It’s time for the McKeen’s scouting staff to produce their first draft ranking for the 2025 NHL Draft.
Currently, Boston College center James Hagens tops our list, which would have been the case had we constructed a list heading into this season. However, while extremely talented, Hagens has had only a lukewarm start to his freshman year and his hold on the first position is slipping a bit in our eyes. Porter Martone, Michael Misa, and Roger McQueen (until getting injured) have had tremendous starts to the year and may have upsides that match Hagens’. Misa and Martone find themselves in the top three of OHL scoring currently and have been flat out dominant for Saginaw and Brampton, respectively.
Erie Otters defender Matthew Schaefer is a player that we are extremely high on too, however he’s only recently returned to action following a bout with mononucleosis. Ranking him fifth feels safe based on his international resume until we see how his game has progressed in his sophomore OHL campaign. It may take a few weeks for him to find his legs again.
The real story of this preliminary list is the dominant presence of North America. Of the 32 players listed, only six play outside of North America! And of those six, one is confirmed to be coming to the WHL in Radim Mrtka, while another, Ivan Ryabkin, is rumoured to be considering playing in the USHL. Simply put, it’s not a strong crop of prospects out of Europe.
Additionally, we’ve been extremely disappointed with the start of the U.S. NTDP. We have two U18 development program players listed in our first round (William Moore and Jack Murtagh), and a handful listed as HM’s, however, unless improvement is shown, those players risk falling in our future updates. The team has really struggled defensively, and admittedly with injuries. They have struggled in their annual NCAA exhibition tour thus far, and even find themselves in dead last in the entire USHL. The loss of star forward Cullen Potter (our 13th ranked player) to Arizona State has really hurt this team.
Our next update will see us expand our list to a top 64 prior to the World Junior Championships at the end of the calendar year.
| RANK | PLAYER | POS | TEAM | HT/WT | DOB | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Hagens | C | Boston College (NCAA) | 5-10/170 | 3-Nov-06 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 0 |
| 2 | Porter Martone | RW | Brampton (OHL) | 6-3/195 | 26-Oct-06 | 7 | 5 | 12 | 17 | 6 |
| 3 | Michael Misa | C | Saginaw (OHL) | 5-11/160 | 16-Feb-07 | 13 | 17 | 9 | 26 | 6 |
| 4 | Roger McQueen | C | Brandon (WHL) | 6-5/190 | 2-Oct-06 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 11 | 18 |
| 5 | Matthew Schaefer | D | Erie (OHL) | 6-1/165 | 5-Sep-07 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 |
| 6 | Anton Frondell | C | Djurgardens (Swe J20) | 6-0/180 | 7-May-07 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 7 | Ivan Ryabkin | C | MHK Dynamo Moskva (MHL) | 6-0/170 | 25-Apr-07 | 9 | 0 | 8 | 8 | 20 |
| 8 | Victor Eklund | LW | Djurgardens (HockeyAllsvenskan) | 5-11/160 | 3-Oct-06 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 11 | 2 |
| 9 | Logan Hensler | D | Wisconsin (NCAA) | 6-2/185 | 14-Oct-06 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 10 | Lynden Lakovic | LW | Moose Jaw (WHL) | 6-4/185 | 12-Dec-06 | 14 | 7 | 12 | 19 | 2 |
| 11 | Justin Carbonneau | RW | Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL) | 6-0/180 | 25-Nov-06 | 13 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 10 |
| 12 | Caleb Desnoyers | C | Moncton (QMJHL) | 6-2/190 | 11-Apr-07 | 10 | 6 | 8 | 14 | 4 |
| 13 | Cullen Potter | C | Arizona State (NCAA) | 5-9/160 | 10-Jan-07 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| 14 | Jackson Smith | D | Tri-City (WHL) | 6-3/190 | 13-May-07 | 12 | 1 | 11 | 12 | 14 |
