Barrie Colts center Zach Hall, a well-regarded prospect for the 2013 NHL Draft, has been added to Team OHL for its Subway Super Series game against Team Russia on Nov. 8 in Guelph, Ont.

Hall, a 5-foot-10.5, 172-pound forward, is tied for fourth in the Ontario Hockey League with 22 points in 13 games. He earned a C rating in NHL Central Scouting's preliminary rankings of players to watch for this year's draft.

Also added to the team is Erie Otters forward Connor McDavid, a 15-year-old playing his first season in the Ontario Hockey League after receiving "exceptional player" status last season to enter the league a season early. He's the youngest player in the 10-year history of the Super Series to skate in the event, which is considered a showcase for players eligible to skate for Canada in the World Junior Championship.

He's certainly proving worthy of the decision, as he leads all first-year OHL players with 18 points in 15 games. In fact, after going without a point in his first game, he has at least a point in a league-best 14 straight. He has four multi-point games in that span.

McDavid, a 5-foot-11.25, 173-pound center, is eligible for the 2016 NHL Draft.

Jaden Schwartz was drafted by the Blues in the first-round (14th overall) at the 2010 NHL Draft. He attended Colorado College, where he recorded 88 points (32 goals, 56 assists) in 60 games. He left school after two years, signing with the Blues in March 2012. He scored his first NHL goal in his first game on March 17 vs. Tampa Bay and had 3 points (2 goals, 1 assist) in seven NHL games last season.

Now, Schwartz is playing for the Peoria Rivermen. He currently ranks second on the club with 4 points (2 goals, 2 assists). Just before his season started, Schwartz talked to stlouisblues.com about getting involved in hockey, breaking Vincent Lecavalier's scoring record in high school and what it will take to become a regular in the Blues lineup.

STLOUISBLUES.COM: How did you get your start in hockey? Your older brother, Rylan, played hockey. Is that where your desire to play came from?

Four Western Hockey League players who received A ratings in NHL Central Scouting's preliminary rankings of players to watch for the 2013 NHL Draft will skate for Team WHL against Team Russia in a pair of Subway Super Series games.

Forwards Curtis Lazar of the Edmonton Oil Kings and Hunter Shinkaruk of the Medicine Hat Tigers, Brandon Wheat Kings defenseman Ryan Pulock and Tri-City Americans goalie Eric Comrie will skate in games to be played Nov. 14 in Vancouver and Nov. 15 in Victoria, British Columbia. Lazar and Comrie will play in both games; Shinkaruk and Pulock will play in the game in Vancouver.

Lazar, a 5-foot-11.75, 193-pound center, has eight goals and three assists in 13 games, after leading all WHL rookies in scoring in the Oil Kings' run to the Memorial Cup last season.

"I really like his speed, he has a real nose for the net," Central Scouting's B.J. MacDonald told NHL.com. "His skill set is good. I like to say about some of these players that are A players: You watch them play and they get it. He gets it. He gets the game and knows how to filter through it all."

Shinkaruk has 13 points in 14 games after finishing second on the team last season with 49 goals and 91 points. He's got less talent around him in Medicine Hat this season, but scouts have been impressed.

"He's a talented kid," MacDonald said. "No one can give-and-go and go to the net better than he does. He's got a great understanding of the game. He's going to develop his character this year because every team they play against is going to key on him."

In Jon Greenwood's eyes, Nathan MacKinnon was always the best player on the ice "by a landslide." (Photo: Maritime Hockey Academy)

Jon Greenwood still remembers the first time he set sights on Nathan MacKinnon as an 11-year-old with the Cole Harbour Wings in Nova Scotia.

Greenwood, who now serves as the director of hockey development of the Maritime Hockey Academy, was MacKinnon's coach at the time. It would be the start of a great friendship between mentor and student.

"He was different," Greenwood told NHL.com. "His skating was something that jumped out at me right away. As that first season went on, I started to think, 'Gee, this is the best first-year pee wee player we've seen in some time.' That eventually grew to my thinking there may not be as good a player in the province and maybe even Canada."

Growing up in Regina, Saskatchewan, there were lots of opportunities for Kamloops Blazers center JC Lipon to play different sports. Of course there's hockey.

And there was his other passion -- wakeboarding.

Yes, growing up in the middle of the Canadian prairies, Lipon amazingly grew into an accomplished wakeboarder, and took part in national and international tournaments.

"I've been across Canada for competitions," Lipon told NHL.com. "I've been to Reno for Worlds. I used to travel to Florida for months at a time to train."

The only water he competes on now is the frozen kind, and that's working out just as well for him.

There will be a few faces recognizable to North American hockey fans when Team Russia hits the ice as part of the Subway Super Series games.

Team Russia will play six games over an 11-day span -- two games each against all-star teams from the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League and Western Hockey League.

Among the players skating for Team Russia is defenseman Nikita Zadorov of the London Knights of the OHL, rated as an A skater in NHL Central Scouting's preliminary rankings of players to watch for the 2013 NHL Draft.

Three players expected to be first-round picks at the 2013 NHL Draft will have an extra opportunity to showcase themselves as members of Team OHL for the Subway Super Series.

London Knights center Max Domi, Ottawa 67's center Sean Monahan and Windsor Spitfires left wing Kerby Rychel were named to the two teams that will face Team Russia at games to be played in Guelph, Ontario, on Nov. 8, and in Sarnia, Ontario, on Nov. 12.

"I've had the opportunity to work with Kerby and with Sean at the Ivan Hlinka tournament two Augusts ago," Team OHL coach Steve Spott said. "Both of those young men are big and strong. … For Max, he's obviously proven that he can be an elite player in the Ontario Hockey League even though he might not be a 19-year-old player. I'm excited to work with Max. He's strong, he's competitive. He reminds me of a player along the lines of a Theoren Fleury."

The player taken with the first pick in the NHL Draft has been selected from the Ontario Hockey League five times in the past six years. Could that trend continue at the 2013 NHL Draft?

There's the usual amount of top-end talent skating in the OHL, with an especially high number of offensively gifted forwards.

NHL.com reached out to NHL Central Scouting's top Ontario scout, Chris Edwards, for his opinion on a few of the players who could hear their names called early at June's selection extravaganza at Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

In alphabetical order, here is a list of the top 10 prospects skating in the OHL, with Edwards' expert opinion:

It wasn't quite a my-way-or-the-highway offer, but when Rouyn-Noranda Huskies coach Andre Tourigny sat down with forward Jean-Sebastien Dea in late December last year, he had a simple message for his young forward: Play our way or you won't be playing.

Dea took the message to heart, finished last season on an upswing and has had an explosive start to the 2012-13 season. With a goal and an assist Friday against Drummondville, Dea leads the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with 16 goals and 26 points in 12 games. After going undrafted last year, the 18-year-old center rapidly is becoming a hot commodity.

"I'm really more popular because of him," Tourigny told NHL.com.

That didn't sound like something that would happen at the start of last season. Dea, a third-round pick of the Huskies in the 2011 QMJHL draft, said when he joined the team he was overwhelmed by the level of play and struggled to keep up.

USA Hockey on Thursday announced the roster for the U.S. Junior Select Team that will participate in the 2012 World Junior A Challenge, Nov. 5-11, in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

The United States won three straight World Junior A Challenge titles from 2008 to 2010 before finishing third last year.

The 22-player roster includes 13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goalies.

Three players from last year's team are on the 2012 roster, including Waterloo Black Hawks defenseman Ian McCoshen.

McCoshen is one of three players who earned an A rating on NHL Central Scouting's preliminary rankings of players to watch for the 2013 NHL Draft.