1 week Ago By Hannah Stuart
It's a more wide-open race for first overall in the 2025 NHL Draft than it is a lot of years. On the one hand, that's a lot more fun for those of us in the prospect business than a top-pick race that's decided before the season even starts. But on the other hand, it means you have to pay much closer attention—and it means you have no idea how things are going to shake out, because the results could depend far more heavily on which team gets that top pick.
Getting this ranking to you before the World Junior Championships upends the conversation—or further cements the preseason choice of James Hagens at number one—was strategic. And more importantly, it's fun to have this record of where things stand now to look back on so that we can compare and contrast with our future opinions. Yes, Roger McQueen has been out since October with an injury.
But it's a long season, and we rated McQueen highly at the beginning of the year for a reason. Whether this dark horse candidate actually makes a run for the top spot after he returns to play will depend entirely on whether he can separate himself from the four players ahead of him on his list—which is a tall order as things currently stand. McQueen has only gotten eight games so far this season—but in those eight games, he managed to score eight goals, with 11 total points.
It's nothing to sneeze at, even if it is a small sample size. While we don't necessarily anticipate him keeping up the goal-per-game pace when he gets back on the ice, his tools make us think we will see some impressive offense from the Wheat Kings center. His hockey sense is high-end, and when combined with his puck skills and physicality, it makes for an incredibly appealing high-offense player.
Porter Martone has the tools to push for the first overall pick. You can see that in his scoring, with 54 points in only 26 games. That's a 131-point pace across the season.
His passing skills are brilliant, finding gaps in his opponents' defense and sending the puck to precisely where his teammates will be. His hockey sense is just as good—he knows exactly how to read the ice to know where he needs to be. But if he wants to be the first overall pick, he needs to start acting like it on every shift.
Teams are going to notice that Martone will hang back on plays until he spots the moment he can dive in and take advantage of a free puck, of an opportunity to shoot, of a moment where he can make a brilliant pass to a teammate. He's not involved in the play the entire time it unfolds—just when it's convenient for him. That brilliant hockey sense is a double-edged sword here, because it allows him to dive in at exactly the right moment and score anyway.
It chafes because he's got the tools to be a much better player even than we're already seeing. There are moments when you can just tell that his playmaking instincts are top-notch—and those moments make you want to see those instincts more. I have hope that playing against the best of the best at the World Juniors will draw this out of Martone and we'll see an even better version of him the second half of the season.
If we do? Watch out, everyone else. Matthew Schaefer came back from his bout with mononucleosis and decided to immediately make the case for why he, and not one of the flashy, high-scoring forwards in this year's draft class, should be atop the board in June. His game makes it easy to understand why.
Sometimes you see him make a play and have to rewind and watch it another three or four times before you understand exactly what he just did and how he accomplished it. He's already got incredible instincts for where and how to get through opponents, and he's got the motor to do it before those opponents can react. Identifying the tiny details of the game—where to just ease right on through the opposing team's coverage, how to slip a pass through to a teammate—comes naturally to him.
His game is so well-rounded; while Schaefer clearly prefers to burn opponents by activating and taking the puck down the ice, he's just as good hanging back if he needs to. It has to be endlessly frustrating playing against him. Schaefer made Team Canada for this year's World Juniors.
If he has a good tournament, chances are good his profile will rise even further. Some of the bigger draft pundits out there have been dropping hints that Schaefer will be the one on top come June, which would appear to indicate that, at the very least, teams potentially heading for a lottery spot are watching him very closely. And they like what they see.
Michael Misa's scoring has been absolutely bananas so far this season. He's at a goal-per-game pace right now, with 30 at the time of writing, and he's on pace for 134 points if he keeps up his current level of play. He leads all three CHL leagues in points.
We're deep enough into the season that this clearly isn't a fluke. Hockey Canada didn't even invite him to selection camp for the World Junior Championships. Make it make sense.
I'm hedging my bets and waiting to see how the rest of the season plays out before I rank him over James Hagens, but the urge is there and has been there since the start of the year. There are so many things in Misa's game that make him a contender for the first overall spot. Attention to detail is a major one—he pays attention to the little things and thanks to his elite hockey sense is able to quickly determine how to use them to his advantage.
And his high-end skill isn't just on display when he has the puck. His anticipation and action when his opponent has the puck prove that his game is incredibly well rounded. If you have the time, catch a Spirit game and just watch this kid.
You won't regret it. James Hagens is still at the top of our list, albeit with the guys we've already discussed lurking in his rearview mirror. 20 points in 16 college games isn't blowing the league wide open, but it's nothing to sneeze at, particularly when you consider that Hagens is one of only two under-19 players in the NCAA scoring at a better than point-per-game pace right now.
He plays with such composure that if you didn't already know he was 18, you would assume he was more experienced. He's a phenomenal playmaker and puck carrier, and worked over the summer on improving his shot to go along with it. Add to that the elite hockey sense and vision that allows him to stymie opponents and you can understand why he still tops our list—for now.
We're looking forward to seeing how Hagens plays at the World Juniors, where he'll be centering a new-look BC line, with him taking the place of Will Smith. Centering what is ostensibly the top line as a draft-eligible player means all eyes will be on him as he faces his toughest international peers. It's up to Hagens what he does with that.
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