Autumn Classic International: Who to watch

The fall flurry of secondary international figure skating competitions is a high point for fans like me. Nothing has really happened yet — which means anything is possible. What happens at the 2015 Skate Canada Autumn Classic International, which starts Wednesday in Barrie, Ont., could foreshadow the whole season.

Take last year's competition: I saw ice dancers Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron, of France, compete for the first time. They were enormously talented, but I wouldn't have believed, given the depth of the international field, that they would become the 2015 world champions. 

This year's event has a full slate of skaters in men's, ladies', pairs and ice dance. And here are six skaters or pairs you won't want to miss:

1. Yuzuru Hanyu: The 2014 Olympic champion had a bumpy season last year, including abdominal surgery in January. Hanyu lost the world title in 2015 to training mate and friend Javier Fernandez. I want to see what he's putting together on the ice to get that title back.

2. Nam Nguyen: I am a big fan of Nguyen's sense of fun off the ice and dogged determination as a competitor. At 17, he has already won a junior world title, the title at each of the national levels — including the senior men's in 2015 — and a fifth-place finish at the world championships in March. Returning champion Patrick Chan (who isn't competing at this event) sees him as a worthy opponent; so should the rest of the world.

3 & 4. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford: This pair has outstanding self-awareness which is the key to their success. They are great technicians and are smart enough to be able to capitalize on those skills. This season, in addition to their planned side-by-side triple Lutz jumps, they are upping the ante with two quad throws. If they execute these planned elements in Barrie this week, it will be the first time that a quad throw Lutz would be performed in competition, and the first time for two quad throws in a single program.

5 & 6. Marissa Castelli and Mervin Tran: This is a new pair with amazing potential. Both skaters had success with other partners and had choreographer Julie Marcotte's work in common. They are both looking for the same thing: connection; something that has eluded them in previous partnerships. They are representing the United States even though there's no guarantee Mervin, who's Canadian, will acquire American citizenship, which would preclude their participation on an Olympic team. This is skating for pure skating's sake. The best.

7 & 8. Nicole Orford and Asher Hill: When you're a dancer, the partnership is defined by what you are able to execute together. In the case Canadians Orford and Hill, I think this will mean being able to skate with a sense of abandon that neither was able to in previous partnerships. I am looking forward to seeing this work in progress.

Finally, this year's event is important for the skaters in a couple of ways. First, skaters get to put some miles on their programs and get feedback from a panel of international judges with enough time to make changes to choreography or structure, if need be. Second, skaters must meet a minimum score in their short and free programs to compete at the world championships, and this is one of the events where they can do that.