F Benjamin Kindel - WHL - Calgary Hitmen (2025 NHL Draft)

[gothegr8]

Just a big fan of this kid. Along with Schaefer, i think he's my favorite prospect for this year's draft. Smart, good skills and vision, a lot of pro details in his game and a very effective 2way game. He has a great compete level and work ethic, showing up for every games. He wins a lot of puck battles especially for his size. His passing game is very good, as Dack mentionned some stretch passes he makes are simply impressive. We also saw it at the CHL/USA game on Lakovic's goal after a nice DZ puck recovery*. His shot is also better than i thought at first, i was thinking average in my first viewings but it's definitely a lot better than that. Size will be a concern for some, but i think he checks every other boxes to be comfortable enough with his projection. Probably a low-end top six or a good middle six with offensive upside, which is great in this year's draft.

Liked him pretty much every time i saw him play this year, seems like he keeps improving everytime i come back to him. He's in my top 15 as of now and i think he deserves way more attention than he's getting

* the play i'm talking about

 

[MS]

It's fascinating how different players generate different amounts of hype and discussion here.

Kindel is a remarkably similar prospect to Berkley Catton last year but has 26 posts in his thread so far vs. 13 pages for Catton at this time a year ago.

 

[macbowes]

It's fascinating how different players generate different amounts of hype and discussion here.

Kindel is a remarkably similar prospect to Berkley Catton last year but has 26 posts in his thread so far vs. 13 pages for Catton at this time a year ago.

Pedigree goes a long way, and Catton was a 1OA pick in the WHL draft. He's also a C, which is a more valuable position than RW. That being said, Kindel is rising up lists right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are drafted within 10-15 spots of each other.

 

[MS]

Pedigree goes a long way, and Catton was a 1OA pick in the WHL draft. He's also a C, which is a more valuable position than RW. That being said, Kindel is rising up lists right now, so I wouldn't be surprised if they are drafted within 10-15 spots of each other.

Kindel has played a lot of C this year so I wouldn't say he's a set RW or anything.

But yeah, pedigree is a big part.

 

[WeThreeKings]

It's fascinating how different players generate different amounts of hype and discussion here.

Kindel is a remarkably similar prospect to Berkley Catton last year but has 26 posts in his thread so far vs. 13 pages for Catton at this time a year ago.

Berkley Catton started off by ripping up the Hlinka, Kindel didn't do anything of the sort to generate hype. He's rising now so the hype will follow but that's obviously the difference.

 

[BKarchitect]

His production is remarkable…since 2020 he’s got the 4th highest U18 PPG in the WHL and is trending to nab 3rd after only Bedard and McKenna. He sits between Cristall and Catton and just ahead of Stankoven and Benson.

Lofty company. And I know they’ve made some moves but really looks like the Hitmen are overwhelmingly a 2-man show up front with him and Tulk. It’s not like he’s got a couple high end 18/19 year-old top draft picks inflating his numbers. Seems he is the driver.

 

[Castle8130]

1 of the very few risers of the draft. It will be interesting to see how high he can climb. Usually the risers don't rise enough imo

 

[Hinterland]

His production is remarkable…since 2020 he’s got the 4th highest U18 PPG in the WHL and is trending to nab 3rd after only Bedard and McKenna. He sits between Cristall and Catton and just ahead of Stankoven and Benson.

Lofty company. And I know they’ve made some moves but really looks like the Hitmen are overwhelmingly a 2-man show up front with him and Tulk. It’s not like he’s got a couple high end 18/19 year-old top draft picks inflating his numbers. Seems he is the driver.

Yeah, and, as I mentioned before, he didn't always play with Tulk. They moved Tulk to Kindel's wing now but the two of them very much started the season on separate lines with Tulk getting mostly the better ones of the pretty underwhelming group of wingers the Hitmen have on the roster this season.

 

[Nabrules]

1 of the very few risers of the draft. It will be interesting to see how high he can climb. Usually the risers don't rise enough imo

My only think is we know how NHL teams think. Let's look at the list of risers the past few drafts

2020 - Sanderson 6'3 D
2021 - Mctavish 6'2 C
2022 - Gauthier 6'3 (drafted as a C by PHI)
2023 - Reinbacher, Simashev 6'2 and above D
2024 - Sennecke 6'3 W

Risers are usually dman or centres and big players. I'm curious how high he actually rises given he's small and more than likely a winger

 

[Hinterland]

My only think is we know how NHL teams think. Let's look at the list of risers the past few drafts

2020 - Sanderson 6'3 D
2021 - Mctavish 6'2 C
2022 - Gauthier 6'3 (drafted as a C by PHI)
2023 - Reinbacher, Simashev 6'2 and above D
2024 - Sennecke 6'3 W

Risers are usually dman or centres and big players. I'm curious how high he actually rises given he's small and more than likely a winger

He's most certainly gonna play C because he's much more efficient, more influental down the middle. Playing C fits his strengths and weaknesses better than playing W but I agree him being small is something NHL teams could potentially see as a problem.

 

[landy92mack29]

The 2 times I've seen him live he's been very disappointing but what I've seen online I like. See him more as a winger than center in the pros but doesn't play timid at least. I have him mid teens to mid 20s atm

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

Berkley Catton started off by ripping up the Hlinka, Kindel didn't do anything of the sort to generate hype. He's rising now so the hype will follow but that's obviously the difference.

And Catton will be picked 10 spots higher.

 

[Castle8130]

My only think is we know how NHL teams think. Let's look at the list of risers the past few drafts

2020 - Sanderson 6'3 D
2021 - Mctavish 6'2 C
2022 - Gauthier 6'3 (drafted as a C by PHI)
2023 - Reinbacher, Simashev 6'2 and above D
2024 - Sennecke 6'3 W

Risers are usually dman or centres and big players. I'm curious how high he actually rises given he's small and more than likely a winger

Risers doesn't always mean picked high. I actually think a majority of NHL scouts had Simashev a lot lower than he went (more of a faller in that sense), but the Coyotes were extremely high on him after a disappointing draft year season. There are plenty of examples of undersized players rising up higher than expected. Guys like;

2017: Cale Makar 5'11", Robert Thomas 6'0"
2019: Cole Caufield 5'7" (was ranked as high as 9th oa by Bob Mckenzie's 10 scouts), Alex Turcotte 5'11"
2020: Lucas Raymond 5'11", Seth Jarvis 5'10", Jamie Drysdale 5'11", Marco Rossi 5'9" (not sure your definition of risers, but Raymond and Jarvis most certainly rose in this draft class)
2021: Weird draft due to COVID
2022: Logan Cooley 6'0", Frank Nazar 5'9", Denton Mateychuk 5'11"

 

[Mototik]

His production is remarkable…since 2020 he’s got the 4th highest U18 PPG in the WHL and is trending to nab 3rd after only Bedard and McKenna. He sits between Cristall and Catton and just ahead of Stankoven and Benson.

Lofty company. And I know they’ve made some moves but really looks like the Hitmen are overwhelmingly a 2-man show up front with him and Tulk. It’s not like he’s got a couple high end 18/19 year-old top draft picks inflating his numbers. Seems he is the driver.

Yeah, and, as I mentioned before, he didn't always play with Tulk. They moved Tulk to Kindel's wing now but the two of them very much started the season on separate lines with Tulk getting mostly the better ones of the pretty underwhelming group of wingers the Hitmen have on the roster this season.

Yeah coming from a Hitmen fan, Kindel is the driver and is the person inflating numbers.

They did just win 6-0 on Wednesday and Kindel didn't get a point with Tulk only getting one, so mixed fan emotions on that one.