Three North Bay Battalion players and one local goaltender are among the 48 Ontario Hockey League skaters and goaltenders on the National Hockey League's Final Central Scouting list for the 2021 NHL Entry Draft.
North Bay area goaltender Ben Gaudreau, who plays for the Sarnia Sting, is rated second among North American goalies for the draft.
Gaudreau, who lives in Corbeil, helped solidify his ranking by leading Team Canada's Under-18 team to a gold medal at the IIHF World Under-18 Championship held in Texas in early May.
See related: Gaudreau feels some Golden Deja Vu
Battalion forwards Kyle Jackson and Matvey Petrov and goaltender Joe Vrbetic of the North Bay Battalion are among 48 Ontario Hockey League skaters and netminders ranked.
Left winger Jackson debuted at No. 158 on a list of 234 North American-based skaters, while Russian import Petrov is 35th on the 150-deep rankings of European-based skaters released Thursday.
Vrbetic is rated sixth among 32 North American-based goaltenders for the draft, which is to be conducted virtually July 23-24.
The OHL and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League have 44 representatives apiece in the rankings of North American skaters, while the Western Hockey League has 38, for a Canadian Hockey League total of 126. The coronavirus pandemic saw the 2020-21 OHL season cancelled, while the other two CHL leagues played limited schedules.
Jackson, an Ottawa native who was a third-round pick in the 2018 OHL Priority Selection from the Toronto Red Wings minor midgets, scored eight goals and earned 14 assists for 22 points in 62 games in 2019-20 before the rest of the OHL schedule and playoffs were scrapped. He had three points, including two goals, in 12 games the previous year.
Jackson, who turns 19 on Oct. 17, stands six-foot-two and weighs 187 pounds.
Right winger Petrov, who turned 18 on March 12, is a six-foot-two, 178-pound native of Gus-Khrustalny, 230 kilometres east of Moscow. He played 58 games this season with the top-level junior Moscow Krylya Sovetov, or Soviet Wings, scoring 22 goals and adding 20 assists for 42 points.
The Battalion selected him with the first overall pick in the CHL Import Draft last June 30.
Vrbetic posted a 4.23 goals-against average, a .881 save percentage, two shutouts and a won-lost-extended record of 14-25-1 in 42 games in 2019-20.
A six-foot-six, 180-pound resident of Dunvegan, Ontario product was a second-rounder in the 2018 OHL Priority Selection from the Don Mills Flyers minor midgets.
Vrbetic had a solid 2018-19 season with the Powassan Voodoos getting into 30 regular-season games and posting a stingy .928 save percentage as a 16-year-old before joining the Troops full-time in 2019-20.
Also, Barrie Colts and former AAA Trapper defender Connor Punnett is also rated 148th for North American Skaters.
Players are first-time eligible for the seven-round NHL draft in the year in which they turn 18, unless they were born Sept. 16 or later, in which case they must wait until the following year.
The San Jose Sharks selected right winger Brandon Coe of the Battalion in the fourth round, 97th overall, of the 2020 NHL Draft conducted in virtual fashion Oct. 6-7.
