Written by Austin Garrett
With the CHL/USHL seasons roughly three weeks in and the NCAA kicking off this past weekend, I thought it would be a good time to bring back the bi-weekly blog post talking about North American prospects I’ve seen with a focus on who’s trending up and down with a potpourri of thoughts scattered at the end. At the bottom of the post I’ll put a tiered ranking of the players I’ve dug into so far for the 2026 NHL draft. I haven’t touched some of the bigger names with most coming up this week, and the NCAA players outside of McKenna I’ll probably look at within the month.
Outside of Julien Maze there hasn’t been a surprising player I’ve come across that I’ve fallen in love with this year. The draft class in North America is pretty deep overall, but relatively thin to start in terms of franchise changing prospects. The draft is extremely thin at center this year in North America and I will assume that the position will see players drafted much higher than they are ranked due to the position’s perceived value.
Players trending up
Julien Maze, W, Regina (WHL):
The diminutive forward is leading the way as someone who is locked inside my top 15 right now. Despite being listed at 5’8, his size has not limited his ability to generate scoring chances on the inside and he is the engine of his line on Regina. Play always flows through him and he is nearly impossible to separate from the puck in the neutral zone. Combining great lateral agility and north/south speed he is able to create space and rush lanes for himself. He can play in small areas with his skill and maneuver pucks around and through defenders, and is extremely productive at even strength. He’s sending 26% of his passes to dangerous areas of the ice, completing 79% of them, involved in 55% of his teams offensive transitions at a remarkable 92% success rate. If Maze is able to keep these statistics at even 90% of what they are now, and keep his production profile at an 85+ point pace, I don’t see how he isn’t a first round pick in the NHL draft and ranked as a lottery player by myself and Smaht.
J.P. Hurlbert, C, Kamloops (WHL)
I was pleasantly surprised to see Hurlbert so productive and effective in my first viewing this year. Hurlbert was an offensive catalyst who showed good support in the defensive structure in the game I watched against Spokane. I thought he started off blazing hot with his first few shifts looking like he could be a top 5 player in the class. As the game wore on I became somewhat concerned with conditioning levels as each shift his impact seemed to decrease and his effectiveness during a shift was limited to the first 25-30 seconds. On the whole, though, I came away with an impression that he was one of the more dynamic offensive players coming out of North America in this class.
He’s hard on pucks and is physically engaged on every shift. With a few players I’ve seen this year they can float around the ice until the puck is on their stick, and Hurlbert is not one of them. His passing data and transition effectiveness don’t look great, but that is mostly due to dumping in/out pucks late in shifts instead of trying to maintain possession. He was involved with 56% of his team’s transitions and 21% of his passes went to dangerous areas. He has one of the better shots in the class at forward and is a threat to score whenever he lets it rip.
Nikita Klepov, W, Saginaw (OHL)
Klepov is one of the more fascinating players I’ve watched to start the year. If I had a vote, the Klepov/Zhilkin/Barabanov line would win for most entertaining hockey line I’ve seen all year. While Zhilkin is the engine that made everything happen in the game I saw against Flint, Klepov showcased that he could be more than just a passenger on a line with his skill and passing ability.
Klepov is just so effective at playing his game. He finds space in the scoring areas off the puck and is able to use his size and hands to get by defenders to find teammates as well. He’s not going to wow you with his skating ability, but he plays at a pace that is effective for him and doesn’t hinder his game when projecting to higher levels of hockey.
He leads the dataset in shot volume and dangerous shot volume at even strength, completed 84% of his passes with 16% going to dangerous areas of the ice, and was involved in 40% of his team’s transitions with a 79% efficiency. It will be interesting to check in on him later this month if Zhilkin is still hurt to see what his role is like and to compare efficiency numbers, but Klepov has moved from a fringe first rounder to a possible lottery pick for me.
Leon Kolarik, W, Peterborough (OHL)
Going to go out on a limb early in the season and say that Leon Kolarik is a player that doesn’t have much, if any, hype right now and is a player that should start to see momentum swing his way if he continues to play as well as he has to start the season. The Austrian player was not known to me before the season started, but his skill level jumped off the screen in the first weekend and I had to track him after to see if this was legit. While the ice time isn’t conducive to putting up monster numbers right now; I do think this is a player that will continue to move up the lineup and will eventually earn a late first round/second round grade from consensus if his play continues at this level.
