The 2025 World Juniors are now behind us and our prospect guru Steven Ellis shares his thoughts on what his post World Juniors Top 5 slate looks like heading into the 2025 NHL Draft.
Frank Seravalli: Give us your top five for the 2025 draft.
Steven Ellis: Well, I gotta go with Matthew Schaefer. I know he’s gonna be missing a lot of time but he’s my number one right now just the way that he moves the puck. There are elements of what you see from guys like Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes and the way he can go dominate the game. He’s so smart to play any situation, you saw how poor Canada’s defense, especially on the power play was after he got hurt that was a big-time loss.
Steven Ellis: I really like James Hagens at number two, he was the guy that headed into the season as probably the top prospect and he’s having a fantastic season. I think the one thing is, that this is probably the first time in his career he has not been the most dominant player on his own line in any given game. And maybe there’s some things that have been exposed a little bit. For the most part, the hockey IQ, is outstanding. I think he should be in the NHL next year.
Steven Ellis: At third, you’re looking at Porter Martone, a Matthew Tkachuk-style player, who hits everybody, and scores. It was almost fitting that he went out there and scored a really big goal in that game against Czechia. It didn’t matter in the end, but he should have been in the lineup every single game.
Steven Ellis: Then we talked about Michael Misa. What a shot. What a player. He can play center and the wing. He has shifted more to a center spot this year. He’s looking really good.
Steven Ellis: Then there’s Victor Eklund out of Sweden. Wow. Probably out of all the draft-eligible prospects, the first-year draft-eligible prospects, he was the most impressive at the World Juniors. That was because he played such a big role. He was shooting. He was hitting everybody. He was involved on both ends of the ice. You’re looking for guys who could play really well without the puck. That’s what he does. So that’s my top five right now.
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