2025 NHL Draft player poll: 50 top prospects dish on most underrated, most difficult, NCAA

New York Times

5 hours ago

This season, The Athletic's prospects writers Scott Wheeler and Corey Pronman set out to do something ambitious: pull off a 2025 NHL Draft player poll similar to the player polls our staff conduct in the NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB.
In the fall, they settled on 10 questions — three on the record and seven anonymous — and spent the season gathering as many responses as possible. By year's end, 50 of the top prospects in the 2025 NHL Draft class were surveyed for our inaugural NHL Draft player poll.
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These are the results of the anonymous poll questions. We asked players to rank the big three OHL prospects of Matthew Schaefer, Michael Misa and Porter Martone. We asked them for the hardest draft eligible to play against and the most underrated. We asked them for teams they'd like — and not like — to go to. We asked them if they check their draft ranking. And, yes, we asked them if they're considering the NCAA.
The results were sometimes revealing, sometimes insightful and candid throughout.
Among the chorus of Matthew Schaefer answers, one player called him "unreal," another said "he was doing whatever he wanted out there" at Hlinka, another said he just as the "ability to take over games and win games for his teams," and yet another said "the kid can eat minutes (and) it seemed like he played every other shift at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge and Hlinka."
On James Hagens, another player said, "You don't want the puck in his hands."
On why he didn't like playing against Porter Martone, one player said, "He's cocky."
Another player said Martone "can do a lot of things with the puck."
One of the players who answered Kashawn Aitcheson called him a "big boy who loves to throw his weight around."
Among the two players who answered Carter Bear, one said, "He is always hard on the forecheck and he's not afraid to lay hits, plus he's also very skilled and smart."
One player credited Matthew Gard as being "big, heavy, skilled and hard to play against."
Another player said Brady Martin is the hardest forward to play against in the corners because "he never gives up on plays."
On Caleb Desnoyers, one player said, "He's one of the best players I've played against. He's complete. He's good both sides of the rink. He's so smart with and without the puck. He's hard to contain, and he can also defend."
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The player who answered Adam Benak said he was "hard to catch" because of how shifty he is.
One player credited NTDP center Cole McKinney for his strength in the faceoff circle and his ability to shut down opposing players.
The player who answered Ben Kindel said, "He is a super talented player who is super hard to play against because of how well he slows the game down and can speed it up as well."
The player who answered David Bedkowski said he "doesn't give up anything defensively."
On Anton Frondell, one player said: "Played against him in international play, and he's an elite talent. His shot's unbelievable. You've got to be aware when he's on the ice. He's a really good player."
Another player credited 6-foot-6.25 USHL defenseman Jacob Rombach for his "long stick, long reach and good body positioning, too."
One of the players who said Ben Kindel said, "I know he is still ranked quite high, but I think his IQ is off the charts."
"Not very flashy, but he's a solid, smart player," one player said of Cameron Reid. Another said of Reid: "I think he defends very well."
On Luca Romano, one of the three players said: "He's a really skilled player and he can shoot the puck. I think he could be higher for sure."
One of the players who gave Malcolm Spence said, "Doesn't get enough love — very skilled player."
The player who gave L.J. Mooney said it's "Not even close."
On Filip Ekberg, one player said, "He's super skilled and he's got pretty much everything."
On Swedish center Milton Gastrin, one player said he's "always competing and always works hard."
"You know what you're going to get from him. I'd trust him so much," the player said of Gastrin.
The player who answered Tyler Hopkins said, "his compete level is unmatched."
On Swedish defenseman Theo Hallquisth, one player said, "he makes every player he needs to make and plays the easiest game."
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The player who answered top-ranked forward Michael Misa said he's still underrated "because he is such a smart player where he doesn't have to be flashy to impact a game — he creates plays by using his passing, hockey sense and speed, which is very hard to defend."
One of the players who answered Logan Hensler argued, "It's hard to play in college, and just because he didn't have crazy points, I still think he's a really good player and people don't give him credit for it."
One player said Carter Bear doesn't get enough love because he's a late-2006 and hasn't played in any Hockey Canada events.
The player who answered Quinn Beauchesne argued the Guelph defenseman hasn't been able to show his potential yet because he has been injured a lot.
The player who answered Jett Lajoie said he was "just a player — has that dog in him."
The player who answered NTDP forward Richard Gallant said, "If someone picks him up, he'll be a steal. He had a great season, and he's a smaller guy, but he gets to those dirty areas."
As NCAA eligibility becomes more accessible to both CHL and European players, nearly two-thirds of the 44 players surveyed said they were considering the NCAA option, signaling a potential shift in the natural pathway for top prospects.
We thought it was still interesting that more than a third of the players surveyed said they aren't even considering it, though, as well. The CHL is still going to be able to retain many of the game's top prospects, and several of the Swedes surveyed said they've decided to sign one- and two-year contracts beyond the draft instead of going the NCAA route.
It'll be interesting to track which direction the pendulum swings over the next few years.
With three of the top prospects in this class all playing in the same league, we decided to ask players who played all three players to rank them. The goal was to see if there was a divergence between how their peers view them and how we do. More than 24 of the players had played all three, but in the end, only two dozen of the 50 players we surveyed who'd played with or against the trio of Schaefer, Misa and Martone agreed to participate.
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The results were fascinating. Schaefer, the presumptive No. 1 pick, received the fewest first-place votes from his peers, while Martone, who is projected to be the third player picked, led the way and was ranked first by half of the respondents. There was also the greatest consensus around Misa, who received the most combined first- and second-place votes (21 of 24).
Of note: The players' answers, like those of scouts, changed over the course of the season. Those surveyed in the fall were more likely to rank Martone No. 1, while those surveyed in the second half were more likely to rank Schaefer or Misa first.
Interestingly, 21 of the league's 32 teams received at least one answer as the team the prospects would most like to land with.
In some instances, prospects' allegiances to the team they grew up cheering for clearly ran the strongest.
Otherwise, the players said they were more interested in warm weather, the cities themselves or what they'd seen or heard about the fans and the arenas, with warmer climates such as Dallas, Nashville, Florida, Tampa, San Jose and Los Angeles all chosen multiple times.
Even though they were granted anonymity, the players were more reluctant to answer this question, with many saying they'd be happy with any team and just 19 of 50 offering up a team or a market they didn't want to go to.
Canadian markets didn't fare well, however, with six of the 10 teams that players said they'd cross off sitting north of the border and 14 of 19 (73.7 percent, or almost three-quarters) answers going to Canadian teams. Only the Oilers were spared.
This was a fun one we wanted to finish with, and one that got a chuckle from a few of the players, given who it was coming from.
Anecdotally, by giving them anonymity, the answers were much more honest than usual. Typically, almost all players say they don't check or care about their rankings when asked in interviews. Anonymously, more than three-quarters of them confessed they do check, and an almost equal number said they either check frequently or don't at all.
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; photos of Sascha Boumedienne, Michael Misa and Carter Bear: Michael Miller, Jonathan Kozub, Erica Denhoff / Getty Images)