The Hockey News Future Watch Show: Breaking Down The 2027 NHL Draft Class

0:00Hello everyone and welcome to the hockey news future watch show. I'm your host Eric Crookshank joined alongside Tony Ferrari and Ryan Kennedy of the hockey news where we're going to be looking every Wednesday at the next generation of hockey stars from around the world whether that's in the CHL NCAA overseas and everything in between. Now before we get started just want to let you know that for over 75 years the hockey news has been the ultimate hockey fix. Now get 12 issues delivered straight to you pack with story stats and a bonus gift issue to kick things off head over to THN.com and get in on the action. Now guys just kick things off let's start with an outlook sort of on the 2027 NHL draft. We just had the first major event of the scouting calendar which was the Hulling-Kegretzky last year or sorry last month where we got to see some of the top draft eligible prospects compete on the international stage. Some of them for the first time some of them for the second time.

1:03So Ryan will start with you who were some of the standouts for you at that tournament and let's just talk a little bit about the draft class as a whole here. Yeah I mean ironically some of the biggest standouts were for the 2028 draft but I do think that Milan Sonser was very interesting and Tony you know feel free to weigh on and weigh in on this. I think this is at least at the beginning here. This is an interesting draft class because it feels like there's a lot of like smaller or skinnier players that could be vying for top role inner like top rankings and you know I look at Sergei Skavortsov and again Tony I don't know how high you are on him. I know you know he's looked really good so far sort of preseason in his first KHL game but he's 154 pounds and six feet tall and and he's the late birthday so like I don't know how much like bulkier he's

2:04gonna get but you know I look at Sunstrom and he's a big kid that can move and you know I mean Sweden wasn't super impressive in that tournament but Sunstrom certainly had his moments and so for me he's pretty high like Landon DuPont obviously you know comes in is the the number one prospect and and he looked great and you know we're gonna be talking about him all season long but I'm gonna keep an eye on Sunstrom especially because he's also a center and then you know you look at Jonah Neuinchwander who is much easier to say than it is to spell but here's another kid who he's a big kid and he's a center he's already played at the world juniors a couple of times and I'm very curious to see by the end of this season how things shake out because like I say there's a lot of talented kids that are a little on the smaller side and then some of these bigger kids that it'll be interesting to see what kind of potential they fulfill. Yeah that was my biggest take

3:06with the Hunk of Grespie as well as we have some of the bigger prospects for for example Alexi Joseph it's a guy that everyone's coming to the year super super high on everyone wants to see him at his top and potential and the Hlynkendit wasn't really that I think it was a bit of a disappointed performance for him but because he's a big guy he's got size he plays a little bit with a Fitzgaledge he's a guy that NHL teams are undoubtedly gonna be attracted to. A guy like who's our privilege over in Russia as well a bigger guy plays with power throws his body around that guy's a bit of a missile in the ice at time and he's showing some some of that higher end finer skill so this is a really interesting draft class because as you mentioned we're talking about a guy in landed in the top being top defenseman and the top player on the board on most people and it's not like he's this six foot three defenseman who's playing this stout defensive game with physicality and everything he's a guy that's a bit under size plays with an elite elite mind really good skating and just excellent decision making so this is gonna be an interesting

4:07draft class to see who ends up pushing themselves into that top and range because if you look at just any list right now it's landing DuPont in any of 10 maybe even 11 guys and you know just to follow up on on something landed DuPont the number 1d but who's the number 2d is it brought crypts who's a very talented player at west who again is on the smaller side like I think crypts is probably like 510 maybe 511 and like maybe 165 pounds Tony yeah he's not a big guy at all and then you look at over in Europe and you got a guy like Douglas Johnson who's a good solid player but is he has does he have that ability to be a top 10 top 15 prospect I don't really know about that yet so like you said the defenseman class is an interesting one as well because you look through a number of these these defenseman's draft class and just going through my own sheet right now and a lot of them are either lower producing bigger guys who you

