here<\/a>.<\/p>\nReid takes over as top D in North America <\/p>\n
On NHL Central Scouting\u2019s midterm rankings, Keaton Verhoeff was the No. 1-ranked D in North America. Now that\u2019s Chase Reid, and Verhoeff has fallen to fourth on the list and third among D behind Reid and Carson Carels.<\/p>\n
That reflects my upcoming list and the view of most scouts I\u2019ve talked to about those three recently. The college game revealed some weaknesses in Verhoeff\u2019s game (particularly in his boots and decision-making), while Reid has built momentum over the last two years with continued development defensively around his impressive offensive package.<\/p>\n
Risers<\/p>\n
I was happy to see Nikita Klepov, who led the OHL in scoring this season, rise from No. 16 in North America on NHL Central Scouting\u2019s midterm rankings to No. 8. He\u2019s a favorite of mine and possesses top-six talent. He has gone from late-first\/second-round pick to top-20 candidate.<\/p>\n
Shifty NTDP standout Wyatt Cullen and 2024 Q No. 1 pick Maddox Dagenais have also strengthened their first-round cases over the course of this season, and they\u2019re No. 13 and No. 15, respectively, on NHL Central Scouting\u2019s final ranking for North America.<\/p>\n
The Ruck twins also both rose, with Liam moving from No. 26 to No. 20 in North America and Markus rising from No. 31 to No. 23. Scouts are partial to Liam\u2019s scoring tilt, but Markus led the CHL in scoring this year with 108 points. They\u2019re 5-foot-11 forwards who work but lack the skating that teams prioritize in players of that size. They\u2019re both going to be top-two-round picks, but where still feels up in the air. They\u2019re in the midst of the WHL playoffs with Medicine Hat.<\/p>\n
The sub-6-foot D<\/p>\n
There has been a lot of talk about the trio of 5-foot-11-and-change CHL D this year, and NHL Central Scouting has them back-to-back-to-back on the North American list like this:<\/p>\n
16. Ryan Lin, RHD, Vancouver Giants
17. Tommy Bleyl, RHD, Moncton Wildcats
18. Xavier Villeneuve, LHD, Blainville-Boisbriand Armada<\/p>\n
Bleyl has debatably been the best D in the QMJHL this year, and his blend of consistency, playmaking, vision, feel, hockey sense and skating has deservedly pushed him into the conversation with Lin and Villeneuve, who\u2019ve been names to watch for a couple of years.<\/p>\n
The talented but 5-foot-10 Axel Elofsson landed all the way down at No. 29 on the international skaters list.<\/p>\n
I still think Lin is the first one taken, but Bleyl might be the second.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL Central Scouting released its final rankings for the 2026 NHL Draft class Thursday. Penn State winger Gavin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":611105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-611104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=611104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/611105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=611104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=611104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=611104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}