Who said the only good hockey is in the NHL? Prospect teams all over North America offer a good look at the next wave of young talent. There are a few farm, college and junior teams that stand out for their high-end rosters, and I circle and star games on their schedules every season.

For example, Friday's game between Boston College and the University of Wisconsin featured more than 20 NHL draft picks, including five of the first 16 selections from 2019. You're always going to see a higher number of NHL-connected players in the AHL and men's college hockey, and there are few better places to watch upcoming draft talent than Canadian junior. There's an abundance of options across North America to get a glimpse of the future of the game.

Here's a look at five of the most exciting, prospect-packed teams outside of the NHL to watch this season -- and a spotlight game to check out for each team.

1. Grand Rapids Griffins, AHL

Because of the way the Detroit Red Wings have drafted recently, and due to the circumstances of this being a rebuilding year, fans can see five of the organization's past six first-round draft picks in one place. The Griffins' roster includes 2019 first-round defenseman Moritz Seider, 2018 selections Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno, 2015 first-rounder Evgeni Svechnikov and 2017 first-rounder Michael Rasmussen, who spent all of the previous season with Detroit but was sent down to get more reps at his natural position of center.

All of that talent in one place provides a unique glimpse of the organization in its development phase, reminiscent of the traditional Red Wings model of overripening prospects by using all the tools at the team's disposal. Detroit needs pretty much all of these guys to hit in one way or another. Svechnikov is older, and the time for him to maximize his value seems to be dwindling, but the rest are absolute keys to the next era of Red Wings hockey.

In addition to the first-rounders, Grand Rapids is home to the Red Wings' top goalie prospect, Filip Larsson, who spent last season with the University of Denver. Among the other notable prospects currently marinating on the farm are Finnish import Oliwer Kaski, college free agent Ryan Kuffner and recent second-round pick Gustav Lindstrom.

Game to watch: vs. Rockford IceHogs, 7 p.m. ET Nov. 15 (AHL.tv)

The Korn Ferry Tour has announced its full tournament schedule for the 2020 season, a globetrotting slate of 28 events that will include tournaments in 20 states and four foreign countries.

The developmental circuit will once again be the main pathway to the PGA Tour, with 50 Tour cards for the 2020-21 season handed out to top finishers over the regular season and during the three-event Finals. As in previous years, the schedule will kick off with two events in January in the Bahamas – but this time with a slight tweak. With the Abaco Club severely damaged by Hurricane Dorian, Baha Mar in Nassau will serve as host of the Bahamas Great Abaco Classic. Each of the first two events will feature a Wednesday finish.

Four new events were added for the 2020 slate: the Lake Charles Championship in Lake Charles, La., the Veritex Bank Championship in Arlington, Texas, the Huntsville Championship in Huntsville, Ala., and the Live and Work in Maine Open in Falmouth, Maine. Additionally, the El Bosque Championship in Leon, Mexico, will return after a one-year hiatus. Other events outside the U.S. include the Panama Championship and the Country Club de Bogota Championship in Colombia.

Dropped from the 2019 schedule are stops in Prattville, Ala., San Antonio, Findley Lake, N.Y., and Hayward, Calif.

The schedule for the Finals will remain the same, with 25 PGA Tour cards awarded to top money earners across three events. The postseason will start with the Albertsons Boise Open followed by the Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio. The season will conclude Aug. 27-30 with the Korn Ferry Tour Championship in Evansville, Ind.

Click here for a look at the full 2020 schedule.

Each week on GolfChannel.com, we’ll examine which players’ stocks and trends are rising and falling in the world of golf.

RISING

Bernd Wiesberger (+8%): Few this year have climbed higher than the Austrian, whose third victory (and second Rolex Series title) this season rocketed him all the way to a career-best 22^nd in the world. After missing the latter part of 2018 with a wrist injury, he’s now put himself in position for a Ryder Cup berth next year. 

Lanto Griffin (+6%): On a leaderboard that looked like a 2019 Korn Ferry Tour event, it was apropos that the two-time minor-league graduate prevailed, burying clutch putts on Nos. 16 and 18 to earn his first Tour title and alter his career.

