9 NHL Prospects to Watch Enjoying NCAA Hockey Through the 2024-25 Season

With the NCAA hockey season underway and the vote on eligibility for CHL players taking place subsequent month, the highlight is deservedly on the game and its gamers. There is no higher time to have a look at NHL prospects presently taking part in in school—and there is one thing for everybody.

Do you want flashy wingers? Effectively-rounded, 200-foot facilities? Dynamic defensemen? We have a school hockey participant you are going to get pleasure from watching. We will not make any guarantees they are a prospect of your favourite NHL staff, in fact. Until your favourite NHL staff is the Chicago Blackhawks, that’s. Spoiler alert: If that is the case, the reply is sure a number of instances over.

Honorable mentions go to: draft-eligibles Logan Hensler (Wisconsin), Cullen Potter (Arizona State) and Sascha Boumedienne (Boston College), drafted goalies Trey Augustine (Michigan State) and Jacob Fowler (Boston Faculty), and drafted skaters Matthew Wooden (Minnesota) and EJ Emery (North Dakota).

Certain, middle James Hagens hasn’t technically been drafted but. However he’s a prospect, and he is one it is best to watch, so he ticks each bins.

Hagens is presently the most certainly participant to go first total within the 2025 NHL Draft, however whether or not he holds on to that standing throughout the season stays to be seen. (Present high contenders: Porter Martone and Roger McQueen, each CHL gamers.) It relies upon closely on who’s drafting first total, however we know Hagens is in a class of his own relating to what he can do with the puck.

He is two video games and two assists into his first season at Boston Faculty, so it is a bit of early to evaluate this season’s play. Final season, although, he broke the 100-point mark with the NTDP (36G/63A) and set the single-tournament report at this 12 months’s U18s with 22. From what we have seen up to now, Hagens is a superb playmaker with elite skating and puck abilities. He pairs these abilities with imaginative and prescient and poise to make life tough for the opposing staff each time he is on the ice. We do not anticipate that altering in a school setting. Count on to see him on Group USA for the 2025 World Junior Championships, too.

Excessive power. Nice objective scoring. Excessive-end playmaking. A motor that by no means quits. If you happen to do not love watching Ryan Leonard, effectively, you in all probability have not watched Ryan Leonard. He was a key a part of the Boston Faculty staff that made it to the nationwide championship recreation, and you’ll think about he is aiming to get there once more—and with higher outcomes this time.

Leonard is an plain play-driver, and he one way or the other manages to pair that with being a menace bodily, too. You will typically see him in a scrum as a result of along with being a flexible and deadly ahead, he is good at being annoying. (He makes an important linemate. Simply ask the man on the subsequent slide.)

He additionally made an look on Group USA for this 12 months’s World Championships and was one of many high scorers within the NCAA final season. With the departure of Will Smith, it is not a stretch to suppose that he’ll seize the highest spot this season.

It must be no secret to anybody following my draft protection that I feel very extremely of Gabe Perreault. It must be no secret to anybody following Perreault’s hockey profession as to why that’s the case. His total talent set and expertise stage are underrated largely due to his dimension. (Not completely, although. There are utterly legitimate knocks on his skating, and we’re hoping to see enchancment in that space this season—it already seemed higher on the World Junior Summer season Showcase.)

A shining aspect of Perreault’s recreation is his elite hockey sense that he parlays into inventive and mystifying playmaking, even underneath stress from opponents. That type of factor cannot be taught as simply as a repair for clunky skating. Perreault is somebody (although not the one one) who may problem Leonard for NCAA high scorer, ending final season with 60 factors to Leonard’s 71. With Will Smith and Cutter Gauthier gone, and with the potential for taking part in with James Hagens on the desk, effectively, these totals are solely going to go up.

Final season, Zeev Buium set the scoring report for first-time draft-eligible defensemen and have become the second U-19 defenseman to interrupt the 50-point barrier in NCAA historical past. That alone is sufficient to flip heads. Add his skating into the combo—elite edgework he makes use of to evade stress from opponents, good straight-line pace, gapping as much as catch puck carriers—and you have got a participant who any coach would need on their roster.

Did we point out he hasn’t turned 19 but?

