Takeaways from the 2025 NHL Draft

With the latest NHL Draft behind us, Sam Cosentino shares his main takeaways from the event.

Draft Central

After the best draft in NHL history at Sphere last year, NHL GMs and executives voted in favour of de-centralizing the event. There were two reasons behind this decision. One was to have more time to prepare for free agency. The other was to save money. I would say after nine-plus hours over two days, GMs will strongly reconsider this decision. 

The essence of the NHL Draft is every team’s scouting department, front office, and social media members are in attendance. It’s the buzz created by the draft floor. It’s the special time when a young man realizes his dream and gets that once-in-a-lifetime moment framed with a picture of all the NHL team members who decided to call his name.  

I also feel very strongly about scouts getting some kind of reward for their years-long work traveling the globe in search for the next big NHL star. In a typical year all the scouts will be flown in, treated to dinner and sometimes a fun activity or two like golf, bowling etc. And while all staff members will still meet and conduct last minute interviews, for the most part, their work is done and getting to go to the draft is a nice little end of season treat. 

Another element that was missed this year was the coach’s conference. It attracts coaches from around the world and the networking and presentations done there have helped the coaching community for years. While there were conferences in Michigan and Toronto this year, the one-stop shop at the draft was always a favourite.  

So let’s hope decentralization of the draft was a one-and-done.

Surprise, Surprise

Biggest surprise to me was Pyotr Andreyanov taken by Columbus with the 20th pick in Round 1, but he was a goalie raising a lot of eyebrows in the second half of the season. At 6-foot, 207 pounds, you rarely see a team take such a chance on a smaller goalie. His numbers in the MHL were 23-6-0-6 with a 1.75 GAA and a .942 save percentage. 

The Pittsburgh Penguins identified WHL Calgary’s Ben Kindel right off the hop and took him with the 11th overall selection. Most prognosticators had him in the range of 20. If you really like a player, take him when you have the chance. After some wheeling and dealing, the Pens ended up with four of the first 39 picks in the draft. In total, the Pens had the most picks, with 13.  

Kyle Davidson and the Chicago Blackhawks surprised a lot of people with the selection of dual sport star Mason West. West plans on returning to Edina High School this fall to try and win a Minnesota state championship, before going back to the USHL. The 6-foot-7, 218-pound quarterback told teams he was 100 per cent committed to hockey. It will be interesting to see if the Blackhawks try to steer him away from football at all.  

OHL Erie’s Malcolm Spence was projected by many to be selected in the No. 25 range of Round 1, so the NY Rangers got a steal when they selected him with the 43rd overall pick. Spence is a great two-way player who stands 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds. He will play for the University of Michigan next season.  

James Hagens 

After being ranked the No. 1 prospect for most of the first-half of the season, Boston College’s James Hagens slipped to the Boston Bruins at pick No. 7. Hagens has NHL star potential, and the Bruins will be able to keep a close eye on him should he not make the roster out of camp.  

Long Wait

Aidan Park, the Oilers' last pick and the second-last player selected in the draft, happened to be there in a hoodie. He was one of a smattering of people left in the Peacock Theater. It was great to see him get to pull the jersey over his head for pictures.  

Park is the nephew of former NHLer Richard Park. 

International Flavour  

All told, 17 countries were represented in the draft, the most in 21 years.  

Simon Wang became the third Chinese-born player to be drafted into the NHL when the San Jose Sharks selected him 33rd overall, the first pick in the second round. The Toronto Maple Leafs selected Will Belle, who was born in China and moved to Minnesota before attending the USNTDP, with the 137th pick. 

Kevin He, taken last year by Winnipeg in the fourth round, and Andong Song, an Islanders pick in 2015, were the first two Chinese-born players chosen.  

In 2025, we had the first-ever Croatian drafted into the NHL when the Ottawa Senators selected Bruno Idzan with the 181st pick.  

Just the fourth Italian-born player was drafted into the NHL when Matous Jan Kucharik was chosen by the Buffalo Sabres with the 103rd overall pick.

Size Matters

We’ve seen a trend back towards size recently. The 2024 NHL Draft featured 27 players 6-foot-5 or taller, by far the most since 2000. This year’s draft had 31 players taken that were listed at 6-foot-5 or taller. 

We’ve also seen it on the other end of the scale, where only 30 of the 224 players selected Friday and Saturday were under 6 feet.

Of that smaller bunch, a number of them were expected to be picked far earlier than they were. Cameron Schmidt (WHL Vancouver), Adam Benak (USHL Youngstown) and L.J. Mooney (USNTDP) are all listed at 5-foot-8 and were picked 94th, 102nd, and 113th. 

The tallest player selected was Trenten Bennett, taken 99th overall by the New Jersey Devils. He stands 6-foot-8.

Bennett’s story is fascinating. He spent most of the season playing with OJHL Kemptville, posting a record of 13-15-0-2, a 2.92 GAA, and a .912 save percentage. He got into six games with OHL Owen Sound where he had a 1-4 record, 2.65 GAA, .923 save percentage. 

The Goalies

Twenty-four goalies were selected over the two-day affair in Los Angeles, including both Pyotr Andreyanov (CBJ 20th) and Joshua Ravensbergen (SJ 30th) in Round 1. The last time two goalies were taken in the opening round was 2021 when the Red Wings took Sebastian Cossa 15th overall and Minnesota drafted Jesper Wallstedt with the 20th pick.  

The typical second round run on goalies saw just three go this year beginning with Semyon Frolov at pick No. 41 to the Carolina Hurricanes. Teams took more chances on goaltending in the seventh round, where five were taken.

Golden Anniversary

Happy anniversary to NHL Central Scouting, which celebrated its 50th year. Over that time, the group has been lead by Jack Button, Jim Gregory, Frank Bonello, E.J. McGuire and currently is headed by Dan Marr.  

The role of Central Scouting is to provide teams with information about players, update health status, hotel options, travel advisories, lines, etc.  

The Bureau puts out three prospect lists per season, with the final draft ranking released before the CHL playoffs begin.  

Central Scouting is also the driving force behind the always successful NHL Combine, which takes place at the start of June, now annually in Buffalo. It is expected the combine will remain in Buffalo through 2027. 

CHL

Take a look at the numbers and it was a great draft for the CHL, with 38 coming from the OHL, 33 from the WHL, and 19 from the QMJHL. That's 90 CHL players out of the total 224 taken in the entire draft, representing 40 per cent of all players selected. It's the most taken out of the CHL since 2016.

Twenty-one CHL players were taken in Round 1, the most in over a decade. Thirty of the first 64 picks (first two rounds) were taken off CHL rosters.  

Thirty of 32 NHL teams selected at least one CHL player. Sault Ste. Marie and Kitchener each had four players selected off their rosters, tied for the most of any CHL team. 

In Round 1, nine OHL and WHL players were taken, while the QMJHL had three first-round picks after having none in each of the two previous drafts. 

USNTDP

Twenty-three players were taken off the USNTDP roster, 13 of which were full-time players during the 2024-25 season. It’s the most since 2016 and the most ever taken off that roster. That number includes James Hagens and Logan Hensler, who were full-time NCAA players, while Will Horcoff and Cullen Potter, spent most of their seasons playing in the NCAA.