5:10don't really have that top 10 potential or top 15 the pop you want in that range or they're under size shifty defenders who have some offensive pop so it's it's gonna be interesting to see how well that shakes out too because we saw last year with guys like Ryan Lynn in different undersized guys pushing towards the top of the rankings early in the year by the time draft they came around those smaller guys for the most part and they're falling back down where we expect to yeah it'll be really interesting to follow this draft class especially in the defenseman category like you mentioned but obviously we already talked about on the top of the town Landon DuPont for 2027 he's going to be the big name to watch and he's going to be a freshman in the NCAA this year and there's going to be a lot of intriguing freshmen in the NCAA whether already drafted or draft eligible Ryan I'll start with you who are some freshmen that you're looking forward to seeing at the NCAA level this year yeah I mean there's there's a ton of them and I'm gonna go with a pair of defensemen and Tony actually just mentioned one Ryan Lynn

6:13him and Daxon Rudolph are going to Denver and what's intriguing to me there is two very talented kids you know both first round draft picks and they're going to the defending national champion pioneers but they're coming in as these top end first rounders Denver has won multiple national championships under coach David Carl without any blue chip prospects in the past right like they were getting it done with you know some older players or like sort of mid-round guys who took a little bit longer and you know had great experience and and obviously just as a team the pioneers have been such a difficult out in that national tournament so now because they've had so much success we're seeing some of these you know former CHLers be like well yeah I want to go to Denver all they do is win there so what impact is that going to have on the pioneers now that you know they

7:14already have the formula for winning and now they're bringing in to like elite level prospects as freshmen so that to me is fascinating and and obviously there's a bunch of teams and and Tony you can tell me your favorites but I mean it's going to be a very exciting NCAA season yeah as a guy and so that's not Ontario see a lot of Michigan a lot of Michigan State both teams got a lot of talent going coming into this year obviously you got landed in pot going into Michigan but GP Grover's not getting talked about these first round pick by the Red Wings incredibly skilled player took a one year stop in the WHL where he just put up 97 points pretty casually really skilled player one of the funnest players to watch in the WHL last year just a guy that has all of the tools you want offensively he's skating I think was a little bit harped on too much last year but it is a area where he's going to have to work and at the end of the day this is the kind of guy that ends up going to the college level and maybe not his first year but by the time he's in the second or third year he's scoring the lights out so on a team like Michigan where they've always got a ton

8:17of talent he's going to be a guy that can step in and probably make a pretty big impact in year 1 and then right in in state Michigan State it's got four big freshmen coming in and Ethan Bellchitz obviously a massive winger from the Winsor Spitfires Jack Hacksall is really highly intelligent center but the really key two players there for me are Tony Blile and Chase Reed two defenseman going into that program where it's going to be interesting to see how things shake out there because this is a team that's going to be looking to compete for a national championship and these are two players that can certainly help shape the blue line and give them a bit of a dynamism on the back end Tommy Bliles one of the best straight insukators in college hockey day one when he steps in it's going to be fun to see him kind of push the pace offensively and Chase Reed is a bit of a tactician in all all over the ice so he's going to be one of the most important players for that team as well and there's a reason he was drafted pretty highly so it's going to be fun to see all four of those guys at Michigan State this year. Yeah Chase Reed obviously an OHLR same thing with

9:17the few guys that you mentioned Ryan Dex and Rudolph and Ryan Lynn former CHLers it's officially been a year or just over a year since the CHL players have officially been eligible to join NCAA hockey programs and some of the biggest names obviously we already mentioned have already taken their talent south of the border. Tony you got to speak with all three commissioners from the CHL leagues earlier this summer what were their perspectives that you got and how do you think that they have seen the progression of this agreement going so far? It was each one was a very interesting conversation on its own I'll start with the OHL Commissioner Brian Crawford a guy that really seems to value the potential partnership in the future of the NCAA sees the opportunities celebrating all these kids making the steps he talked about how how good Port-O-Marton looked immediately he was very positive about the situation and understood that this is where hockey has to go if you want player development to get that one of the things he said is we've seen the Canadian

