Skip to content

Three ICE players make NHL midseason rankings

Two ICE forwards and a goaltender make the NHL’s midseason rankings ahead of the 2019 draft.
15213813_web1_Krebs22
Peyton Krebs tops the list of ICE players on the NHL midseason report for the 2019 draft. Photo by Trevor Crawley.

Three Kootenay ICE players have made the National Hockey League (NHL) Central Scouting midseason rankings for the 2019 draft.

To no surprise of ICE fans, captain Peyton Krebs made the list, ranking eighth on the list for North American skaters.

The Alberta native was drafted first overall by the ICE in the 2016 Western Hockey League draft, and has played in 117 WHL regular season games, and recorded 35 goals and 79 assists for 113 points.

This year he was named as captain of the Kootenay ICE.

Also making the list was forward Cole Muir, who landed 160th overall for North American players, which projects to be the sixth round of the draft.

Muir recently played in his 100th WHL regular season game and has recorded 12 goals, 14 assists for 26 points in that time.

Originally he was drafted in the second round of the 2016 WHL draft, 33rd overall by the Regina Pats.

Muir came over to the ICE in a November 2017 trade that saw the ICE deal defenceman Cale Fleury to Queen City.

Also cracking the rankings is netminder Jesse Makaj, who found his name in the North American goalie category.

Makaj is ranked 21st out of 31 goalies from North America. He was drafted in the second round, 23rd overall of the 2016 WHL draft by the ICE.

He is currently in his rookie season and has played in 27 games. His goals-against average (GAA) for this year is currently 3.95 and his save percentage is 0.888, with an overall record of 3-14-5-1.

On Jan. 15, Makaj recorded his first WHL shutout in a 2-0 win against the Swift Current Broncos.

Cranbrook native Bowen Byram was also named to the mid-season rankings. He is the top North American defenceman to be named and came in at fourth overall.

Byram was drafted third overall in the 2016 WHL draft by the Vancouver Giants. He has played in 114 games and has recorded 22 goals, 48 assists for 70 points.

He has played in seven WHL playoff games and recorded three goals and four assists for seven points.

There were 48 WHL players to make the NHL Scouting Midterm rankings.

The 2019 NHL Draft will take place in Vancouver from June 21-22.



jessica.dempsey@cranbrooktownsman.com

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter