Thanks to the over 80 of you who voted in our poll! We combined your votes and the writers’ votes and our Top 25 Under 25 continues today:
#10: Trey Fix-Wolansky
Voting
10th out of 34 eligible players
Writers’ Vote: 11th
Readers’ Vote: 8th
Highest Placement: 4th (1 vote)
Most Common Placement: 11th (10 votes)
Biography
Birthdate: May 26, 1999
Birthplace: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 187 lbs
Position: Right Wing
Acquired: Drafted #204 overall, 7th round 2018
2018-19 Season
Few Columbus Blue Jackets prospects saw their stock rise higher than Trey Fix-Wolansky last year. The 2018 seventh-round pick dominated the Western Hockey League as a 19-year-old, scoring 37 goals and 102 points in just 65 games as captain of the Edmonton Oil Kings. His 65 assists tied for second in the WHL, where he also tied for fourth in points and fifth in shots. He captained the Oil Kings to the third round (they hadn’t made the playoffs since 2015-16), was named to the Eastern Conference First Team and finished runner-up for WHL Player of the Year.
Fix-Wolansky parlayed his career season into a three-year entry level deal signed in March, allowing him to join the Cleveland Monsters for the second round of the Calder Cup playoffs. There, he notched a goal and an assist in three games.
Fix-Wolansky’s a great success story, though didn’t come out of nowhere. He tallied 89 points in 2017-18 for Edmonton, but his lack of size (5’ 7”) apparently scared teams enough for him to slide to the seventh round.
2019-20 Forecast
Fix-Wolansky has been through two CBJ development camps and will attend his second training camp next month. The club’s high on him for good reason, per then-development coach Chris Clark in March.
“One of the greatest things about him is he’s always using his teammates,” Clark said. “Which is great because he makes everybody on his line better. There’s a lot of players who are really good who don’t make the guys around him better, but he’s the type of player who does. That’s how he’s going to succeed at the next level.”
The diminutive winger draws obvious comparisons to another small star forward with the same organization: Cam Atkinson. League trends have shown that size doesn’t matter as much as it used to, and Fix-Wolansky could have a shot to make the big team out of camp. Starting out in Cleveland is the most likely route, though, and probably the smart one. He’ll definitely be a player to watch, and could be Cam 2.0.