Asian swing (+5%): The CJ Cup marks the beginning of a three-week stretch in which the big money (and no-cut tournaments) lure the stars out of their offseason slumber. First up are Jordan Spieth and Jason Day, who can prove this week in Korea how much work they’ve put into their slumping games over the past two months.

Scott Harrington (+2%): How different is life on the PGA Tour for the 38-year-old rookie? His tie for second in Houston was worth $667,500 – or roughly $120,000 less than he made in 195 career starts on the Korn Ferry Tour. Yeah, he can get used to this.

Kevin Na (+1%): After a week to reflect, Na finally decided to open up about the cryptic remarks he made in Korean following his Shriners victory. It was a smart move, for he’s teeing it up in his homeland and no longer wants to hide from his past.

FALLING

Matt Fitzpatrick (-1%): It’s been a year of close calls for the Englishman, who recorded his fourth runner-up of the season at the Italian Open, this time after pumping his tee shot on No. 9 out of bounds and taking double bogey. “It was a bit crap,” he said afterward, and it’s hard to disagree.

Houston (-2%): The expected move to Memorial Park couldn’t come at a better time, after this year’s event attracted just two top-50 players and had the weakest non-opposite-event-field in nearly five years. The involvement of Jim Crane and Butch Harmon, as well as a date change, even a few weeks earlier, could help return this tournament to prominence.

Joint events (-3%): Kudos to the European and Ladies European tours for doing what should have been done long ago on the big circuits: A tournament with men and women competing for the same title and prize money. A PGA Tour-LPGA event has been discussed since the beginning of 2017, if not earlier. Still: No progress. 

Aces (-4%): You know you’re doomed when not even pitching coach Mark Maddux’s two holes-in-one in one round – the odds of that: 67,000,000 to 1 – could boost the Cardinals, as they were rocked in Game 3 and moved to the brink of elimination.

Rules fun (-5%): OK, so follow along here: Jesper Parnevik was penalized two shots last week for NOT taking a mulligan, after his ball lipped out and hit him in the foot. His ball was supposed to be replaced, with no penalty, but because he tapped it in he was deemed to have played from an incorrect spot. Thus, two shots. Golf!

Bulgarian Football Union's (BFU) president Borislav Mihaylov has resigned following racist abuse and monkey chants from Bulgaria fans towards England players during their Euro 2020 qualifier.

Prime minister Boyko Borissov had called for former goalkeeper Mihaylov to step down after the match, won 6-0 by England, was temporarily halted by the referee to tackle abuse from the crowd under a three-step protocol by European soccer governing body UEFA.

BFU spokesman Hristo Zapryanov earlier said that the president would not resign but Mihaylov, who was also a member of the UEFA executive committee, has decided to step down.

- Euro 2020 qualifying: All you need to know

"I urge Borislav Mihaylov to immediately resign as president of the Bulgarian Football Union!" Boyko Borissov had posted on Facebook after the footage of Monday night's match was seen around the world on television and social media.

"It is unacceptable for Bulgaria, which is one of the most tolerant countries in the world, and people of different ethnicities and religions live in peace, to be associated with racism and xenophobia."

A group of black-clad Bulgarian fans, some of whom were making right-wing salutes, were moved from an area behind the dugout at the Vasil Levski national stadium with home team captain Ivelin Popov having tried to appeal to the supporters in a heated discussion at half time.

"[England] heard racist chanting in the first half and told the referee," he told NOVA TV. "I spoke a few times with the security in the South Stand, to try and stop them.

"We are affected by that. At the half time we spoke with the officials and England squad about whether to play the second half. Gareth Southgate thanked me because I tried to do something."

Winger Raheem Sterling backed the prime minister's call.

"A good move credits to you M. Borissov," the Manchester City striker wrote on Twitter.

Earlier, sports minister Krasen Kralev said the government would suspend relations with the BFU, including financial ties.

The BFU was not immediately available to comment. However, after Monday's match, they tried to play down the incidents.

"It's quite disappointing to focus on racism," BFU vice-president Yordan Lechkov said. "It's not serious to concentrate on that if there's a qualifier like this and we're playing against a team like England."

UEFA had ordered the BFU to partially close the Vasil Levski stadium for England's visit after supporters were found guilty of racist behaviour in matches earlier this year.

Racist chanting was heard from the stands and reported by England players to Southgate, with the referee informed and a public announcement made on two occasions.

Most of the Bulgaria players and their coach said after the match they had not heard any abuse of the visiting team.

Coach Krasimir Balakov said there had not been such racial incidents before and blamed England fans for being disrespectful to Bulgarian supporters.

"During the second half they used words against our fans which I find unacceptable," he said.

The BFU and a number of Bulgarian clubs have been fined by for racist abuse several times over the past few years.

BARCELONA -- Lionel Messi looked at Luis Suarez and, in amazement and in unison, they both rose to their feet and applauded what they'd just seen: a tightrope walker pulling out a ladder, placing it on the rope and climbing it with her hands.

The Barca pair were sat, front and centre, applauding a scene that was written to highlight his incredible balance in a Cirque de Soleil show based on his career. Messi's had a dazzling career in football -- Oct. 16 marks the 15th anniversary of his Barca first-team debut -- but how many of his peers, past and present, can boast a spectacle like this?

Welcome to Messi10 by Cirque du Soleil.

Every scene is a nod to Messi, football mixed with the literal circus. Trampolines, diabolos, acrobatics, Icarian games, vertical ropes, lion dances and a portly referee cast in the false jester role, all of it to pay homage to the Argentinian and his incredible longevity. "There's a No. 10 in all of us," runs the show's tagline, splashed across posters all over the city, from Plaza Catalunya to Barcelona's Sant Joan Despi training base.

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If you're a little bit lost, let's rewind two years, when PopArt Music, a production company, first approached renowned Canadian circus company Cirque with the idea of producing a show based on Barca's No. 10. The Beatles had been done previously; Elvis Presley, too. There's a show designed around Michael Jackson, but someone from the world of sport? Someone still active in their field? Never.

"I thought they were crazy," said Cirque's executive producer, Charles Joron, about his reaction when the proposal dropped on his desk in Montreal. "But I said: 'OK, I can't say yes or no, because it's so far away from what we've done that we have to sit down and look at it.' The theoretical numbers were there: a huge following [133 million followers on Instagram], the attraction he has and how much of an icon he is, but we had to feel that if we got involved with this we would come out with a winning composition."

There was quickly a realisation that, as Joron put it, "translating Messi into Cirque-ese" was easier than they thought. A number of words repeatedly appeared in both languages: speed, vision, balance, effort, strength, skill, dedication. All the magic Messi produces on the pitch could be translated into circus acts. Excitement piqued, the ball was rolling. The globe's greatest circus company and the world's best footballer were set for the collaboration you didn't know you wanted to see.

Two years later, the red carpet rolled out for Spanish and Argentinian royalty at Parc del Forum in Barcelona. The setting for the Primavera music festival is now the home of The Messi Show (until December), just over 10 kilometres away from Messi's Camp Nou playground. A huge white construction, 500 metres from the sea, houses two 1500-seater stands, which sandwich a stage representing a football pitch. And on the 10th day of the 10th month -- a nod to Messi's shirt number, if you missed it -- the curtain went up.

Shakira was there to see it. So, too, were actress Paz Vega and some of the cast from Netflix show "La Casa de Papel." Singers Carlos Vives and Nicky Jam were also present, along with Los Cafres, one of Messi's favourite bands. (They also supplied music to the show.) Suarez joined Messi but there was a shortage of footballers in general due to players being on international duty. Barca youngster Ansu Fati attended, as did Barca veteran Jose Pinto. The ex-goalkeeper turned music producer, and one of Messi's close friends, was a valuable go-between for Cirque during the creation process. He also wrote two tracks for the spectacle.

Messi and his wife, Antonella Roccuzzo, were the real red-carpet attraction, though. They even left the kids at home. "They'll come another night," Messi said.

Messi chose not to see anything prior to the premiere, but he had been involved in the development of the show, which isn't biographical but rather celebrates his achievements, his talent, his fans and his family.

"The first thing Messi said to me was, 'I'm glad you're not focusing on my life story, because there are commercials that do that, everyone does that. You've taken a different direction, which even interests me,'" said the show's writer and director, Mukhtar Omar Sharif Mukhtar.

Mukhtar met with Messi another four times after that first meeting.

"As a fan, if you know Messi, you know he's very quiet and doesn't like to talk about his personal life," adds Mukhtar. "My initial thought was that it would have nothing to do with his personal life. It was Messi that said: 'I want my family integrated into the show because they've been important to who I am today.' That took me back a little bit. Then I asked him more about what he wanted us to celebrate. He just said: 'It's great what you're doing, but try and celebrate my achievements more than anything.'

"We don't want to celebrate him like a god, we don't want to worship him and he has the same feelings as well."

So how did Mukhtar, a football fan growing up in England, manage all that?

He used his hip-hop background to fuse football and acrobatics to kickoff. Freestylers juggle balls and Icarian performers incredibly juggle bodies in a dance-off-style scene in a dressing room. Other scenes celebrate Messi's many attributes: The tightrope walker represents his balance, people are flung into nets high above the stage to signify more than 600 career goals to date, an artist climbs a rope ladder toward the sky to visualise the pressure of taking a penalty, a traditional Chinese act of lion pillars are a tribute to Messi's vision and somersaults end with Messi's celebration, index fingers pointing to the sky in memory of his grandparents.

Messi winced as the contortionist performed. After taking a dive, a calamitous medical team repeatedly drops him as they carry him off on a stretcher. He proceeds to twist his body into eye-popping positions, turn his head where he shouldn't and pop bones out of joints. Audience members were peeking through the gaps in their fingers. The scene ended with an ovation from Messi.

There's the referee, a stumpy chap with a squeaky voice and a whistle who knew how to tickle Messi's humour. A ball is nearly always present, as is the No. 10, but the rest is pure surrealism: There's also a streaker, a robot football, a customised six-axis industrial robotic arm and plenty more going on throughout a circus of two halves. Each one is 45 minutes long, of course.

Mukhtar insists the show is unique to Messi, even if some of it can be applied more generally: "Look at, say [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic: His show would be completely different if we were trying to do one, or David Beckham, who has a lot of fashion. With Messi, there was a certain sense of honesty that I had to take from him because that's what I saw when I met him. And even though he is where he is right now, he still feels he has a lot more to accomplish. He's still breaking records, he still feels he's not done enough.

"That's what inspired me the most, knowing that he's still going. I want that to be felt in the show."

Meanwhile, scenes overlap with montages of Messi goals, Messi moments and Messi animation on the scoreboard. Two huge 'Messi 10' shirts suffocate the stands at one stage, a Barcelona one and an Argentina one, La Albiceleste blue-and-white colours falling over Messi's head on the night as "Dia de Partit," a famous Barca chant, rings out. The show ends with Golden Balls dropping from the sky and one final banner carrying that slogan: "There's a No. 10 in all of us."

"It's about idolising Messi's hard work and telling people: 'It's not just him, you can do it, too, if you put in all the effort and work that we see in this show,'" Mukhtar says. "That message is for whatever you do in your life. It's triggering the No. 10 within you, whatever that X factor is. Whether you're a doctor, or a policeman or whatever, you can do it, if you put everything into it."

No Messi story can be totally complete without a Cristiano Ronaldo comparison. Have Cirque positioned themselves in the game's eternal debate?

"My answer is quite simple: [Messi] had the vision to have a show created about him," Mukhtar, a Manchester United supporter, laughs. "He had the vision. Anybody could have come to us and say, 'Let's do a show about Ronaldo,' but they didn't, they came to us and said, 'Let's do a show about Messi.' I am glad to be doing a show for Messi. I like the poetry of Messi's life and I am happy to be celebrating that."

