Inside the CHL – Scoring Races Wrapping Up Across the CHL
By Aaron Bell
Connor Brown came into the Canadian Hockey League with very little fanfare three seasons ago but he knew that given a fair chance he had headline-making skills that would get lots of attention.
Those skills have been on full display all season with the Erie Otters and Brown heads into the final weekend of the season with a stranglehold on the CHL scoring race with 43 goals and 80 assists for 123 points in 65 games. He has a 22 point lead on his teammate Dane Fox among OHL scorers and an eight point lead on Anthony Mantha of the Val-d’Or Foreurs for the national scoring lead.
Brown got off to a smoking hot start to the season, picking up nine points in his first five games and hasn’t let his foot off the gas pedal all season long. The Toronto native and Toronto Maple Leafs prospect has 37 multiple point games, including a stretch of seven in a row in October during which he piled up 19 points.
“The main thing is I’ve been consistent this year,” Brown told the National Post earlier this month. “I’ve tried to go hard every game, every practice and I found that’s the best way to keep your game up, through practice habits. It’s paid off across the board.”
That pay off has come in at unprecedented amounts for Brown and the Otters. Brown plays right wing on the most productive line in the CHL with Fox and sensational sophomore Connor McDavid. Fox leads all CHL goal scorers with 62 to go along with 39 assists playing on the left side while McDavid has 25 goals and 93 points in 53 games centring the Otters’ big line.
“Through the season, (Brown and McDavid) have probably been on the same line for only half the games,” said Otters coach Kris Knoblauch. “So Connor’s been able to put up extremely high offensive numbers with McDavid and without him.”
Sherry Bassin is the Otters’ GM and architect of this year’s team, which is among the CHL’s elite after finishing last in the OHL two seasons ago.
Bassin has enjoyed a tremendous amount of success in the CHL – including five OHL championships and a Memorial Cup championship – in the past two decades but doesn’t take much credit for drafting Brown from the Toronto Marlies 251st overall in the 2010 OHL Priority Selection.
“I had some people tell me what a great draft pick he was,” Bassin said about Brown, who scored 25 goals and 53 points as a rookie two seasons ago. “Well, if he ended up being this good then why’d we wait until the 13th round to take him?”
Meanwhile, Mantha has enjoyed a consistent season as well and would likely be waging a tighter battle with Brown had he not missed 10 games this season, including time with Canada’s World Junior squad.
Mantha, a first round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, has 56 goals and 115 points in 55 games. He recorded points in 22 straight games heading into the World Juniors and has 10 points in his past five games. He leads Marcus Power of the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies by 10 points in the QMJHL scoring race.
In the WHL, Mitch Holmberg of the Spokane Chiefs has 60 goals and 113 points in 68 games and holds a five point lead on Nicolas Petan of the Portland Winterhawks. Petan’s teammate Oliver Bjorkstrand sits third and has also passed the century point with 102 points this season.