The road to No. 1 in the NHL draft goes through Oakville for Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue - Toronto Star

The Regina Pats linemates will be opponents at the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, starting Sunday.

If you plan on taking in the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge in Oakville next week, there’s a very good chance you’ll get an early glimpse of the first pick in the 2028 NHL draft. And quite possibly No. 1 in the 2029 sweepstakes as well.

Because if history is any indication, the top 18-year-old prospect in the world two years from now will be turning heads as a 16-year-old on the international stage at the Sixteen Mile Sports Complex beginning Sunday. A first overall choice has performed in each of the past six events (it was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID pandemic). And if defenceman Landon DuPont goes No. 1 in 2027 as expected, that would make it seven consecutive years. Of the more than 2,000 NHL picks who have played in the tournament since it began in 1986, 21 have gone first overall.

Heading into this event, Regina Pats centre Maddox Schultz and right-winger Liam Pue are tearing up the Western Hockey League as 16-year-old linemates.

“Right now, for me, one or the other is going to be the first overall pick in 2028,” said TSN scouting director Craig Button. “And I don’t know how much people have heard about Madden Daneault (a 15-year-old WHLer also playing in the tournament) but he could be the first overall pick in 2029.”

Maddox Schultz (2028) ends it in OT to cap off his first-career WHL hat trick. The 15-year-old now has 7 goals and 16 points in 20 games. https://t.co/ueRY7oA0Op

A native of Medicine Hat, Alta., who grew up in Regina, Schultz definitely has elite bloodlines, but not in the way you might think. His father is Dave Schultz, a former national-level figure skater and skating coach — not to be confused with the former Philadelphia Flyers bruiser from the Broad Street Bullies era. Mom Vicki is also a former elite figure skater who coaches. But the younger Schultz chose hockey and it was a wise choice. Scouts have compared him to Macklin Celebrini and Jonathan Toews.

“I would also mention Patrice Bergeron,” Schultz said. “I love watching him and how he takes pride in his defensive game. I’m a complete player, and you might not always see me get on the scoresheet with four points every game. Sometimes that might happen, but sometimes I might be plus-three and really good in the defensive zone.”

Pue is not exactly the opposite, but it’s pretty clear his aim is to make life miserable for two-way forwards such as Schultz. With the Pats this season, he already has two hat tricks and 11 goals in 11 games. There’s little doubt that Pue is always looking to score. Alan Millar, manager of Hockey Canada’s Program of Excellence, was general manager of the Ontario Hockey League’s Sarnia Sting when Steven Stamkos played there and said there are definite similarities to Pue.

“From the time I started playing hockey, it’s always been the best thing in the world for me to score a goal,” Pue said. “Every game I just wanted to put the puck in the net as many times as I could, and that has stuck with me my whole life. I love the game, but I love the game 10 times more when I put the puck in the net.”

🎥 HIGHLIGHT OF THE NIGHT - Liam Pue 🎥 Liam Pue with a sharp angle goal for his second of the night is an absolute BEAUTY! 🤯👏 @WHLPats | #WHLHoN https://t.co/JSiuzOC3Wm

Even though the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge is a Hockey Canada tournament and not sanctioned by the International Ice Hockey Federation, it does serve as the entry point to international hockey for Canadian players. Both Schultz and Pue played in the event in 2025 and, despite being a year younger than their teammates, were among Canada’s best (along with DuPont) on Canada’s team at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup this past summer. Schultz led that tournament with three goals and 10 points in five games; Pue was right behind him with nine points, six of them goals.

In fact, Pue is such a prolific scorer that Button thinks he needs to be considered for this year’s Canadian world junior roster, which may have trouble producing offence.

“I think Canada has the makings of a really good foundational team, but I think they’re lacking some offensive pop,” Button said. “If you’re looking for a 13th forward who is going to bang around and block shots, that’s not going to win you games. You need offensive pop, and I think Liam Pue should be at the world junior camp.”

What Pue does in Oakville may go a long way toward determining that. The tournament features two Canadian rosters and despite their success as teammates, Hockey Canada decided to make Schultz the captain of Canada White while Pue captains Canada Red. Teams from Czechia, Finland, Sweden and the United States are also participating.

“I think we have a responsibility to the 44 players that we balance the teams the best we can,” said Millar, who selected Schultz first and Pue third overall in the 2025 WHL draft when he was GM in Regina. “If we put the two players together, it would be like we were loading up one team. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that if we were 100 per cent about winning we would have only one team. But with the success we’ve had, we’re able to give 44 athletes this experience: two coaching staffs, two management groups.”

Hockey Canada has taken it on the chin fairly regularly in international competition of late, but the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge has been a different story. The past two years, Canadian teams have met in the gold-medal game. As far as Hockey Canada is concerned, splitting the talent serves the dual purpose of developing more players and trying to win.

“This is the foundation for what our world junior team is going to look like one, two, three years down the road,” Millar said. “Winning matters, and we’ve been doing a lot of work in terms of messaging on getting back to that Canadian way of how hard we want to play, and complement that with our skill set. Getting inside doesn’t do much for you on social media, but we’ve done some work on re-establishing what hard, competitive hockey looks like.”

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Ken Campbell is a longtime hockey writer and freelance contributor to the Star's Sports section. He is based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter: @Ken_Campbell27