Young 'Hounds thriving without Nurse: CHL Hot & Cold

October 24 is rather late in the calendar for the OHL to still have two unbeaten teams.

The Erie Otters and Connor McDavid will not see a team that is above .500 before that matchup in 10 days against the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds. The Soo have yet to encounter any difficulty despite captain Darnell Nurse being away with the NHL's Edmonton Oilers.

Erie starting fast was kind of expected, because of McDavid. The Greyhounds have been getting scoring from several sources — Blake Speers, Sergey Tolchinsky, Michael Bunting, Gabe Guertler — during a 7-0-0-0 start. The young 'Hounds will be in tough to get through a road trip that entails facing three Eastern Conference teams with a combined two regular-season losses, but they are fulfilling projections.

Here is the now weekly look at who is flowing and who is ebbing heading into a new week in the Canadian Hockey League.

OHL

Hot: Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds

The Soo's first "extended road trip" should prove more demanding than their games were last week. Sault Ste. Marie, which has seen sophomore Blake Speers pot 13 points in the first nine games, had a period against Sudbury where it outshot the Wolves 26-1. It also scored the first five goals in home wins over good Owen Sound Attack team and, well, a London team.

In Nurse's absence, 19-year-old Tyler Ganly, 18-year-old Kyle Jenkins and 17-year-olds Gustav Bouramann and Colton White have picked up the slack along the blueline. The  3-in-4 swing to North Bay, Belleville and Oshawa this week might prove to be a better indicator of whether the Soo is that taut defensively or whether its offensive depth covers up for some inexperience.

Point being, the 'Hounds are about to step out of their comfort zone.  Nurse has yet to appear in a game for the Edmonton Oilers, but the Soo has still outscored foes 36-14.

Not: Niagara IceDogs

Ottawa and Kingston ended four- and three-game skids, respectively, last weekend against the IceDogs, who went 0-6-0-0 over a season-opening road swing while awaiting the opening of the new Meridean Centre.

Captain Luke Mercer and Arizona Coyotes first-rounder Brendan Perlini are each out until November with significant injuries. Niagara has not had the secondary scoring or the, to quote Spinal Tap, the sustain to pull out two points.

"It's been individual mistakes,” coach-GM Marty Williamson told the St. Catharines Standard. “I saw it creep into the game a little in Belleville [a 7-4 loss on Saturday] where we got individual tried to do too much and then it’s just a huge breakdown.”

Niagara's home opener on Thursday is sold out — good thing. Its 6.7 per cent power play is matched up against a Mississauga power play that is 26-for-26 out of the gate.

Canadian NHL team prospects

Jared McCann, Sault Ste. Marie (No. 24 by Vancouver Canucks in 2014) — The 18-year-old, who contracted mononucleosis last month, made a deferred debut with the 'Hounds last week and had five points over three games.

Cole Cassels, Oshawa (No. 85 by Vancouver in '13) — The Generals captain has points in 6-of-8 games, with 11 in Oshawa's six wins and just one in the two losses. The Canucks signing has had three-point efforts in inter-conference wins over Kitchener and Plymouth, so one could say he's stepped it up against tougher foes.

Kyle Platzer, Owen Sound (No. 95 by Edmonton Oilers in '13) — Finally starting a season as a go-to guy, Platzer has had three three-point outings in his past four games.

Nick Paul, North Bay (No. 101 by Ottawa Senators in '13) — Paul has six goals and nine points over nine games in the Battalion's spread-the-wealth system, including that Thanskgiving Day hat trick vs. Barrie.

QMJHL

Hot: Quebec Remparts

The Remparts seized on having one of their two five-game homestands of the first half, completing a sweep by beating rival Rimouski 5-2 on the long weekend. Dmytro Timashov has lived up to the reputation that preceded him, counting 19 points over 10 games; Guillaume Gauthier, the classic former high midget draft pick now on his fourth team, has started well with 17 over the same span.

Quebec has righted the ship despite having neither of its New York Rangers prospects, with 50-goal man Anthony Duclair up in the NHL for the interim and potential cornerstone defenceman Ryan Graves rehabbing a surgically repaired shoulder. Quebec plays five of its next six games on the road.

Not: Cape Breton Screaming Eagles 

Every Maritimes team has to do the northwest Quebec swing once. The Eagles went 0-3 on a West Division swing after losing to fired-up Sherbrooke, then swinging north to play Val-d'Or and Rouyn-Noranda. Overage Kyle Farrell, the league's co-leader in goals, was kept off the scoresheet in each of the latter two games.

The problem might be in the defensive zone. The Eagles (5-6-1-0, .458 point pct., tied for 13th in the Q) are below the .500 mark despite having scored a league-high 50 goals in 12 games. That is surely going to be point of emphasis heading into a stretch where six of its next seven games are within the division.

Canadian NHL team prospects

Mason McDonald, Charlottetown (No. 34 by Calgary Flames in '14) — The lanky southpaw has a 3.18 average and .906 save percentage in five starts this month, although the Islanders have lost three in a row to fall back to a .500 point percentage (5-5-1-1 through 12 games)

Zachary Fucale, Halifax (No. 36 by Montreal Canadiens in '13) — Fucale has settled in well over his last three starts, stopping 87-of-94 shots while keeping each Halifax foe to three goals or fewer. It's not a reflection him that the Mooseheads won only one of those games. The club's lack of depth up front is going to affect the numbers for both Fucale and Winnipeg Jets first-rounder Nikolaj Ehlers.

Daniel Audette, Sherbrooke (No. 147 by Montreal in '14) — Audette had just a single point in Sherbrooke's two games last week. Through nine games, the 18-year-old has 11 points (5G-6A) on a Phoenix team that offers more offensive support than it did last season. Audette's faceoff percentage is just 41.1 per cent, which might be an effect of being a smaller centre.

WHL

Hot: Medicine Hat Tigers

The Tigers have a 30-7 goal differential during their five-game win streak, which they will put on the table during a home-and-home set with Calgary. Some of that came against less than formidable opposition, but Shaun Clouston has a strong foundation with Arizona Coyotes-drafted goalie Marek Langhamer (1.68 average, .941 save percentage), supported by a top four of Kyle Becker, Tyler Lewington, Ty Stanton and Tommy Vannelli.

The club traded away its only 18-year-old defender, Scott Allan on Monday. That is an indicator it believes the kid corps of 16-year-old David Quenneville and 17-year-olds Connor Hobbs and David Schultz will prove reliable.

It's early yet, but how awkward would it be at the CHL awards dinner if the Czech Republic-born Langhamer and Shawinigan's Marvin Cüpper are up for the goaltender of the year award? Cüpper, a German, has a nearly identical statline with a 1.69 average and .943 save percentage.

Not: Kootenay Ice

Twenty-year-old Tim Bozon, seven months after becoming critically ill from meningitis, is rejoining a team that is in dire straits. The Ice have been "not competitive enough in every area of the game" after the first four weeks of the season, starting 2-6-0-0.

Toronto Maple Leafs-drafted defenceman Rinat Valiev has yet to suit up and there doesn't appear to be word of an imminent return. Bozon, who was caught in a numbers game with the Canadiens' AHL farm team, should help as a playmaker who can get into the interior of the offensive zone. Kootenay will need a boost sooner rather than later to avoid losing contact with the Eastern Conference playoff pack.

Canadian NHL team prospects

Nikita Scherbak, Everett (No. 26 by Montreal in '14) — Scherbak has a nice stat line so far, with four goals and eight points over four games. The Silvertips striker is going to get maximum attention each time out, but he found a way in Everett's last two games by getting three of his four points during third periods.

Eric Comrie, Tri-City (No. 59 by Winnipeg in '13) — The 19-year-old is off to his accustomed start with a 2.29 average and .931 save percentage in seven games. Of note, all three losses came when Comrie was playing for the second night in a row, where a drop-off in goalie performance is expected. Comrie has stopped 84-of-94 shots in those outings.

Austin Carroll, Victoria (No. 184 by Calgary in '14) — The late bloomer is on a five-game goal streak for the Royals, who are a third of the way through a six-game Eastern Conference swing.

Neate Sager is a writer for Yahoo! Canada Sports. Follow him on Twitter @neatebuzzthenet.