10:17World Junior team over the last couple of years really kind of struggle a little bit giving them that opportunity continue developing and being really good you get a couple of those players coming from the NCAA pipeline for those World Junior teams maybe can't is not losing a check-in in the quarterfinals out west Dan Near the WHL Commissioner it's a bit more hesitant I think he's a bit more of a a loyalist to the CHL he understands that while the NCAA is the obvious next step now about the avenues open he's cautioning players not to rush things he's seen a number of players go to the NCAA in transfer teams kind of struggling their first year and maybe not necessarily look quite the way they wanted it to because at the end of the day the NCAA is a big step up it's not necessarily something that every 17 18 and 19 year old should do what he was stressing was it's smart to wait until you're 20 it's smart to exhaust your junior eligibility and then take that next step if pro hockey's too big of a jump and out in the queue Mario Chicani was just a happy guy that being involved it's seen he was a guy that was pumped because this opened up a new avenue for

11:22some of the Quebec players and some of the American players that were oftentimes going to the USHL or going to play junior Bihockey somewhere and doing different things and now they're staying in the queue they're they're coming to play one or two years there I've had a Tommy Bliley we just talked about spent a year in the QMJHL last year absolutely tore it up let all defenseman scoring one defensive rookie of the year defenseman of the year and every other award he could possibly win basically and then now he's going on to the NCAA and the QMJHL gets to say he came through us first so they're looking at as an opportunity to grow the OHL is looking at as an opportunity to partner with a bigger organization moving forward and this WHL seems to be just cautioning guys that I know it's a shiny new toy but you don't need that toy right away yeah it's very interesting to hear all those perspectives Ryan what are your thoughts on how this deal has progressed one year later yeah I think what's interesting to me is how it's going to push major junior and one of the things we we saw in this exhibition season was inter league play right like they just had

12:28that clash of the kingdoms series where the OHL's London Knights went out to BC and played the Victoria Royals from the WHL I watched some of it online it was pretty decent the first game was kind of a wash out because it looked like the London Knights were jet lagged I think they only got in like the day before but the second game what you know London won it and was obviously a lot more you know on their toes there Saginaw went out and played Newfoundland I think three times so you had an OHL versus Q match up there I'm hoping that you know this pressure that's sort of coming from the NCAA in terms of like not only recruitment but also eyeballs because you know college is getting a lot of attention right now hopefully it spurns these ideas are spurs these ideas like more inter league play because I think you know there is some tremendous potential there it also and this is like a long term thing that I got to work at my brain is like could we get like

13:29an extended memorial cup field could it be more of a bracket where maybe we get like 12 teams or something or whatever we figure out to divide it by three and you know it's single elimination or whatever you know what kind of evolution of major junior are we going to see in the next five years 10 years so it's all it's been only a short time and we've seen so many different ramifications of this new landscape it'll be fascinating to see what happens next yeah I think that's kind of the big takeaway is that it is just going to be interesting to see what happens next like this is obviously just one year later and we've seen a lot of change but I think to your point Tony obviously player development seems to be the biggest takeaway as this being an improvement from the steel speaking of player development we're going to talk about some former first round picks who are under pressure this year and every draft there are players who end up exceeding expectations very quickly someone takes some more time to develop and some who just might not have an NHL future

14:33so I'll start with you Tony who are some former first round picks who are coming into this season with the most approved the one that six over me is Colby Barlow he's a guy that I think all of us were fans of coming out of the OHL he had everything from leadership the intangibles he was a physical player he had a great shot he was a guy that every team seemed to be interested in at least a little bit and he just hasn't quite figured it out the AHL level yet I think in the minutes of new system and with Winnipeg he just hasn't quite found his footing in the pro game yet so it's going to be interesting to see now that he's a couple years old there he's in his early 20s now how is he going to adapt to playing pro hockey and finding his groove is he going to ultimately be the worst case scenario like some some people said is he a third fourth line grinder a guy that isn't necessarily going to be an offensive force or does he find that here because there were a lot of people that were very high on him had him as the top OHL player coming out of his draft glass in that year but

