2025 NHL Entry Draft

[MatchesMalone]

Just watching some of Sweden's games from 5 Nation U17s this spring. I guess this kid Viggo Bjorck is getting a lot of hype for the 2026 draft. Shattered all kinds of records for U16s in Sweden's U18 league this year. He was under-aged by a year at this tournament; clearly immensely skilled, but he looked tiny out there, and played mostly a perimeter game. Sweden was missing a bunch of their top 2025 draft-eligible players - Boumedienne, Wozniak, Frondell, Ekberg - but they did have Eric Nilsson, Viktor Klingsell, Ivar Stenberg (late birthday 2026-eligible, also looked small) to go along with Bjorck. Klingsell was by far the best player on the team; he was absolutely dynamic and dangerous every shift. Listed at 5'10 but he looked noticeably bigger than Bjorck (5'9) or Stenberg (5'10) to me.

Edited July 18 by MatchesMalone

[PureQuickness]

17 hours ago, MatchesMalone said:

Just watching some of Sweden's games from 5 Nation U17s this spring. I guess this kid Viggo Bjorck is getting a lot of hype for the 2026 draft. Shattered all kinds of records for U16s in Sweden's U18 league this year. He was under-aged by a year at this tournament; clearly immensely skilled, but he looked tiny out there, and played mostly a perimeter game. Sweden was missing a bunch of their top 2025 draft-eligible players - Boumedienne, Wozniak, Frondell, Ekberg - but they did have Eric Nilsson, Viktor Klingsell, Ivar Stenberg (late birthday 2026-eligible, also looked small) to go along with Bjorck. Klingsell was by far the best player on the team; he was absolutely dynamic and dangerous every shift. Listed at 5'10 but he looked noticeably bigger than Bjorck (5'9) or Stenberg (5'10) to me.

 

I always love you for being our resident scout

[MatchesMalone]

Cole McKinney is starting to look like a superbeast to me. Numbers didn't really pop for the NTDP last year, but when you see him play - it's probably an over-used comparison by now - but I see shades of Nathan MacKinnon. The combination of speed, power, skill, and the ability to make plays at full speed. 

 

Between last year's late birthdays - RD Logan Hensler, C/RW Shane Vansaghi, C James Hagens - and some high-end U18s in McKinney, Murtagh, Mooney, Horcoff, Trethewey, Bracco, it looks to be a hell of a 2025 draft class for the National Team Development Program.

[MatchesMalone]

Curious to hear people's opinions; intentional fan on this shot or just a happy accident?

 

 

 

Kucherov has made this kind of thing popular with the kids, and I've seen Hagens play a lot and his IQ off the charts. I think it's intentional.

Edited July 29 by MatchesMalone

[Sp3nny]

2 hours ago, MatchesMalone said:

Curious to hear people's opinions; intentional fan on this shot or just a happy accident?

 

 

 

Kucherov has made this kind of thing popular with the kids, and I've seen Hagens play a lot and his IQ off the charts. I think it's intentional.

Happy accident for me. Leonard enjoys shooting too much lol. But in all seriousness, to my eyes he taps for the pass as he sees he has time to get a shot off and just missed the pull back.

[MatchesMalone]

Hlinka-Gretzky Cup starts today. Sweden - Slovakia on right now. Canada plays Switzerland tonight.

[MatchesMalone]

I was off work and able to watch all of the games yesterday except Germany - Finland. Not sure how many I'll be able to catch for the rest of the tournament, so I'll make a few notes here while it's fresh.

 

First game was Swedes and Slovaks. Once again I thought Viktor Klingsell was the most impressive Swede, but Ivar Stenberg was named player of the game, and Craig Button thought it should have been Filip Ekberg. I think the difference is just that I'm already looking ahead to ranking them as NHL prospects, and Klingsell looks like a hell of a one to me.

 

Sweden's goalie, Love Harestam is supposed to be one of the top ranked goalies for the class, but this wasn't his best showing, as Sweden handily controlled play for most of the game, but Slovakia forced overtime with a few timely goals late.

 

Next was Czechia - USA. This one was a hell of a game. Closely contested all the way through. My first time seeing under-aged Adam Novotny for the Czechs. Looks like he'll be a very early pick for the '26 draft; heavy, skilled, combative, scored a nice goal from in tight.

 

As for '25-eligibles, the two guys that stood out to me were 6'6 defenseman Radim Mrtka and goalie Ondrej Stebetak. Not just a big body, Mrtka actually ran the point on the top powerplay and looked ok there. Stebetak was simply phenomenal; he gave up a weird one from the red line in the opening minutes but then was perfect from there on out.

