The 2025 NHL draft is expected to be held in late June next year. It will be the first in which the top picks will be in a host city while most of the management and scouting departments of the 32 teams make their selections from their home cities.
NHL Central Scouting will release its initial ranking of the top North American and international hockey prospects later this fall. The early favorite to become the top prospect is center James Hagens, who played for the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (NTDP) in 2023-24.
Since we’re still stuck in the dog days of the NHL offseason with little news to report, it’s a good opportunity to conduct our annual summer mock draft. We’ll provide a brief biography of each prospect and use our July 3 power rankings in place of standings to determine which could be the best fit.
Prospect information was drawn from Elite Prospects, with rankings by TSN’s Craig Button (from November 2023), Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala, The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, and Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis.
Each club’s prospect pools were based on evaluations by The Hockey News‘ Tony Ferrari, Ellis and The Hockey Writers.
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The Columbus Blue Jackets addressed their weakness at center by selecting Adam Fantilli in 2023 and Cayden Lindstrom in this year’s draft.
Should they win next year’s draft lottery, they could continue shoring up that position by selecting James Hagens, who makes his NCAA debut this season with Boston College.
Hagens, 17, is considered the potential No. 1 pick by Button, Bukala, Pronman and Ellis. The 5’10”, 172-pound center spent last season with the NTDP.
Skating with the U.S. National U-18 team, Hagens was its leading scorer with 102 points. He was also the top scorer of their Junior squad in the United States Hockey League (USHL) with 47 points in 26 games.
Button called Hagens an elite driver of offense from the center-ice position. Bukala praised his creativity, speed, passing, and shooting abilities. Pronman compared him to New Jersey Devils center Jack Hughes and Utah’s Logan Cooley. Ellis considers him one of the most dynamic centers he’s seen in a while.
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