Buium is not an enormous defenseman, and he nonetheless wants to enhance his play in his personal finish. However that is why he went again to varsity for an additional season with Denver. He is received nice poise and is a talented puck distributor. His ceiling is excessive, and we expect that he can attain that ceiling sooner or later. Within the a lot nearer future, search for him to be a key participant on this 12 months’s World Juniors staff.

Returning to Boston College for his sophomore season was the correct resolution for Vancouver Canucks prospect and Swedish defenseman Tom Willander. Very similar to the remainder of the returning Terriers, he’ll probably really feel like he has one thing to show—the staff misplaced within the semifinals to Denver, the eventual nationwide champions. He is already notched two factors in two video games this season, and we’re curious whether or not his expanded function (notably particular groups, within the wake of Lane Hutson’s departure) will see him make a major scoring bounce over final season.

No matter the place his offensive totals land, Willander is price watching. Named to Hockey East’s second all-star staff final season, he pairs wonderful skating with a motor that does not stop. Quickness and evasiveness are two qualities that permit him to flee opponents, and once you pair that together with his bodily power, it is simple to challenge him as a possible top-pairing possibility for the Canucks sooner or later.

Chicago Blackhawks prospect Oliver Moore is again for his sophomore season on the College of Minnesota, and whereas we’re solely two video games into the season, what we noticed from him over the summer time makes us suppose we’ll see a step ahead from the middle this 12 months. If he reveals up because the participant we all know he is able to being, these 33 factors from final season will get left within the mud.

Moore is likely one of the finest speedsters on the market, utilizing his explosivity to burn you earlier than you have even realized what is going on on. His hockey sense and imaginative and prescient permit for inventive, expert puckhandling, and he combines his offensive instruments with a piece ethic that any coach would like to have on their roster. It is why we’re not too fearful about his gradual begin from final season. For some gamers, there is a tough studying curve when transitioning to varsity hockey they usually come out a significantly better participant for it ultimately. That looks as if Moore’s trajectory. He is one other who’s prone to make an look for Group USA at this 12 months’s World Juniors.

Cole Eiserman was in all probability hoping to play together with his good pal Macklin Celebrini this season. With Celebrini within the NHL, excellent news, Cole: all eyes are on you. (That is not completely true. There are fairly just a few terrific prospects on Boston College’s roster. However loads of eyes are on Eiserman.)

The standout ingredient of Eiserman’s recreation is his goal-scoring potential. He is in a category of his personal. What we wish to see now could be him taking these flashes of playmaking talents from final season and turning them right into a key part of his recreation. If he can spherical out his play, he’ll keep away from falling into the entice of pretty one-dimensional New York Islanders prospects like Kieffer Bellows and Oliver Wahlstrom earlier than him. Faculty hockey is an efficient alternative to get a fast boot camp in being a 200-foot participant—let’s have a look at if Eiserman takes it.

Chicago Metal product and Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Hage is 4 video games into his freshman season with the College of Michigan and has already netted six factors, together with three targets. “Gradual begin” would not appear to be in his vocabulary. Along with his offensive manufacturing (75 factors in 54 video games for the Metal final 12 months), Hage combines dimension with dynamic skating in a very interesting approach.

His first step and edgework are key elements of that skating, giving him the flexibility to create separation from his opponents. He is additionally received wonderful puckhandling abilities that he can use at his top-end speeds, trying flashy on the push or benefiting from opponents’ errors. Certainly one of our previous notes about Hage was that he must be taught to take management in recreation conditions; it looks as if he is off to an important begin in that space.

The Chicago Blackhawks traded as much as draft Sacha Boisvert at 18th total in June, so clearly they noticed one thing price watching. We’re inclined to agree. Boisvert has solely performed one recreation for the College of North Dakota up to now, however he is already logged each a objective and an help.

The objective half is no surprise—objective scoring is essentially the most outstanding device in Boisvert’s arsenal. His collection of pictures is high-end, notably his one-timer, and his puck management is spectacular when he is making passes as effectively. His recreation is fueled by his consideration to element and his high-end hockey sense, which permit him to anticipate the place the sport goes when he would not have the puck. Enchancment in consistency and skating (particularly skating) are going to be an important issues to observe for this season. Higher skating will permit him to make use of that intelligence each extra successfully and extra constantly and may push his play to the subsequent stage.