 

For USA nobody really jumped out at me but defenseman Blake Fiddler and forwards Ben Kevan and Cooper Simpson were the most noticable.

 

And then the Canada game was just a route. Everyone looked good for Canada but Gavin McKenna and Matthew Schaefer were on a whole other level. I also liked Peyton Kettles, Caleb Desnoyer and Jake O'Brien.

Edited August 6 by MatchesMalone

[Hammertime]

So far I'm a big fan of #21 Ethan Czata for the Canadians. Maybe a good late rounder there knowing nothing about the player.

[MatchesMalone]

13 hours ago, Hammertime said:

So far I'm a big fan of #21 Ethan Czata for the Canadians. Maybe a good late rounder there knowing nothing about the player.

 

Interesting. It can be nice to go into these tournaments a little blind and just watch for who stands out. If I'm being honest most of the players who stood out to me, I was already watching for going into the games.

Edited August 7 by MatchesMalone

[Hammertime]

10 hours ago, MatchesMalone said:

 

Interesting. It can be nice to go into these tournaments a little blind and just watch for who stands out. If I'm being honest most of the players who stood out to me, I was already watching for going into the games.

It's early there's hype around this guy or that guy.  I doub't we will be picking with our 1st anyway. I always like to call out a glimmer guy. I thought he (Ethan) was a big reason Slovakia couldn't get back in the game. Seemed like he had 3 hits every shift and stuffed every breakout. Forechecker extrordinare for Tocc. 

[Hammertime]

Is Benak a guy who could be available in the late 1st due to size? Just dominating Sweden. On the other side Genborg is just a tank raw tools up the yin yang. It's an interesting juxtapose. 

[Hammertime]

Czechia pulls off the W convincingly 5-1 I did not see that coming. 

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

21 minutes ago, Hammertime said:

Czechia pulls off the W convincingly 5-1 I did not see that coming. 

 

Adam Benak is an exciting prospect! Gotta think this will boost him up the ranks.

[Hammertime]

2 hours ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said:

 

Adam Benak is an exciting prospect! Gotta think this will boost him up the ranks.

I don't know. Small sample but he looked good. Will certainly pay closer attention now though. 

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

28 minutes ago, Hammertime said:

I don't know. Small sample but he looked good. Will certainly pay closer attention now though. 

 

Tomorrow will be interesting!

[Drive-By Body Pierce]

52 minutes ago, Hammertime said:

I don't know. Small sample but he looked good. Will certainly pay closer attention now though. 

 

McKenna vs Benak

[MatchesMalone]

2 hours ago, Drive-By Body Pierce said:

 

McKenna vs Benak

 

Or should it be McKenna vs Novotny?

[MatchesMalone]

6 hours ago, Hammertime said:

Czechia pulls off the W convincingly 5-1 I did not see that coming. 

I missed this one but saw Czechia's first couple games this tournament. They look legit, with a handful of pretty high-end NHL prospects in Novotny, Dravecky, Mrtka, Stebetak, Poletin, and of course also Benak.

[Hammertime]

Canada takes gold, and Sweden crushes USA. Couldn't hope for a better result. 

 

Edited August 11 by Hammertime

[MatchesMalone]

I've heard the generational tag attached a couple times now lately to both McKenna and Celebrini. From what I've seen, McKenna may have a calibre higher offensive upside than Celebrini, but Celebrini is the better 200 foot player. Hagens vs McKenna would be a tough call for me. Similar offensive upside but Hagens is the better 200 foot player, just a little bit smaller. None of them appear to me to be quite on the level of Connor Bedard, who I would call the "generational player". He has that level of explosiveness and game-breaking ability that doesn't come around often.

 

Is there realistically anyone who will challenge Hagens for number one this year? Martone? Schaefer? Ryabkin? Misa? To me he looks a cut above everybody else, but I guess we'll see.

[Diamonds]

1 hour ago, MatchesMalone said:

I've heard the generational tag attached a couple times now lately to both McKenna and Celebrini. From what I've seen, McKenna may have a calibre higher offensive upside than Celebrini, but Celebrini is the better 200 foot player. Hagens vs McKenna would be a tough call for me. Similar offensive upside but Hagens is the better 200 foot player, just a little bit smaller. None of them appear to me to be quite on the level of Connor Bedard, who I would call the "generational player". He has that level of explosiveness and game-breaking ability that doesn't come around often.

 

Is there realistically anyone who will challenge Hagens for number one this year? Martone? Schaefer? Ryabkin? Misa? To me he looks a cut above everybody else, but I guess we'll see.

Early on it seemed like Misa would challenge but then he stagnated a bit last season. It will be interesting to see if he can have a big year and get back into that conversation.

