Andrew Strathmann knew he had more to offer than his first season in the USHL suggested.

Connor Bedard is the top-ranked North American skater for the 2023 NHL Draft according to the NHL's Central Scouting Bureau in their mid-term rankings, released Friday. The WHL's leading scorer and reigning World Junior Championship MVP has built up a large consensus of his status as the top prospect for 2023.

MONCTON, New Brunswick – Adam Gajan wasn’t supposed to be here. When Team Slovakia announced their preliminary roster for the 2023 IIHF World Junior Championship, the 18-year-old from Poprad was not one of the three goaltenders listed.

MONCTON, N.B. – As USHL teams got to enjoy a bit of an extended holiday break thanks to Christmas falling on what otherwise would have been a game weekend, 12 current USHLers didn’t get to rest up. Instead, they traveled to the 2023 World Junior Championship where they put on their nation’s colors to compete at one of the biggest hockey events on the calendar.

Jake Ratzlaff never imagined his athletic career would take such a winding path. When asked if his younger self would’ve seen this coming, the answer started with two words.

For the first time since 2018, the U.S. Junior Select Team finished the World Junior A Challenge on top as they defeated Canada East 5-2 to claim the tournament title. Team USA, which was comprised entirely of USHL players, finished the tournament with a 5-1 record, which includes wins over Sweden and Canada East in the playoff round to secure top honors. This is the ninth World Junior A Challenge title for the U.S. in the event's 15-year history.

With a busy Thanksgiving weekend in the rearview mirror, the calendar has flipped to December.

A dozen teams will get very familiar with their opponent as this weekend’s slate features six back-to-backs. Fifteen of the 16 USHL teams will be in action and as we’ve hit the quarter mark of the season, teams are looking to separate themselves. Let's take a look at some of the top series to watch this weekend.

The World Junior A Challenge is a winter showcase event hosted by Hockey Canada, featuring two Canadian regional teams representing the East and West, a U.S. team and teams from Sweden and Latvia. The U.S. roster is often made up primarily of USHL players and this year will be no different.

Madison Capitols forward Miko Matikka grew up in Finland idolizing Russian superstars Ilya Kovalchuk and Alex Ovechkin. Perhaps it’s fitting that the 6-foot-3, right-shot winger plays a similar style and wears the No. 8 on his back.

The rust has been shaken off and the season is in full swing, which raises the level of play for players across the hockey landscape. As the season progresses, I'll be checking in on prospects across the world to share some observations and analysis on players at the various levels of hockey beneath the NHL.

It’s an action-packed weekend in the USHL as 16 games will be crammed into three days. Friday and Saturday’s slates both feature seven games, while a pair of games will close out the action on Sunday.

It’s another busy slate of games as all 16 USHL teams will hit the ice, division leaders will collide and three sets of back-to-backs will make for intense and entertaining hockey. Without further ado, here’s a look at the week ahead.

The 2023 NHL Draft season is well underway and one of the annual rites of fall in the draft campaign is NHL Central Scouting Services releasing its preliminary players to watch list. With a group of independent regional scouts, the league’s Central Scouting helps provide one of the baseline rankings to paint a picture of the draft class as it stands currently. CSS somewhat mimics the scout room of an NHL team, and as such can vary wildly from the perspective of other teams and evaluators.

Week 3 in the USHL did not disappoint as conference leaders clashed and rivalries filled the schedule. All 16 teams hit the ice last weekend and although that number is down to 15 this time around, there are, once again, important early-season points on the line.