Orillia native Colby Barlow's future as a professional hockey player will become clearer tonight when he's expected to be taken in the upper reaches of the first round at the NHL Draft in Nashville.
“Colby is going to play in the NHL for a long time,” Owen Sound Attack general manager Dale DeGray said in a chat earlier this month. “He already has a pro shot, he skates like an NHLer and has a body like one.”
DeGray’s own drafting of Barlow into the Ontario Hockey League two years ago resulted in the 18-year-old taking on a central role with the Attack from the moment he arrived on the shores of Georgian Bay. He’s now team captain, has scored 76 goals in just 118 OHL games and earned the unofficial tag as the league’s top NHL prospect this year.
“We never expected to get him where we did,” DeGray recalled of the OHL Priority Selection in 2021. “We didn’t even speak with Colby until (two days before) because we didn’t think we had a chance to get him.”
DeGray is referring to the selection process that took place after the cancelled 2020-21 season. The OHL held a lottery to determine the order of selection because it had no standings on which to base where teams would normally pick. The Attack landed in the eighth spot, but Barlow was expected to go in the top five.
“I still think back how (lucky) we were to take Colby eighth,” DeGray explained.
Two other OHL forwards, Quentin Musty (Sudbury) and Calum Ritchie (Oshawa), who were taken first and second overall, respectively, will also be selected during Wednesday night’s first round in Nashville.
Barlow will hear his name called before both Musty and Ritchie; it’s not a shot at them, but rather a clear indicator to how far Barlow’s game has progressed in his two OHL seasons in Owen Sound.
“He’s a typical, modern-day power forward,” said DeGray. “The game is different now, but Colby is (old school) in how he fights hard for his space and creates chances by how hard he plays. He already plays like a pro that way.”
Where will Barlow go? There is little indication of consensus outside the top three, who are all forwards, in Connor Bedard, Adam Fantilli and Leo Carlsson. That trio will almost certainly make up the top three, with Bedard assured of going No. 1 overall. Then it’s a virtual toss-up between Fantilli, a Canadian who played
at the University of Michigan this past season, and Carlsson, a Sweden-based pro.
There are whispers that Barlow could creep up as high as fifth or sixth, though that is likely too optimistic. Barlow would be unlucky to drop out of the top 10, though stranger things have happened on draft night.
For what it’s worth, TSN hockey insider Bob McKenzie, who bases his rankings by combining the various lists of NHL scouts, had Barlow at No. 12 in his final missive released last week. Mark Edwards of Hockey Prospect and Kyle Woodlief of Red Line Report, both of whom have a team of scouts working for them and long histories of independent evaluation, have Barlow sixth and eighth, respectively.
Barlow will become the highest-picked local player since Barrie products Mike Gartner (fourth overall to Washington in 1979) and Shayne Corson (eighth overall to Montreal in 1984) were taken decades ago. More recently, Ethan Moreau, who played for the old Junior B Orillia Terriers, was picked 14th overall by Chicago in 1994 and Brent Burns, who has ties to Barrie, was selected 20th overall in 2003.
The local flavour will continue Thursday with rounds two through seven. Carson Rehkoph, a forward with the Kitchener Rangers who grew up just outside Barrie, and Colts defenceman Beau Akey are both expected to be taken in the second round.
Larry Keenan, a defenceman who grew up in Midhurst and who has played U.S. prep school hockey the past two seasons, is one of the fastest rising players in the draft class. There are indications Keenan could sneak inside the first three rounds.
Keenan is the grandson and namesake of the former NHLer, and an original St. Louis Blue, who scored that franchise’s first NHL goal in 1967.
Interestingly, another player who is expected to be drafted on Thursday is Brad Gardiner, a forward with the Ottawa 67’s, who is from Aurora. Gardiner is the son of retired NHLer Bruce Gardiner, who grew up in Elmvale and scored the first goal in Columbus Blue Jackets history, 33 years after Keenan did the same for the Blues.
Keenan’s father, Cory, was a standout junior player and a Hartford Whalers draft pick, who settled in Barrie after his career. Keenan and Rehkoph both played minor hockey together in town until leaving to play for separate teams in the Greater Toronto Hockey League. Keenan is expected to play NCAA hockey rather than the OHL, where his rights are held by the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Other players of interest locally include Czech forward Eduard Sale, who has had an up-and-down season playing in his home country’s pro league. The Colts own Sale’s rights and will be anxious to see what NHL club picks the winger, who is expected to be taken on Wednesday night.
Unlike Barlow, though, there is little clear consensus where in the first round Sale will be snapped up, but whoever takes him will likely decide whether he reports to Barrie in the fall.
Later on Thursday, it will be interesting to see if Colts centre Beau Jelsma and/or teammate Connor Punnett, a defenceman, are taken. Both Punnett and Jelsma flourished in increased roles with the Colts and were helped by having another season under their belt after the cancellation of the 2020-21 campaign robbed them of vital OHL seasoning.
Both players went through the draft last year unclaimed, but have attracted some attention as potential re-entry selections in Nashville.
