Three Prince George Cougars and a Vancouver Giant with Prince George roots are on NHL Central Scouting’s Final Rankings list for the 2025 draft.
Cougars goalie Josh Ravensbergen, 18, remains the top-ranked North American goalie available in the draft.
In only his second WHL season, his remarkable winning percentage makes Ravensbergen the sixth-fastest WHL goalie to reach 40 career wins since records began to be tracked by the internet.
The six-foot-five, 192-pound North Vancouver native won 33 regular season games (second in the WHL) and was also collected three playoff wins in a seven-game series against the Portland Winterhawks. During the season, he posted a 33-13-3-1 record with a 3.00 goals-against average and .901 save percentage.
In his career with the Cougars, the undrafted Ravensbergen has a 59-17-4-2 record and 2.78 GAA and ranks fourth in Cougar history for most wins, a record held by Ty Edmonds (100).
Ravensbergen is a finalist for the Del Wilson Memorial Award that goes to the top goaltender in the WHL.
Giants right-winger Cameron Schmidt, who was born and raised in Prince George, is ranked as the 43rd North American skater on NHL Central Scouting’s final list.
Considered one of the fastest skaters in the WHL, at 18 he led Vancouver in scoring in his only second season in the league, with 40 goals and 38 assists for 78 points. Schmidt notched seven game-winning goals and 14 power-play goals, which put him in the WHL’s top-10 in each category.
On Monday, the five-foot-seven, 161-pound Prince George native was added to the Team Canada roster for the IIHF U18 World Championships, April 23-May 3 in Frisco and Allen, Texas.
This will be Schmidt’s third stint with a national team. In 2023 he scored the golden goal in the World U17 Hockey Challenge and also helped Canada win gold last August in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.
Cougar forwards Aiden Foster and Jett Lajoie also made Central Scouting’s final list. Foster is ranked 89th and Lajoie is 166th.
The six-foot-two, 174-pound Foster, the 18-year-old son of former Cougars forward Aaron Foster, doubled his point production from his rookie season and finished with 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points, playing in all 68 regular-season games. The hard-nosed left-winger from Lloydminster, Alta., picked up six assists in seven playoff games. He’s known among the scouts for his physical nature on the ice and he had 136 penalty minutes. Foster was the Cougars third-round, 61st overall choice in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft.
Lajoie could also hear his name called in the NHL draft.
The 18-year-old Winnipeg native put up 35 points, including 14 goals, and finished with a plus-seven rating, in his second WHL season. The five-foot-11, 177-pound left-winger also had a goal and four assists in the playoffs. The Cougars chose Lajoie in the second round, 28th overall, in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft.
The NHL draft is set for June 27-28 in Los Angeles.
