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Upside Hockey's 2025 NHL Draft Rankings — January Edition Top 224

UpsideHockey

UpsideHockey

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Jan 6, 2004
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Calgary, Canada
Just released:

Our Top 224 rankings with a new number one rated prospect

- Our exclusive rankings go well beyond the first round - over 350 prospects included in this version
- Check out the tabs along the bottom such as Defense, Under 5'11, etc. for various unique rankings
- Quick access to Elite Prospects profile linked for each prospect for updated stats; click on the respective prospect name
- We have in-depth scouting profiles from our profiler Sandman embedded/linked within the rankings spreadsheet. As the prospect profiles are completed on our dedicated 2025 profiles page, they will under the third column "UH" (Upside Hockey) - simply click on that to be taken to that respective profile. For the 2024 NHL draft, we completed over 240!

Upside Hockey's 2025 NHL Draft Rankings — January Edition

^link to the full rankings spreadsheet in the above Substack post
Click to read more...
 
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I don’t see Hensler at # 10 - he does nothing really good and has been fading in lot mock drafts . Only reason he’s there outside Schaefer it’s really weak draft for dmen
 
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I have yet to see any draft list that is significantly different than others. It feels like one of those drafts where most people can predict a good amount of the players in round 1.

I will say for my own personal tastes, I think Cameron Reid is the 2nd best defensive prospect in this class. Having said that, I would not draft him in the top 10. There is a large group of defenders that I feel should be drafted in the 15-25 range of the draft that project as low-end 2nd pair guys. Smith, Hensler, Boumidienne, and Fiddler fit that mold. The 3 guys I really like in Reid, Aitcheson, and Mrtka feel like high end 2nd pair guys. Eiither way, I think this defensive class is pretty weak as a whole. There aren't a whole lot of sleepers for me
 
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Not the most Czech friendly.lol

Mrtka at 8 is higher than most so that's great. he's in that 10 to 12 range pretty consistently.

Then a long wait till Poletin and I would be a bit surprised if Poletin was the next Czech to go.

I'd have Nestrasil and Psenicka ahead of him personally.

Benak is a wildcard and is ranked low here but that's totally fair because no one agrees on where he should be drafted.lol

Appreciate the Czech tab (doesn't generate Psnecka though).
 
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Castle8130 said:
I have yet to see any draft list that is significantly different than others. It feels like one of those drafts where most people can predict a good amount of the players in round 1.

I will say for my own personal tastes, I think Cameron Reid is the 2nd best defensive prospect in this class. Having said that, I would not draft him in the top 10. There is a large group of defenders that I feel should be drafted in the 15-25 range of the draft that project as low-end 2nd pair guys. Smith, Hensler, Boumidienne, and Fiddler fit that mold. The 3 guys I really like in Reid, Aitcheson, and Mrtka feel like high end 2nd pair guys. Eiither way, I think this defensive class is pretty weak as a whole. There aren't a whole lot of sleepers for me
Click to expand...
Pronger list just came out at The Athletic :
He had for dmen : Schaefer, smith , Henry B( london knights ) , Reid , Mrtka in his top dmen ranking . Hensler didn’t even make it . FYI - He said it’s a very weak year for USA and Finland . Not one kid from NTDP or USHL made his top tiers.
 
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Castle8130 said:
I have yet to see any draft list that is significantly different than others. It feels like one of those drafts where most people can predict a good amount of the players in round 1.

I will say for my own personal tastes, I think Cameron Reid is the 2nd best defensive prospect in this class. Having said that, I would not draft him in the top 10. There is a large group of defenders that I feel should be drafted in the 15-25 range of the draft that project as low-end 2nd pair guys. Smith, Hensler, Boumidienne, and Fiddler fit that mold. The 3 guys I really like in Reid, Aitcheson, and Mrtka feel like high end 2nd pair guys. Eiither way, I think this defensive class is pretty weak as a whole. There aren't a whole lot of sleepers for me
Click to expand...
At top maybe, but I daresay there aren't many rankings out there that go 224 like we do at Upside ; ), so tough to really compare in that sense.

(not to mention our watchlist which brings our total to over 350 prospects!)
 
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UpsideHockey said:
At top maybe, but I daresay there aren't many rankings out there that go 224 like we do at Upside ; ), so tough to really compare in that sense.

(not to mention our watchlist which brings our total to over 350 prospects!)
Click to expand...
Yeah, I just mean't there are usually some really tough decisions to decide who should be included in the 1st round from picks 20-50. The group of 'B' prospects is usually a lot larger than this years crop. It looks very shallow. Groups 'A' and 'B' prospects are the big determinants to how strong a draft really is and I can only name a handful of players that aren't in most peoples 1st round that can challenge for a spot. Usually there are a lot more sleeper prospects that could make a push into round 1. This year it feels like there is not much disagreement
 
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