Building an NHL Draft list is easier said than done — especially with multiple voices and opinions conflicting through the process.But that’s what NHL teams must do every year, getting their scouts and executives together and debating players from different leagues to come up with a final draft list.To simulate the challenges and compromises that go into forming a draft list, “The Athletic Hockey Show” Prospect Series crew — made up of The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler and Max Bultman, and FloHockey’s Chris Peters — spent Thursday’s episode working together to build a collaborative top 10.Every panelist had to compromise, but the result gave both a consensus top 10 and a window into how different (and at times significantly different) preferences impact a final list.
Tier 1 RankPlayerPositionTeam1Gavin McKennaLWPenn State2Ivar StenbergLWFrölunda3Chase ReidRHDSoo Greyhounds
Fitting for this draft class, the discussion began with Penn State winger Gavin McKenna, who has been the biggest name of this age group for years. The panel unanimously agreed Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg belonged in the same tier as McKenna, with Wheeler emphasizing the historical strength of his season in the SHL. Only Markus Näslund, Tomas Sandström and the Sedins have ever scored more than Stenberg’s 33 points this season as U19 players. That said, no one wanted to argue him for the top spot overall.While defenseman Chase Reid finished third on the panel’s joint list, Pronman ranked him as the No. 1 player on his personal board. Peters highlighted Reid’s rise from playing in the NAHL as recently as 2024 to a top defenseman in the OHL in a short span, and said he thinks Reid could still be “on the front end of some of his best development years.” Pronman agreed, comparing his trajectory to Cale Makar’s.“He kind of just exploded in his draft year,” Pronman said. “And then he goes to college, and he was really good, and had the great World Junior A Challenge. I think (Peters’) point about how little high-level experience Reid had before the half year of the OHL (he entered the league midway through the 2024-25 season) is very relevant.”Wheeler had some minor hesitance with putting Reid into the top tier with McKenna and Stenberg, noting Reid’s age as a late 2007 birthday and the fact that Reid’s production, for an offensively inclined defenseman, wasn’t jaw-dropping at just over a point per game compared to past OHL defenders like Brandt Clarke, Zayne Parekh or Ryan Ellis. Wheeler still ranked Reid third, but drew a distinction there compared to McKenna and Stenberg’s historical context when it came to the tier grouping.Pronman acknowledged that Reid’s offense may not be elite, but felt his skating and defending would make up for it compared to the more pure offensive defensemen Wheeler referenced.Ultimately, though, the group agreed to put Reid in the top tier, albeit behind McKenna and Stenberg.There were other players nominated for Tier 1, but none were able to get enough support from the rest of the panel for the final list.