He has tremendous skill and is a transition driver for his line and looks to send passes to dangerous areas as a playmaker in the offensive zone. He isn’t driving the puck on his stick to the inside as much as I’d like but he is also playing with Matthew Soto who is ripping apart defenses to begin the year, so the line seems to defer to trying to get Soto the puck and working around him off the puck to generate scoring opportunities. His passing numbers and transition numbers all look legit, and if he’s able to get into the scoring areas for his shot I think his production profile could eclipse 80 points this year.
Players I’m lower on
Ryan Roobroeck, W, Niagara (OHL)
There is a lack of engagement to Roobroeck’s game that causes him to float between flashing high-end offensive potential and invisibility throughout a game. The finer details of the game aren’t there and that causes me a general concern for potential upside of Roobroeck as a 200 foot player projecting to the NHL. He lacks defensive intensity, rarely is hard on pucks or seeks out board battles, and drifts to the neutral zone to receive passes rather than being the one driving the puck over the defensive blue line with possession.
In the offensive zone he’s great at finding space to get his shot off and has skill to get by an initial defender to get his shot as well. He doesn’t connect on a high percentage of his passing attempts and that correlates to a lower offensive transition success rate. He also plays at a lower pace than I’d like to see and doesn’t separate or create space with his skating ability.
To me he tracks as a great-but-not-elite goal scorer who is going to need someone to facilitate play to make his points happen. Right now I’d say he’s a mid-late first round pick.
Carson Carels, LHD, Prince George (WHL)
I’m just not there with Carels. I found him to be very inactive as a defender in his own zone and borderline invisible in the game I tracked him. He has good skill and mobility but does not engage defensively to prevent transitions and, offensively, does not transition the puck with control very often. I found that his defensive partner did a lot of the heavy lifting defensively and in transition and that he only really flashed on the power play or in rare opportunities to move up in the zone to take a shot.
I’ve only tracked six defensemen so far, but he has the lowest transition involvement of any defensemen at 19%. The next lowest transition involvement is 30.4%. He’s not completing passes at a high rate and his skill isn’t translatable to being productive at even strength in the NHL at the moment.
I think he’s a fine bet in the second round with a possibility that he could run a power play, but from a defensive and translatable even-strength offensive production standpoint he’s not worth a first round pick to me yet.
Potpourri of thoughts
- Mathis Preston is still awesome and has been my favorite player to watch in this class. I don’t think this is a very unique opinion and I wouldn’t be shocked to see him ranked as a top 2 or 3 player in this draft by draft outlets. He’s the definition of the type of player I tend to always like.
- Yegor Shilov and Jack Hextall are two players that I’ve loved for over a year and I’m glad they’re both starting out so strong. I have loved the ‘08 Long Island Gulls players for quite some time and Shilov was absurd when he was there during the 16u year. Hextall has been a USA hockey development standout whenever he’s been in town for me to watch the past two summers.
- I’m really hoping Ryan Brown can put it together over the course of this year. He’s not doing anything that would have me excited to rank at the moment, but that boy has a motor and is giving 100% every shift. I think he has the skill to put together his game to be a good draft eligible prospect, but in his first game I tracked he left a lot to be desired.
- I love Ryan Lin. I haven’t tracked Villeneuve yet, but I wouldn’t be shocked if I end up with Lin over Villeneuve. After Lin, I think that Chase Reid is the next defenseman I’d rank. He’s raw, but the skill level and what he tries to do is so tantalizing at his size. I really, really like Daxon Rudolph’s defensive game and how smart he is in transition. I don’t see much puck skill and he does not change his shot angle or move laterally when shooting from the point. He shoots a lot, but he doesn’t get them through every time which led to one of his shots going the other way for a breakaway in the game I watched. He’s going to have to clean that up to get inside the lottery for me.
Rankings of Players Tracked So Far
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