Joron imagines it will be difficult to find someone as worthy as Messi for another sport-inspired Cirque show.

"You have to have something that's at that level," he says. "So once you've done Messi, you start looking around and there aren't many others that can say, 'Do me, do me.'"

While Ronaldo's PR appears much more polished, Messi now has a circus to add to a theme park that will open in China in 2020. Messi's already immortalised on the pitch, but he's now actively embracing the theatrics off it, too.

If there isn't a "world's no. 1 mom" mug at Amy Satterthwaite's house, it's time to get one. The New Zealand captain has been on maternity leave since August 2019 expecting her first child with her wife and team-mate Lea Tahuhu but, due to a quirk of the ICC rankings system, she became the world's top ranked batter in ODI cricket even though she hasn't played a 50-over game in seven months. The 33-year old had been in glorious form in 2019, scoring 346 runs in six innings, including a best of 92 against Australia.

India opener Smriti Mandhana had held that position at the last update but she missed the recent three-match series against South Africa with a toe injury and has now dropped four points behind the new leader.

South Africa's young batter Laura Wolvaardt climbed up six places to break into the top ten after her scores of 39, 69 and 23 against India this month. She is currently on the eighth position with 685 rating points. South Africa's fast bowling duo of Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail also strengthened their position in bowling charts. Kapp climbed two places and occupies the fifth spot while Ismail gained one place to move to seventh place.

India's Jhulan Goswami, who failed to pick any wickets in the second ODI and didn't play in the third, slipped four places and is currently at the sixth spot in the table headed by Australia's left-arm spinner Jess Jonassen with 755 points.

Apart from picking up four wickets, Kapp also scored 94 runs in three innings that helped her jump six spots in the ODI allrounders rankings. She is in the second place with 370 points, but well behind Australia's Ellyse Perry who has 523 points.

For full rankings, click here.

South Africa's attack has seldom felt as much strain as they do on their current tour of India, despite the focus of their failures falling squarely on the batting. The top-order's inability to bed in, the extra burden placed on the middle order and the lower-order rescue acts - that have only rubbed salt in the specialist batsmen's wounds - have all been analysed in the aftermath of the defeats at Visakhapatnam and Pune. So some attention ahead of the final Test in Ranchi will turn to the bowlers, who acknowledge they have also found it difficult to find form.

"We've been put under immense pressure," Kagiso Rabada said. "I don't know if we can be put more pressure than that."

India piled on totals in excess of 500 and 600 in the first innings of the two Tests, where South Africa were not only unable to control their scoring rate but also failed to bowl them out. In fact, South Africa last took 20 wickets in a Test match nine months and five Tests ago, when they beat Pakistan at home. Since then, South Africa have failed to bowl both Sri Lanka and India out twice each, albeit it in vastly different conditions.

At home against Sri Lanka, where South Africa generally rely on their quicks, they lacked the firepower to remove Sri Lanka's tail. In India, where South Africa attempted to counter conditions with a more spin-heavy attack, their slower bowlers barely threatened and their fast men have also appeared ineffective, even when conditions have offered some assistance such as on the first morning in Pune.

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Rabada, who is South Africa's leading seamer, only has four wickets from two matches, half that of Mohammed Shami and two fewer than Umesh Yadav. He believes the difference between the two packs has been the home team's ability to generate some reverse-swing, while South Africa have not found any. "They got the ball to reverse and they bowled well as a collective," Rabada said. "Their whole attack put pressure on us in every single aspect. Their spinners bowled well and when the ball was reversing their seamers could exploit that. We didn't really get the ball to reverse and that's a major weapon of ours."

