Four Canadian Sports School League (CSSHL) alumni helped the Edmonton Oil Kings to a clean sweep of the Western Hockey League (WHL) Central Division awards for the 2020/21 season.
Dylan Guenther, Carson Latimer, Jake Neighbours and Ethan Peters all won WHL Central Division awards, with Guenther earning two. Guenther and Neighbours were earlier named to the Central Division All-Star team.
Before leaving the Central Division bubble to represent Team Canada at the U18 World Championships Guenther had 12 goals and 24 points and a league best 2 points per game in 12 games this season. His offensive outburst, combine with just two penalty minutes, earned him MVP and Most Sportsmanlike Player honours. With 59 points in 58 games last season, Guenther, the 2018 WHL Draft first overall pick, was named the 2019/20 WHL Rookie of the Year. In 67 CSSHL games with the Northern Alberta Xtreme (NAX) at the U15 Prep and U18 prep levels, Guenther recorded 183 points.
Latimer was named the WHL Central Division Rookie of the Year after posting 16 points in 22 games this season. Prior to joining the Oil Kings, Latimer spent four seasons with Delta Hockey Academy including winning a CSSHL U15 CSSHL Championship in 2016/17. The following season he would score 14 goals and add 15 assists in the U15 Prep division, leading to him being selected in the third round of the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft. He would join Delta’s U18 Prep team for the following season, finishing his CSSHL career with 135 points in 118 games.
Drafted in the first-round of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft by the St. Louis Blues, Neighbours spent the 2016/17 campaign with Rink Hockey Academy Kelowna (formerly Pursuit of Excellence) winning a U15 Prep CSSHL League Championship, finishing with 68 points in 30 games. Drafted fourth overall by the Oil Kings in the 2017 WHL Bantam Draft, Neighbours led the Central Division in scoring with 33 points in 19 games while leading the league in plus/minus (+29) and finishing fourth in points per game (1.74) among WHL skaters. In 141 WHL games Neighbours has 131 points.
Peters spent two seasons at Prairie Hockey Academy including their inaugural CSSHL campaign in 2018/19. In 35 games with the Prairie U16 Prep team Peters would post 18 points while earning CSSHL U16 All-Academic Team and CSSHL U16 WHL Scholastic Player of the Year honours. In his rookie season with the Oil Kings Peters played 23 games and had 1 goal and 4 assists and was named the WHL Central Division Scholastic Player of the Year.