SUDBURY, Ont. – Last season’s Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League Most Valuable Player award recipient, Nate McDonald, has been named to National Hockey League Central Scouting’s updated Players to Watch List as part of the process heading into the 2018 NHL Draft, June 22-23, in Dallas Texas.
The 18-year-old North Bay, Ont., product earned a C rating on the list, which makes him a potential fourth, fifth or sixth round selection in the 2018 NHL Draft.
McDonald was instrumental in leading the Powassan Voodoos to a first place finish in the 2016-17 overall NOJHL standings as well as a perfect playoff run that resulted in the club in being crowned league champions.
In last season’s campaign, he led all NOJHL netminders in goals-against average at 2.159 and wins with 30 while earning league CCM Hockey first team all-star accolades.
Postseason play saw him reel off an impressive 12-0 record while topping all NOJHL goaltenders in both average and save mark at 1.84 and .923 respectively as he backstopped Powassan to the title.
McDonald was also third in save percentage at .923 and finished tied for second in shutouts with three and played the fourth-most minutes in the league at 2,112. He was also a member of Team NOJHL at the 2016 Eastern Canada Cup All-Star Challenge.
Currently a member of the Whitby Fury (OJHL), the former Voodoos standout has committed to attend Cornell University on NCAA Division I scholarship and tend goal for the Big Red, who compete out of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference.
