Sudbury Wolves assistant captain Quentin Musty has had an impressive year. Being one of the youngest prospects in the upcoming draft, he ended the season with 82 points in just 57 games. Looking at first-year draft-eligible prospects in the Ontario Hockey League, Musty stands out as the player with the best point-per-game average throughout the year.
Birthplace: Hamburg, New York
Date of birth: July 6, 2005
Shoots: Left
Position: LW
Height: 6’2
Weight: 190 lbs.
Team: Sudbury Wolves (OHL)
After growing up in The Empire State (of mind), Musty was drafted first overall in the OHL Priority Selection back in 2021. It is not hard to understand what got Sudbury intrigued. From an early age, Quentin Musty was an offensive juggernaut with a well-rounded set of skills.
Considering the pandemic, the 2021 Priority Selection was a bit of a crapshoot, with a difficult time evaluating prospects due to their lack of proper game time. If you have the first choice in such a draft, it does make sense to go after a player who ticks a lot of simultaneous boxes. Musty had the ability to create both through his shooting and passing ability, he was defensively sound and had another advantage in terms of his body size.
After starting off slowly in his OHL freshman season, he exploded once he saw a change of coaching staff in November 2022. Not unlike the development of another top-rated youngster in the CHL, Montreal draftee Joshua Roy. In the case of Roy though, it was not just a change of coaches, but a trade that led to his sudden explosion.
It is difficult to know what you are going to get in terms of Musty’s skating ability. One scouting outlet describes his skating as below average, while another compliments his excellent north – south speed. Certainly, if a player is complimented with having an excellent asset in terms of his straight line speed, his overall skating ability cannot also be considered as below average, can it?
Regardless, it seems as though Musty’s problem lies in his inability to keep pace during changes of direction and to remain dominant when having to skate east-west. Some analysts also question whether his effort is there every single shift on every single night.
Preliminary Rankings
Dobber Prospects: #15
Elite Prospects: #12
FCHockey: #20
Hockey Prospect: #27
Hadi Kalakeche: #19
McKeen’s: #36
Bob McKenzie (TSN): #26
NHL Central Scouting: #14 (North American skaters)
Corey Pronman (The Athletic) #21
Scott Wheeler (The Athletic): #18
Elite Prospects rave about Musty’s overall qualities, ranking him as their #12 overall prospect. They do, however, see a problem with his effort on the defensive side of the ice. In the beginning of the season, Musty had a tendency to play hero ball and do too much from a playmaking standpoint. Trying to connect too difficult passes way too often becomes a problem when you simultaneously don’t enjoy backchecking when needed.
Regardless of that, the overall rankings, minus McKeen’s, are in agreement that Musty is among the 32 most talented players in this draft class. He has pretty much remained around the same position as he was projected going into the 2022-23 season.
There is quite the chance that a team selecting him ends up getting a decently productive top-nine winger who can add scoring depth and some power-play trickery. Then again, it could be that his potential is even larger than that.
The frame is already there. The latter half of the season also showed a more mature way of being able to use it. Post coaching change, Musty found a way to turn his body into the freight train it should be in the OHL.
If the most recent eight months are a sign of things to come, Musty could quickly turn from a top-nine hopeful to a quality top-six power forward in the National Hockey League. Is the sample size still too small to be a top 15 selection? That is entirely possible.
But, if that lack of a sample size ends up with him slipping past the 20th selection, this is the type of player who could be worth trading up for. Especially if you happen to have a rebuilding roster, the time to develop new prospects, and extra draft picks to spare.
Matt Drake