| 15 | Brady Martin | C | Soo Greyhounds (OHL) | 6-0/175 | 16-Mar-07 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 12 |
| 16 | Malcolm Spence | LW | Erie (OHL) | 6-2/190 | 22-Sep-06 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 14 | 6 |
| 17 | Radim Mrtka | D | Ocelari Trinec (Czechia) | 6-6/200 | 9-Jun-07 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 18 | Cameron Schmidt | C | Vancouver (WHL) | 5-8/150 | 19-Jan-07 | 13 | 12 | 9 | 21 | 6 |
| 19 | Blake Fiddler | D | Edmonton (WHL) | 6-3/195 | 9-Jul-07 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| 20 | Joshua Ravensbergen | G | Prince George (WHL) | 6-4/180 | 27-Nov-06 | 11 | 3.13 | 0.901 | ||
| 21 | Cole Reschny | C | Victoria (WHL) | 5-9/160 | 6-Apr-07 | 13 | 4 | 15 | 19 | 10 |
| 22 | Jake O'Brien | C | Brantford (OHL) | 6-0/150 | 16-Jun-07 | 11 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 4 |
| 23 | Cameron Reid | D | Kitchener (OHL) | 5-11/160 | 8-Apr-07 | 13 | 2 | 10 | 12 | 14 |
| 24 | Adam Benak | C | Youngstown (USHL) | 5-7/155 | 10-Apr-07 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 6 |
| 25 | Kurban Limatov | D | MHK Dynamo Moskva (MHL) | 6-4/185 | 20-Mar-07 | 16 | 4 | 8 | 12 | 10 |
| 26 | Will Moore | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 6-2/160 | 24-Mar-07 | 14 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 0 |
| 27 | Milton Gastrin | C | MoDo Hockey (Swe J20) | 6-2/180 | 2-Jun-07 | 17 | 6 | 12 | 18 | 10 |
| 28 | Jack Murtagh | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 6-0/180 | 22-Aug-07 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 0 |
| 29 | Emile Guite | LW | Chicoutimi (QMJHL) | 6-1/165 | 31-May-07 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 |
| 30 | Sascha Boumedienne | D | Boston University (NCAA) | 6-1/170 | 17-Jan-07 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| 31 | Luca Romano | C | Kitchener (OHL) | 5-11/170 | 25-Jun-07 | 13 | 4 | 7 | 11 | 4 |
| 32 | Jack Nesbitt | C | Windsor (OHL) | 6-4/175 | 12-Jan-07 | 12 | 9 | 6 | 15 | 9 |
| HM | Carter Amico | D | USN U18 (USDP) | 6-5/205 | 15-Mar-07 | 11 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| HM | Carter Bear | C | Everett (WHL) | 6-0/170 | 4-Nov-06 | 14 | 12 | 9 | 21 | 12 |
| HM | Henry Brzustewicz | D | London (OHL) | 6-1/195 | 9-Feb-07 | 11 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 8 |
| HM | Braeden Cootes | C | Seattle (WHL) | 5-11/170 | 9-Feb-07 | 15 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 4 |
| HM | Conrad Fondrk | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 5-11/175 | 1-Jun-07 | 14 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| HM | Jakob Ihs Wozniak | LW | Lulea (Swe J20) | 6-3/180 | 1-Feb-07 | 13 | 5 | 11 | 16 | 2 |
| HM | Viktor Klingsell | LW | Skelleftea (Swe J20) | 5-10/170 | 10-Feb-07 | 16 | 6 | 6 | 12 | 0 |
| HM | Cole McKinney | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 6-0/190 | 16-Mar-07 | 11 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 15 |
| HM | L.J. Mooney | C | USN U18 (USDP) | 5-7/150 | 8-Mar-07 | 7 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 |
| HM | Eric Nilson | C | Djurgardens (Swe J20) | 5-11/155 | 11-May-07 | 17 | 7 | 13 | 20 | 12 |
| HM | Tomas Pobezal | C | HK Nitra (Svk) | 5-10/170 | 18-Sep-06 | 15 | 6 | 3 | 9 | 8 |
| HM | Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen | D | Michigan (NCAA) | 6-0/170 | 18-Dec-06 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| HM | Charlie Trethewey | D | USN U18 (USDP) | 6-1/190 | 2-Aug-07 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 6 |
| HM | Haoxi (Simon) Wang | D | King Rebellion (OJHL) | 6-6/210 | 27-Jul-07 | 16 | 3 | 9 | 12 | 32 |