As he awaits what will be the biggest day of his young hockey career, the awards keep piling up for Alex Newhook.
Over the weekend, the 18-year-old St. John’s native was named the top forward in Canadian junior A hockey for 2018-19. Newhook, the captain of the British Columbia Hockey League’s Victoria Grizzlies this past season, was already named the BCHL’s most valuable player after earning the Brett Hull Trophy as the league’s top scorer.
Newhook had 102 points (38 goals, 64 assists) in 53 regular-season games with Victoria and 24 more (11G, 13A) in 15 playoff contests for the Grizzlies, who were knocked out the BCHL’s semifinal round.
As well, he was a first-team BCHL all-star, reprising that honour from 2017-18, when he was also named the circuit’s top rookie.
And Newhook may not be done when it comes to end-of-the-season hardware. He’s also a finalist for the Canadian junior A most valuable player award which will be announced later this week.
All of this comes less than six weeks before the 2019 National Hockey League Entry Draft, which will be held June 21-22 in Vancouver.
In its final pre-draft listing, NHL Central Scouting has Boston College-bound Newhook ranked 13th amongst North American skaters. By using that a gauge and allowing for top-rated European players and goaltenders, that would seem to mean Newhook would likely be picked towards the bottom third of the first round, but other recent projections have him going higher.
Last week, Sportsnet’s Sam Consentino predicted Newhook would be the 13th overall pick, while Craig Button of TSN had the Newfoundlander tagged to go 16th overall.
It’s worth noting Central Scouting’s final rankings came before Newhook’s impressive performance at the world under hockey championship in April, when he had 10 points (5G, 5A) in seven games for a Canadian entry that finished fourth.
Newhook was only one of two players on the team from the junior A ranks. The rest came from major junior teams.
Between now and the Entry Draft, Newhook will also being graduating from high school in Victoria. In addition to that, he’s been invited to the NHL Draft combine in Buffalo, N.Y., in early June.
Twitter: @telysports