15:33there were also many people that were cautioning things about skating or his inability to get to the middle of the ice set times as a shooter he was a bit of a guy that shot the puck as soon as he got in the zone and then followed up his own rebound and scored there so it's going to be interesting to see how he develops this year because it's a big year for him and Winnipeg could certainly use a guy like that developing properly yeah absolutely I mean like you said the jets all teams probably need a little bit of an injection of youth are going to get some with big oak york this year who I know you're a big fan of Tony so I'm sure you'll be excited to watch some jets games this year Ryan who are some former first round picks that you're looking at to make some strides this year yeah so first of all I'm going to be a a a T.H. in editor here style wise they're not former first round picks they will always be first round picks but I know what you mean you know first round picks from a few years ago correct I'm going to go I'm going to stick with a Canadian team I'm going to go with Jonathan LaKari Mackie from the Vancouver Canucks it's been such an interesting kind of roller coaster I feel for LaKari Mackie since he was

16:37drafted where you know at first it was like oh I need to see a bit more and then he had that awesome world juniors which was in Sweden in Gothenburg where they they lost at that juggernaut American team in the gold medal game but LaKari Mackie was really good in that tournament he looked he looked more dialed in than I had seen him before and then you know he follows that up he wins a colder cup with the Abbott's Fred Connux and you would think that would be a great springboard as well but you know this past season I I didn't see much of a big jump and I think that this year starting this fall like we all know the Connux the rebuilding there is opportunity that LaKari Mackie he should he should be knocking down that door right like the Connux are kind of like we're rolling out the red carpet here where it's like we want you to succeed we are going to give you the opportunities to be like a top six winger and you know he's never been a burly guy obviously

17:45but he is very skilled and you know we've again going back to that world juniors like we saw a bit of an edge you know and it and it really helps now will he bring that to the NHL we shall see he's got a little bit of NHL experience with the Connux already but like I want to see him break through like I feel it's time for him to break through and if he doesn't do it this year then I become concerned that maybe it's not going to happen yeah like you said this is the first sort of big long runway that he's going to have at the NHL level and obviously the Connux not going to be a great team but there's going to be every opportunity there for him to to make his mark speaking of the NHL we're going to look ahead a little bit here at some award predictions obviously for a future watch show we want to talk about some of the younger players that are going to be entering the league this year and we're going to look at some of the Calder trophy odds that MGM is released it's pre-season odds for the Calder trophy which is given out obviously to the most outstanding rookie from each season the top five from this year entering number one Porter Marchone of Philadelphia Flyers

18:49Gavin McKenna at number two with the Maple Leafs Yvars Stenberg at number three with the San Jose Sharks Anton Frontel at number four with the Chicago Black Hawks and Cole Hudson with the Washington capitals at number five so I'll start with you Tony do you think Martone deserves to be the early Calder favor here and out of these five names or aside from these five names are there any that stand out as potential Calder candidates for you yeah I think when you look at this top the top of this list I think you have Martone and McKenna kind of neck and neck with Martone just ahead and at the end of the day I think Martone does deserve to be at top of this list right now his performance at the end of the last year proves that he is at least baseline capable of doing it at the NHL level will he be able to do it over 82 games that's a different question so it's going to be interesting to see how he kind of comes into the season he's going to be looked at as a lead dog on a flyers team immediately as a rookie so it's going to be fun to see him go and I do think he can do it and be the rookie the air winner but I think there's going to be a lot of stiff competition and the four names you got it there with Hudson Frontel, Stenberg and McKenna