[MatchesMalone]

On 8/11/2024 at 1:35 PM, Diamonds said:

Early on it seemed like Misa would challenge but then he stagnated a bit last season. It will be interesting to see if he can have a big year and get back into that conversation.

 

I've talked about it once or twice before but I've never been completely sold on Misa. At least not to 1st overall status. The first time I saw them both was 2022 U17s and right away I said Hagens looked better to me. Granted he was a late birthday, Misa was a full under-aged, so I didn't want to rush to judgement, but at every level so far Hagens has been the better player. 

 

For myself I would take a long look at Martone or Schaefer against Misa as the best CHL draft-eligible.

[MatchesMalone]

The first few rankings listed on EP have Cole McKinney between 19 and 37, but I think he'll end up being a top 5 or 10 guy when it's all said and done.

[Ilunga]

21 minutes ago, MatchesMalone said:

The first few rankings listed on EP have Cole McKinney between 19 and 37, but I think he'll end up being a top 5 or 10 guy when it's all said and done.

 

Lines has him at 14 

 

https://www.lines.com/nhl/drafts/2025

 

Tankathon has him at 20

https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/mock_draft

 

I see he is listed as a Faceoff specialist 

PK specialist

Two way centre 

 

Actually loving that EP has added those criteria. 

 

If he blossoms offensively, and he already does have some size, well that's the sort of centre teams covet.

 

[MatchesMalone]

12 hours ago, Ilunga said:

 

Lines has him at 14 

 

https://www.lines.com/nhl/drafts/2025

 

Tankathon has him at 20

https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/mock_draft

 

I see he is listed as a Faceoff specialist 

PK specialist

Two way centre 

 

Actually loving that EP has added those criteria. 

 

If he blossoms offensively, and he already does have some size, well that's the sort of centre teams covet.

 

 

The funny thing is I actually didn't realize he was such a sound two-way center until a couple games into seeing him play, and I was already sold well before that based entirely on his offensive game.

 

He dominated offensively against his own peer group the year before going to NTDP, leading his league in scoring by a wide margin. His D-1 season reminds me a lot of Lucas Raymond in his draft year. On paper Raymond was tiny at 5'10 and 168 lbs, yet he played a power forward game at the junior level because he was such a physical specimen with legs like tree trunks. He played the full season in SHL because he was such a "coach's dream" - elite forechecker, defensive mastermind, but obviously wasn't able to drive the middle like he did in junior. He played the full season mostly on the 4th line, posted limited offensive totals and a lot of people were dumbfounded why he was considered a top 5 talent. But anyone who'd watched him the year before against his peer group knew very well what an offense dynamo he was.

 

People tend to oversimplify and assume bigger, stronger kids will adapt more easily to higher levels, but I find overall 200-foot hockey IQ to generally be the biggest predictor for adaptability. You see a guy like L.J. Mooney who is highly skilled and plays a sneaky, slippery game, was able to play up with the U18 team and put up big numbers. McKinney was the only other U17 who played up with the U18s this year, but unlike Mooney, he was there mainly for all the "other" parts of his game: his responsible two-way play, his PKing, his faceoffs, his physicality. Even just adapting to playing against 18 and 19 year-olds in USHL for a 16 year-old, 6'0 pure power forward was no simple task. For a guy who plays that north-south, net-drive, puck-protection style of offensive game, it's no wonder he didn't put up the same kind of numbers against older players as some of the smaller, more purely skilled forwards at the program like Fondrk or Potter.

 

Aside from some similarities with Raymond, I see a lot of Nathan MacKinnon to his game. The combination of speed, power, skill, and the ability to make plays at full speed. Assuming he's added enough strength this off-season, I fully expect him to explode offensively with the program this year, at least at the USHL and international levels; NCAA will be another big step for him, as he'll be the guy counted on to try and matchup against the 19 and 20 year-old high NHL draft picks. I pulled a few highlights from just a random segment of one game.

 

Trethewey with a defensive stop and then 46 in white McKinney picks it up behind the net:

 

 

This is such a beauty sequence. Supports the puck, lifts the defender's stick for his linemate, tracks the loose puck behind the net but takes a moment to look up and assess the situation, turns back and shields the puck. Talk about pro-translatable:

 

 

Just watch this full sequence up to the scoring chance. What a stud:

 

 

Here's a kind of interesting sequence, where not everything goes according to plan but he finds ways and creates a scoring chance out of it:

 

 

 

The only element that's in question for me is does he have elite hands? And it's the only reason I say top 5 or 10, instead of surefire top five. But he's certainly no potato. This highlight video from his 15U season shows what he was capable of against his own age group:

 

 

Edited August 17 by MatchesMalone