Bedard, Hughes bros. and Caufield highlight Core 4 U-24 5-Star player lists

Five-star recruits are defined as the most elite candidates for college athletic programs.

New to TSN’s Core 4 U-24 project this year are 5-Star Players, who represent the best of the best in six benchmark categories: smarts (hockey IQ), skating, shooting, stickhandling, competitiveness and, of course, swagger.

TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button Button and FloSports Senior NHL Draft and Prospects analyst Chris Peters worked together on the U-24 project this year and collaborated to assemble our lists of 5-Star Players – picking from a pool of all NHL players and prospects who were 23 or younger as of season’s start Oct. 10.

Not surprisingly the three players who rose to the top of the U-24 list – No. 1 Chicago centre Connor Bedard, No. 2 Vancouver defenceman Quinn Hughes and No. 3 New Jersey centre Jack Hughes – are prominent on the 5-Star lists.

NHLers dominate the rankings, but a total of six non-NHLers broke into the elite – including Moose Jaw Warriors’ centre Jagger (Firk du Soleil) Firkus and Calgary Wranglers’ goalie Dustin Wolf on the all-swagger list.

Smarts
(1) Bedard (2) J. Hughes (3) Matvei Michkov, RW, Sochi/Philadelphia (4) Q. Hughes (5) Owen Power, LD, Buffalo

Skating
(1) Q. Hughes (2) Jake Sanderson, LD, Ottawa (3) J. Hughes (4) Oliver Moore, University of Minnesota/­Chicago (5) Kaiden Guhle, LD, Montreal

Shooting
(1) Bedard (2) Cole Caufield, LW, Montreal (3) Mason McTavish, C, Anaheim (4) Evan Bouchard, RD, Edmonton (5) Cutter Gauthier, LW, Boston College/Philadelphia

Stickhandling
(1) Trevor Zegras, C, Anaheim (2) J. Hughes (3) Logan Cooley, C, Arizona (4) Tim Stutzle, C, Ottawa (5) Lane Hutson, LD, Boston University/Montreal

Competitiveness
(1) Moritz Seider, RD, Detroit (2) Dylan Cozens, C, Buffalo (3) Ridly Greig, C, Ottawa (4) Bedard (5) Matty Beniers, C, Seattle

Swagger
(1) J. Hughes (2) Zegras (3) Caufield (4) Firkus (5) Wolf