19:53are obviously going to be there but I think James Haggins is going to be a really interesting player a guy that if he's given the time and the opportunity in Boston he's going to be a really impressive player for them he's got one of the best playmaking prospects uh not in the NHL currently I guess if you want to say that about him he's such a skilled playmaker CZI so well he added a bit of an edge to his game last year at college and that's something I really wanted to see so I love that a bit of the game so I think James Haggins has a chance and I think he was down at nine or ten on the list and if you want to go for a dark horse even deeper than that Victor Ecklin deserves to be there I think he's a guy that if he gets a chance the islanders he could could be one of their best players offensively this this year in a middle six role I think he's going to be an integral piece for the long term but this is a kid that was putting up just as good as numbers as Anton Frendel he was dictating play so often he's he's got such a good shot and he's a hard hard worker he's a workhorse despite being a little bit under size so he could be a really interesting guy that just gets his name at least around the call the trophy top

20:57I like the the James Haggins show I mean it feels like last year he was kind of bouncing around a lot between uh college and then the amateur trial with the with Providence and then jump right into playoff hockey in the NHL level and then the world championships I feel like a full runway here for him could could produce some good results Ryan who are you looking at to be a call the trophy candidate this year yeah I think it's gonna be a fun race and I love that Ecklin pick as well the islanders desperately need offense and he he is that spark plug uh that could help um I do think Marton's the favorite I think a a little bit of a dark horse might be Ilya Protas with Washington uh just because of how well he played at the end of last year with the caps in that that little triode he got there um but the name I'm keeping an eye on and we actually mentioned him early in the show is Vigo Bjork with Winnipeg because you know the reports coming out of there are that they want him to seize that second line center role and you know we've talked about this a lot uh on the big show this year you know Winnipeg they were so top heavy last

22:03year with Mark Schifle and Kyle Conner and then there was kind of a big gap I think Gabe Vilardi was probably third there and then there was another gap but they need somebody to score other than those three guys and if Vigo Bjork can get something going on the second line then he kind of has a bit of an advantage over some of his other rookie compatriots that he's gonna get the ice time and like who knows like maybe he gets like second power play time uh if you know if he does well early on but even five on five he's gonna get the minutes or at least you know they're gonna try to get him those minutes and see if he can take them and you know it's it's a tall task uh for a teenager but as we saw last year I mean Vigo Bjork like he'll take on any challenge whether it's like World Junior's whether it's playing against men uh in the pro ranks in Sweden so I'm very interested to see what he can do. Yeah Bjork's another great shout I mean he's pretty much exceeded expectations at every level that he's been at so far so the NHL will be a pretty uh

23:06intriguing endeavor for him to uh take on this year. Now I'm moving on a little bit to some eligibility changes that are gonna be happening in the NHL this year. Deputy Commissioner Bill Daley confirmed that ninth any 19 year old player who was drafted in the first round is going to be eligible for an assignment in the AHL starting this season. So obviously last year the most prominent case where I feel like a team could have used this role was Calgary with a Zane Perrek. He really wasn't gonna benefit at all from playing at the junior ranks but at the same time he wasn't necessarily ready for the NHL so there was no that there was no middle ground for him to really sort of work on his development at all. So are there any teams I'll start with you Ryan? Are there any teams this year or players in particular that could benefit from this change being implemented this year? Indeed I'm looking at Seattle and Jacob Bryan the the crack in first round or you know Jacob Bryan had a tremendous OHL year with Branford last year. They were obviously

24:09one of the best teams in major junior. I don't think he has anything else to prove at that level but then you look at Seattle and they have so many veteran forwards that I think if you're the crack and you say okay well is it best to try him in the NHL where he has more upside than any of the forwards they have right now but is he ready for that right? I mean he is you know like a tall center and you know sometimes those kids take longer to really take hold would it be better to send him full time to Koacella Valley where the firebirds have been very successful early on in their existence would it be better to have him dominate the NHL or hey not even dominate just get that level of pro hockey and play against men before you try to bring him full time into the Seattle lineup. Yeah that's great shout oh go ahead Tony you know what I was gonna say for me

