Seven OHLers flying under the radar for the 2024 NHL Draft

Now that the 2023-24 OHL regular season is in the rearview mirror, there are 16 teams left gearing up for a dogfight to secure the league championship.

That leaves the Niagara IceDogs, Peterborough Petes, Sarnia Sting, and Windsor Spitfires on the outside looking in after difficult, tumultuous seasons that ended much sooner than anyone with these respective franchises would have hoped.

For the NHL draft-eligible prospects on those teams, that's likely curtains on their draft years, barring their country's call to the U18s in Finland. And it's already pretty difficult to stand out on a struggling team in this league on a game-to-game basis, much less a full season.

That’s what makes Liam Greentree’s performance this year so impressive – the Windsor Spitfires captain is the true outlier. He finished the regular season with a 24-point lead on the rest of his teammates. No other NHL draft-eligible has produced as much with so little help surrounding him.

Production isn’t everything though, and there are more than a few players who have proven that with their play this season. They may not be as flashy, dynamic, or skilled as their draft-eligible OHL peers who have landed high on draft rankings throughout the season, but they deserve recognition for their efforts.

For the purposes of this exercise, I’ve characterized prospects as “under the radar” with the following criteria: they were not invited to the CHL Top Prospects Game in January (as NHL teams have a say in which players earn invites), and they have been ranked by two or less public outlets according to their Elite Prospects player profiles.

That takes prospects like Sam O’Reilly, Gabriel Frasca, Ethan Procyszyn, Anthony Cristoforo, Frankie Marrelli, Nathan Villeneuve, Jakub Fibigr, and Kieron Walton off the table.

Re-entry prospects were initially considered as well, but neither Anthony Romani (he of the 50-plus goals, 100-plus points draft-plus-one season) nor Owen Allard (who played for Canada at the World Juniors) really felt like they qualified as flying under the radar by the end of this season. Finn Harding did make the list of honourable mentions, however. 

Now that I've set the ground rules, let's look at the seven OHL players flying under the radar for the 2024 NHL Draft, along with a handful of honourable mentions.