Future NHL stars are developing in the Canadian Hockey League this season. Each week, NHL.com will highlight a few of the top NHL-affiliated prospects in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League, the Ontario Hockey League and the Western Hockey League.
Calum Ritchie played well enough last season that the Colorado Avalanche selected the 19-year-old center with the No. 27 pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.
Now he's showing what he can do when he's healthy.
Ritchie had 59 points (24 goals, 35 assists) in 59 games last season despite an injury to his right shoulder sustained during the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August 2022 that caused the shoulder to dislocate four times during the season. He had surgery in May, following the 2023 NHL Scouting Combine.
He didn't make his season debut until Nov. 12, but Ritchie still leads Oshawa of the OHL with 58 points (18 goals, 40 assists) in 35 games. His average of 1.66 points per game is third in the OHL and he had 21 points (seven goals, 14 assists) during a nine-game point streak from Jan. 19-Feb. 6.
"It's good as new," Ritchie said of his shoulder. "Really glad to be back and feels much better."
He said there were some early nerves when it came to how his shoulder would hold up to the rigors of the game, but Ritchie said he's long past that point now.
"I think obviously at the start it's still in your head a little bit, but when you get out there you're not really thinking too much about that, you're just trying to play hockey," he said. "Consciously you're trying to avoid some areas at the start. I think now my game is to the point where I'm not really thinking, 'Oh, my shoulder,' at all and I'm just playing hockey and trying my best to help the team each night."
The Avalanche certainly have been impressed.
"He's come back incredible," Colorado director of player development Brian Willsie said. "He's put the work in. That's a tough surgery to come back from, it's six full months and it's longer if you don't stay on top of the rehab. It's an every-day thing to recover it back to normal, strengthen it and then feel confident when you finally get on the ice. And that's a credit to him, he did the work."