because he turned 20 shortly prior to the end of the 2023 calendar year (Dec. 30). He showed he could handle the pace of play and had the hands to finish chances -- five goals, seven points in 17 games plus a very questionably disallowed goal not reflected in the totals -- but had a need to better his all-around game and benefited more from playing on an every-game basis in the Q rather than being in and out of the lineup in Allentown.
After returning to the QMJHL with a new team (Drummondville), winger Gendron posted 10 goals and 18 points in 16 regular season games. Last year, he tore up the Q offensively after a trade from Blainville-Boisbriand to Gatineau (33 goals, 47 points in 33 regular season games, 14 goals and 19 points in 13 playoff games).
Western Hockey League
Sotheran enjoyed a breakout 2023-24 season for Portland. In the regular season, he grew the offensive side of his game to produce 40 points (13g, 27a) and his all-around game to post a traditional plus-46. To date in the playoffs, Sotheran has chipped in 11 points (4g, 7a) in 14 games.
The Winterhawks dropped Game 1 of the series against Prince George but then won three straight games. The Cougars extended the series with a 6-1 win in Game 5 before Portland prevailed in the double-OT clincher.
Memorial Cup starts May 24
The 2024 Memorial Cup tournament, which will crown the champions of the entire CHL, is in Saginaw, Michigan, from May 24 to June 2. Despite losing to London in the OHL Western Conference Final, the Saginaw Spirit automatically qualified for the Memorial Cup as the host team. They will compete against the eventual OHL, QMJHL and WHL champions.
