{"id":677725,"date":"2026-05-18T15:34:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:34:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/677725\/"},"modified":"2026-05-18T15:34:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T15:34:11","slug":"carson-carels-commits-to-north-dakota-as-he-prepares-for-nhl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/677725\/","title":{"rendered":"Carson Carels commits to North Dakota as he prepares for NHL Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Defenceman Carson Carels has committed to play for North Dakota in the NCAA for the 2026-27 season, he announced on Instagram on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Carels, 17, was one of the best defencemen in the Western Hockey League this year, registering 20 goals and 73 points in 58 games with a plus-23 rating with the Prince George Cougars.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He helped lead Prince George to a 44-14-10 record, finishing third in the Western Conference. The Cougars fell in the second round of the playoffs to the expansion Penticton Vees in six games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 6-foot-1, left-shot blueliner recorded a goal and 10 points in 10 playoff games before being eliminated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019m pleased to announce my commitment to play Division 1 hockey at the University of North Dakota to continue pursuing my hockey career and furthering my education,\u201d Carels said on Instagram. \u201cThank you to everyone who\u2019s made a significant impact on my career thus far \u2014 my family, friends, coaches, teammates, and the whole Prince George organization and community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cThank you for shaping me to the person I am today and making the past three years the best years of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Carels played his entire three-year WHL career with the Cougars, recording 26 goals and 111 points in 125 games.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The Cypress River, Man., native represented Canada at the 2026 World Juniors, recording an assist in a bronze-medal finish.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He also represented Canada at the 2025 Under-18 World Hockey Championship and 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup, taking home a gold and bronze medal, respectively.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Carels is eligible for the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo at the end of June and is ranked <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/article\/craigs-list-mckenna-reigns-at-no-1-ruck-twins-make-rapid-rise\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tsn.ca\/nhl\/article\/craigs-list-mckenna-reigns-at-no-1-ruck-twins-make-rapid-rise\/\">No. 2 on TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button\u2019s March draft list<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Defenceman Carson Carels has committed to play for North Dakota in the NCAA for the 2026-27 season, he&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,124790,448,82],"class_list":["post-677725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-carson-carels","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=677725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}