25:11I look at Caleb Denoye and Brady Martin. Denoye and Utah Martin and Nashville Martin got some games in the NHL last year and same kind of thing he was good but he clearly wasn't ready for the NHL level. On back to the OHL and I think there was some adjustment period of not being in playing pro hockey and I think he's a great candidate to go to the the AHL this year in Denoye he had a down year last year a lot of it was due to injuries I talked to him with the world junior summer showcase and he said there was a lot of adversity adversity he had to get through mentally and physically last year just because of the injury he'd never really faced a big injury like that before and then when he finally started getting things going season that was over so I think he's a guy that same thing with Utah you look at that team and they're pushing for the playoffs are they're pushing to be one of the feisty your young teams in the league they're gonna have some decisions to make there's a guy like T. J. Gila make team there's a guy like Caleb Denoye make team can both or do you let that competition play out and then look at the other one and say you're gonna go down the AHL so if they have more room on the wing and they want De Noir to kind of focus on his game down the

26:16middle that might mean again LaJazzi advantage and De Noir ends up being in the AHL and I think it'd be a perfect spot for him because it would allow him to work on all of the things without the pressure and it would allow him to work on things against bigger and stronger competition and I think that's why this rule change has been such a big thing for NHL teams as we head into the season. Yeah the De Noir is another great shot I think that he'll benefit quite nicely from this this rule here just before we wrap up today Ryan want to give you a chance to talk a little bit about your your weekly prospect watch column every week on hawknews.com you can catch it what do you have for us this week? Yeah so I actually just did an interview with Scott Monahan from USA Hawk he's a national team development program he's the assistant executive director of the NCDP and the the building they play in and what I want to talk to him about is that they made a couple of promotions over the summer Rod Graceful is now the senior director of hockey operations

27:19and Andrew Whiteside is going to be the assistant there and it's interesting because you know the NCDP they've you know they've lost some talent particularly over the summer and then you know we mentioned JP Hurlbert he obviously you know as we were talking about earlier he left after the first year and went to Kamloops it's a it's a different landscape right and so you know is talking to Monahan about you know what these promotions will mean for the program and you know he was telling me about you know Rod Graceful his background is in scouting but you know he is he has a hockey mind that goes beyond that so this adds another layer you know about sort of above the coaching staff to work with the coaching staff just in terms of like development and and how you know they want to be cutting edge at the NCDP so you know sort of bolstering that front office will help in that

28:20regard and you know Graceful was already doing some of this role and so now he's kind of expanding it and I'll just tell a really quick sort of fun story because this won't be in the column it didn't fit but you know we were talking about just sort of how things evolve over the years in hockey and you know for the NCDP they want to keep up on that because they're you know they're trying to develop players that will play internationally for USA hockey win Olympic gold medals you know win U18s the world juniors and whatnot so that you know over the years they've kind of had to pay attention to trends whether you know the league was really big or the league was very fast or are you know is the NHL playing slow that sort of thing and Monayah was saying you know Patrick Kane originally didn't make the NCDP he only got in because somebody left and the reason Kane didn't make it was because back then nobody in the NHL was small and they were like well you know like he

29:23doesn't really fit what hockey is right now and then of course Kane ends up going to the NHL sooner than later he played one year in London in the OHL and then went straight to the Hawks and became you know I mean he's going to be a hall of fame or once you retire but it's kind of funny how you know you have those little things that happen where it is supposed to be a two-year program at the NCDP but you know things change sometimes you got a backfill of a player two leaves to those other names like Troy Terry and Tage Thompson they came in for the U18 year and played depth roles they were basically on the fourth line on the team that had Austin Matthews and Matthew could check up front so it's kind of fun to sort of look back at those NCDP teams but specifically it is really funny to think they were like we just don't know about Patrick Kane and then obviously they helped him develop into one the the greatest NHL players of the past 20 years. Yeah that's

30:25that's quite the story I appreciate you informing us about that that's a crazy little nugget from that conversation if you want to read more about that conversation you can head over to the hawkenuse.com that'll be out on Friday but that's going to do it for today's episode of the Hawkenuse Future Watch show for Tony Ferrari and Ryan Kennedy I am Eric Frickshank thank you so much for joining us we'll be here next Wednesday see you next time.