from Gare Joyce of Sportsnet,

The BMO CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game is one of the more curious fixtures on the NHL calendar. Ostensibly it’s a chance for the CHL draft-eligible elites to showcase their stuff in front of the largest contingent of NHL scouts gathered outside of the draft combine and the entry draft itself. But even the players know that the idea of a guy playing himself onto the radar with a boffo performance at the Top Prospects is hokum. “It’s not going to make or break you, but there’s a lot of people watching,” Erie Otters centre Dylan Strome said Tuesday.

By definition, the TPG isn’t a place for discoveries—it’s a by-invitation event, NHL teams letting Central Scouting Service know which CHL players they’d like to eyeball in the smallest possible and seemingly least useful sample, 60 minutes of all-star action. So why do it at all, other than provide a bit of all-star entertainment? Why not do it like CHL all-star games in bygone years, when the teams also included already drafted players, a true major-junior best of?

The key here is timing. NHL scouting departments time their winter meetings around this January event for a few compelling reasons.

1. The area scouts will have books with multiple viewings on top prospects in their respective leagues. Their reports are filed on the fly.

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Coverage of the game tonight starts at 7:00pm ET on NHL Network US, Sportsnet and TVA.