Jets Prospect Report - February

Owen Sound Attack forward Colby Barlow scored his 100^th career goal in the Ontario Hockey League on February 3 and has done it in only 148 games. As of February 7, the Orillia, Ontario product is on a six-game goal scoring streak and has nine goals over that stretch. Barlow became the eighth player in Owen Sound Attack history to score 100 goals with the franchise, joining the likes of Nick Suzuki, Bobby Ryan and Andrew Brunette.

The Winnipeg Jets 2023 first round pick clearly has that shooters mentality.

“I think it was built up over time. I had a lot of people help me with my shot but there was some sort of natural path with it,” said Barlow on the Ground Control podcast.

“Along with all the hard work put into it. I was doing a lot of outside skates, just practice itself when I was growing up and playing minor hockey. A lot of that contributes to it. I think a lot of it with the shot is being able to put yourself in that position to shoot the puck.”

Barlow is quick to point out, he’s not just a goal scorer but also has the ability to be a playmaker.

“I love it. I think it’s an underrated part of my game, it’s not talked about a whole lot,” said Barlow.

“But it’s nice having that knowing everybody thinks that you’re going to have that shoot first kind of mentality and it leaves guys open a lot of the time. It’s awesome having that as well.”

Barlow was named captain of the Attack last season at the age of 17 and gives credit to his parents, brother and the people around him for the leadership quality that he has.

“My dad always told me ‘if you want to play with the big boys’. I have an older brother, he’s six years older than me. I didn’t have anybody in the neighbourhood that was the same age as me, so I always just wanted to play with them,” said Barlow.

“My dad said ‘you gotta play their way’. I think a lot of that came with a couple of beat downs here and there, kind of learning a certain maturity at a young age.”

Heading into this season, Barlow looked to be a lock to play for Canada at the 2024 World Juniors in Sweden. But in early November the Attack captain suffered an injury that would keep him out of the lineup until the end of December.

“I really learned I don’t like watching my team play at all. It was not fun. It was a grind getting back to healthy. But I always say it’s not always going to be sunshine and rainbows, you’re going to have bumps in your career at some point,” said Barlow.

“So, a little adversity, learn from it and become a better person for it. There were definitely a lot of times where I was feeling great, but the timeline really didn’t add up. Especially with my injury, there were so many good days and then you’d have a bad day, right? It was a battle back and forth but once I found that consistency, I was super excited to get back.”

As mentioned earlier, the 18-year-old forward is back and scoring again for the Attack who hope to make a push to the 2024 OHL Playoffs as they have points in six of their last eight games.

MOOSE UPDATE

The Manitoba Moose are the midst on nine straight games away from Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg. The Jets AHL affiliate have won four of their last five games including a 3-2 overtime win in Rockford on February 3. Jeff Mallot moved into a tie for eighth place all-time in Moose goal scoring on Saturday, he also passed Nolan Baumgartner for most overtime winners with his fifth.

Brad Lambert and Kyle Capobianco took part in the 2024 AHL All-Star Challenge in San Jose last weekend. The event featured 24 former first-or-second round NHL draft picks including Lambert who ended up with two goals and two assists for the Central Division. Capobianco also chipped in with two goals and a couple of helpers.

Goaltender Thomas Milic has been a big part of the Moose success as he has gone 3-1 in his last four appearances with a 1.51 goals against average and a .936 save percentage.

The Moose have two games each in Grand Rapids and Calgary before returning home for a six game homestand that starts on February 13 when they host the Wranglers.

OTHER PROSPECT NOTES

• F Rutger McGroarty (1^st round, 2022) led the nation is scoring during the month of January with 16 points (3G, 13A) in six games. He was named the Big Ten First Star of the Week on January 24 after an eight-point weekend against rival Michigan State and was also named the Hockey Commissioners Association Player of the Month for the second time this season (was Co-Player of the Month in October).

• F Jacob Julien (5^th round, 2023) and the London Knights keep on rolling. Julien had 19 points (7G, 12A) in 13 games in January. The Knights are ranked second in the CHL and have a 20-game point streak (18-0-0-2) and sit on top of the standings in the OHL.

• F Connor Levis (7^th round, 2023) scored his first hat trick of the season with his new team, the Giants after being traded to Vancouver from Kamloops early in January. Levis has eight points (5G, 3A) in nine games since the trade.

• F Dmitri Rashevsky (5^th round, 2021) has a career high 20 goals in the KHL this season for Dynamo Moskva.