IceDogs Roobroeck first forward named to Team CHL for 2025 Prospects Challenge

Brandon Caputo
Sep 23
3 min read

Brandon Caputo (@BCaputo_AGM)

The Canadian Hockey League announced on Tuesday that Niagara IceDogs third-year Ontario Hockey League forward forward Ryan Roobroeck would be one of the participants at the second annual CHL-USA Prospects Challenge set for November 25-26 in Calgary and Lethbridge. Roobroeck joins Western Hockey League (WHL) Vancouver Giants defenceman Ryan Lin and Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) Blainville-Boisbriand Armanda defenceman Xavier Villeneuve as the first three players selected to Team CHL for the 2025 event, set to take on the best from the U.S. National Under-18 Team.

All three draft eligible players are considered to be set as ‘A” prospects for NHL Central Scouting’s Players to Watch List for next June’s NHL Entry Draft, which is set to be released on October. Lin, Roobroeck and Villeneuve were integral members of the gold-medal winning team at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Championship for Hockey Canada.

“Ryan Lin, Ryan Roobroeck, and Xavier Villeneuve bring the kind of skill, intensity, and excitement fans will see at this year’s CHL USA Prospects Challenge,” said Dan MacKenzie, CHL President. “They’ve already proven themselves as standouts in their leagues and on the international stage, and now they’ll set the tone for an electric showcase in Calgary and Lethbridge against their greatest rivals – the United States.”

“The first three prospects named to Team CHL – Ryan Lin (Vancouver, WHL), Ryan Roobroeck (Niagara, OHL), and Xavier Villeneuve (Blainville-Boisbriand, QMJHL) – are established impact players in their respective leagues, each capable of delivering the kind of sensational plays that influence the outcome of a game,” stated Dan Marr, Director of NHL Central Scouting.

Niagara’s Ryan Roobroeck, who still does not turn 18 years of age until September 25^th, enters his draft year with high expectations as a late-2007 born player, allowing him the extra third year of major junior hockey before he is draft eligible for the National Hockey League.

Roobroeck was selected second overall from the London Jr. Knights in the 2023 OHL Priority Selection by the Niagara IceDogs in hopes of turning a once stable franchise back into a competitive team year-in and year-out. Roobroeck virtually re-wrote Niagara’s rookie-record book the franchise as a 16-year-old in his first season with 28 goals and 51 points, before bursting onto the scene in his second season for 41 goals and 87 points in 2024-25, leading the IceDogs in both categories; with the 41 goals tying him for most among 2026 NHL Draft eligible players within the CHL. He also joined an elite group as one of only 14 CHL players since 2000 to score 40 or more goals in the season before his NHL Draft eligible year.

Roobroeck earned an ‘A’ last season as one of Niagara’s emerging young leaders on and off the ice, an honour that he now holds as they begin the 2025-26 OHL season as well. Niagara, a team with high expectations with many top-end skilled young forward, are 1-1 on the season after a win in their home opener over Sudbury this past weekend. Roobroeck and the IceDogs are a team looking to build off of experiencing their first playoff appearance as a franchise since 2019, losing in five games to the Central Division winner Barrie Colts last season. Niagara currently sits in fifth place on the OHL's Power Rankings and were listed on the CHL's initial Top-10 list for the opening week of the season.

The towering 6’4, 215-pound, dynamic game-breaking winger is listed highly on many early draft boards as a can’t miss prospect, a label that has been on him from a very young age during his days coming up through minor hockey. Roobroeck is ranked as high as the second-best prospect available in the draft with a consensus average of around fourth or fifth at the current moment, listed below.

It will be an intriguing year for Roobroeck, seeing how he handles the attention and expectations for what is to be the biggest and most important year as a hockey player, hoping to have his name called early in next June’s Entry Draft to begin his journey as a professional hockey player. The first of many spotlighted events that the London, Ontario native should be able to compete in this 2025-26 hockey season.

The inaugural CHL-USA Prospects Challenge event was held last November in London and Oshawa. Of the 22 participants on Team CHL, seven OHL’ers were selected in the first round of the 2025 NHL Draft: D Matthew Schaefer, F Michael Misa, F Brady Martin, F Porter Martone, F Jake O’Brien, D Kashawn Aitcheson, and D Cameron Reid.