That's not the only reason for South Africa's lack of success. Often, they have bowled too wide and as Shami showed, attacking the stumps brings reward. More often, they have not found the right length, relying on short balls when pitching it up has proved more successful for India. Overall, South Africa lack the pace and penetration sides of the past have had on the subcontinent with no-one able to emulate Dale Steyn. There is also the issue of inexperience. Rabada, though tasked with being the frontman, is only 24 and it should be Vernon Philander who leads the attack but he has struggled on unhelpful surfaces. Anrich Nortje is on his first tour and Lungi Ngidi, who is in the squad, has not been passed fit enough to play a Test yet.

All that has put South Africa in a difficult position, from which few can see a way out. Rabada is taking the long view and hopes that this is merely a result of one era ending as another has yet to begin. "It's never nice to lose, especially in the manner we're losing right now but we're going through a transition period," he said. "Our team is fresh and young, so the best thing we can do is look at where we can improve and remember our strengths and build on them."

The trouble is that for most of Rabada's career South Africa have been in the same position. He made his Test debut in India by this time four years ago and then South Africa's best period came in the 2017-18 home summer when they beat Zimbabwe, Bangladesh, India, and Australia at home. But their form has since been patchy as they search for consistency. Rabada hopes something can start in Ranchi, where South Africa will look to put in a better all-round display. "From a physical point of view we need to execute our skills and from a mental point of view, we need to believe we can do it in certain situations," he said. It's a balance we're working on."

Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Virender Sehwag and Muttiah Muralitharan are among the big names set to feature in a T20 tournament aimed at promoting road safety, called the Road Safety World Series. Some other prominent names that are set to be part of the tournament include Jacques Kallis, Brett Lee and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

ESPNcricinfo understands the first season of the tournament will be played in 2020 between February 2 and 16 in Mumbai and will feature the following teams: India Legends, Australia Legends, South Africa Legends, Sri Lanka Legends and West Indies Legends.

It is understood that a total of 110 players - all retired - have confirmed their participation in the tournament, which would be based on the franchise model prevailing across domestic T20 leagues around the world. The participating teams have been restricted to only Test-playing countries for the first season.

Among the organisers promoting this event are Professional Management Group and the Road Safety Cell of the Maharashtra government. Part of their business plan is to host the event for 10 years across India. It is understood that the organisers had received the nod from BCCI in August 2018 to conduct the tournament.

Although the players' payments would be taken care of by the franchises, the proceeds from the tournament itself would be utilised by the Road Safety Cell to promote the cause in addition to highlighting how India ranks highest in the list of deaths caused on roads in the world.

Tendulkar will be returning to play cricket in front of a crowd for the third time since his retirement in 2013, having played for the MCC against Rest of the World XI at Lord's in 2014 and three exhibition T20s in the USA in 2015.

Andy Flower has been named as head coach of Maratha Arabians in the upcoming Abu Dhabi T10, days after ending a 12-year association with the ECB.

Flower left his role as technical director in the England set-up on Saturday, and had hinted that he was more likely to take up roles on the franchise circuit than return to international cricket. There had been speculation that he would head to the IPL, but this is his first coaching role since leaving the ECB.

"I have just come off a tremendous run with English cricket and am now looking ahead to the future with hope," Flower said.

"Anything that is new and is innovative like T10 cricket always has an automatic appeal. From a coaching perspective it presents new challenges to test yourself against in a world-class environment."

Flower departed the ECB after 12 years in the national team set-up. He started out as Peter Moores' assistant in 2007, before taking over in 2009. His reign saw England win their first men's ICC world tournament - the 2010 World T20 - as well as away Test series in India and Australia, as England rose to become the ICC's No.1-ranked Test team. After the 2013-14 Ashes, he took up a role as technical director, which involved overseeing the Lions side.

The league also announced that the Arabians had retained captain Dwayne Bravo, along with Lasith Malinga and Afghanistan pair Hazratullah Zazai and Najibullah Zadran. They have also signed Chris Lynn as an 'icon player' ahead of Wednesday's player draft.

The Arabians reached the semi-finals last season, finishing fourth after losing to Bengal Tigers in the third-place playoff.

The league has moved to Abu Dhabi from Sharjah this season, and starts on November 15.