With that little piece of work accomplished, the National Hockey League’s schedule switches to its off-season mode. Fortunately for the rabid hockey fans out there, it doesn’t really take much of a break as the focus immediately jumps to the upcoming Entry Draft, which kicks off in less than a week. This year, the event will take place in Los Angeles, as the leagues’ General Managers will converge on the Peacock Theater with the hopes of improving their rosters via trades or making selections to improve their prospect pool depth. Keep in mind, most of the players drafted this upcoming weekend will wait 3 or 4 seasons before they get a legit look at the NHL. So any team or fanbase picking outside of the top 10 better temper the excitement with a good dose of patience.
Young men that were born between January 1, 2005 and September 15, 2007 are eligible to be drafted, as are non-North American players born in 2004 who were not selected at the last NHL Entry Draft and those born in 2003 that were drafted but never signed (like the Jets’ Connor Levis). The 2025 prospect pool has been judged by the scouts & media as being fairly shallow, but that doesn’t mean that there won’t be any top end level talent available, especially in the early rounds. The Presidents’ Trophy winning Winnipeg Jets will only have 5 of their 7 draft picks when the action gets underway in LA, but at least they have retained their first rounder so that will give GM Kevin Cheveldayoff something to do on Friday, June 27th’s opening day (1st rd only). The remaining six rounds will occur on Saturday, allowing the True North franchise to make their 3rd round, 5th round, 6th round, & 7th round selections before things wrap up.
Despite finishing with the league’s 10th worst record in the regular season, the New York Islanders got a huge break when their lottery ball popped out to give them the #1 selection in the upcoming draft. Here is a list of what NHL clubs will have a top 10 pick this year:
Unfortunately, barring some huge trade, our club won’t be adding a player anywhere near there, as their franchise-record setting season has them banished to the late 1st round range. Because of that, I won’t bother reviewing the players who are clearly expected to be drafted before Winnipeg finally gets to make the 28th overall selection, but rather spend some time looking at 12 young men who have been drafted by the Jets in the many mock drafts online. That sounds like a lot and it is….mainly because who will be drafted where varies vastly from mock to mock, so I have no idea if it is likely that all of these players will be available for Chevy & his scouts to pick from. Admittedly, some of them do seem unlikely, but lets run through them anyways….
CAMERON REID: 18 yrs old, 6’ 174 lbs, LD – Kitchener Rangers (OHL)
Rankings: 10th BUT, 15th THW, 20th EP, 21st ESPN, & 31st DFO
Based on the rankings above, it would seem that Reid will be off the board before the 28th selection rolls around. Should he be there by some miracle, then Winnipeg will have to consider the benefit of adding a smooth skating left handed defenseman that has tons of offensive upside. According to the scouts, his ability to read the flow of play allows him to be in the right position to break up plays, yet it is Cameron’s agility that draws the most comments. The Canadian defender app
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