The Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League have announced that defenseman Adam Pelech will participate in the 2012 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, which will take place Wednesday, February 1 in Kelowna, British Columbia.

The 2012 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game will mark the 17th annual showcase of the CHL’s top-40 NHL draft eligible players featuring talent from the Western Hockey League, Ontario Hockey League, and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. The two-day event also features an exciting skills competition and three-on-three challenge taking place on Tuesday, January 31.

Pelech is the first Otters defenseman to participate in the Top Prospects Game since Brian Lee in 2002 and is the 14th player from Erie selected to play in the game. Andrew Yogan (2010), Ryan O’Reilly (2009), Nick Palmieri (2007) and Zack Torquato (2007) are some of the recent players to have participated in the Top Prospects Game.

In an injury-shortened season, Pelech has excelled with six assists and a plus-two rating in eight games. He appeared in all but three games last season and was selected as the team’s Rookie of the Year at the Annual Summer Awards Banquet in June. Pelech has also won gold medals at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge with Team Ontario and at the Memorial of Ivan Hlinka with Team Canada.

- From Erie Otters news release

Toronto – The Canadian Hockey League today announced the four events and participants for the 2011 Home Hardware CHL/NHL Skills Competition set for Tuesday January 18 at 7:00 pm at Air Canada Centre.

Forty of the CHL’s top prospects eligible for the 2011 NHL Entry Draft have been divided into four different events including the Fastest Skater, Hardest Shot, Shooting Accuracy and a Showdown Breakaway Contest.  Following the four events, all participants will have the ability to showcase their skills in a 3-on3 game before fans and scouts in attendance.

The competition opens with the top two ranked OHL defencemen in the Fastest Skater event, including Team Orr’s Dougie Hamilton of the Niagara IceDogs, who is ranked seventh by NHL Central Scouting and Team Cherry’s Ryan Murphy of the Kitchener Rangers who is ranked 10th.

The Hardest Shot contest features a pair of WHL defencemen including Team Orr’s David Musil of the Vancouver Giants who is ranked 26th, and Team Cherry’s Duncan Siemens of the Saskatoon Blades who appears 14^th on the NHL Central Scouting midterm rankings.  Second-ranked forward Sean Couturier of the Drummondville Voltigeurs and Team Cherry will compete in the Shooting Accuracy along with Saint John Sea Dogs’ sniper Zack Phillips of Team Orr.

This season’s Breakaway Contest competitors include Team Orr’s number three-ranked Ryan Nugent-Hopkins of the Red Deer Rebels and fourth-ranked Sven Bartschi of the Portland Winterhawks.  They will try and outperform Team Cherry competition that includes internet shootout sensation Tomas Jurco of the Saint John Sea Dogs ranked 24^th by NHL Central Scouting, and 19^th-ranked Ryan Strome of the Niagara IceDogs who scored arguably the nicest goal in the OHL this season.

The Showdown Breakaway Contest made its debut last season in Windsor and will again feature six players per team taking two attempts on goal before a panel of four judges that will score each attempt based on creativity, originality, degree of difficulty, execution, showmanship, and the ability to score.

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The Air Canada Centre, home of the National Hockey League‘s Toronto Maple Leafs, will host the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game event, set for Jan. 18-19, 2011. Find out more by clicking the link.