JP Hurlbert is projected to be selected in the first round of the NHL Draft on June 26. JP practicing at the Children’s Health StarsCenter in Valley Ranch.
Steve Nurenberg/The Dallas Morning News
IRVING — There may not be a place where J.P. Hurlbert feels more comfortable than skating on his home rink.
The Children’s Health StarsCenter in Valley Ranch has been his hockey home since he was 4 years old.
For over a decade, he’s spent six days a week training at the facility operated by his hometown Dallas Stars, improving his game and visualizing his dream of playing in the NHL.
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As Hurlbert runs drills and practices his shot, he looks to the back wall that is lined with two rows of banners.
Plano native Blake Coleman, Arlington native Seth Jones and other NHL players who started their hockey journeys at the same rink each earned a banner showing the team that drafted them and the year. Fifteen banners surround the scoreboard. Next to three 2025 draft picks, a spot awaits Hurlbert’s name.
The 18-year-old Allen native is projected to be drafted in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday in Buffalo. If selected as one of the first 32 picks, Hurlbert would be the first native Texan to be drafted in the first round since Jones — a Stanley Cup winner with the Florida Panthers — was chosen fourth overall by Nashville in 2013.
“It’s pretty crazy and surreal,” Hurlbert said in a recent interview with The Dallas Morning News. “It was a dream for the longest time, and for it to now actually be right there, it’s super exciting. I just am looking forward to it each day.”
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But Jones, like most other Texas natives, spent most of his childhood playing outside of the state. Hurlbert didn’t leave Texas for a bigger opportunity. He was 16 when he joined the U.S. National Development Team Program in Michigan before becoming the Western Hockey League’s rookie of the year with the Kamloops Blazers of British Columbia last season.
J.P. Hurlbert stands on American Airlines Center ice with Dallas Stars defensemen Esa Lindell and John Klingberg before Jan. 4, 2018 game against the New Jersey Devils.
Courtesy / Hurlbert family
Hurlbert learned to skate at the Allen Community Ice Rink. He played his first organized hockey within the Dallas Stars’ system and became a high-level player as a member of the Dallas Stars Elite travel hockey club.
Even growing up in a non-traditional hockey market with fewer opportunities than his peers up north, he managed to become an elite scorer with a strong hockey IQ, expected to be a top pick for an NHL team in the middle of the first round.
As the Stars continue to invest in hockey in Texas and across the south, Hurlbert is living proof the commitment is paying off. He hopes when his name gets called this weekend, it’s a reminder to all aspiring NHL and PWHL players in Texas that their dreams are within reach.
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“It’s kind of proof that you can do it,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re from Michigan or New York or a typical market. You can be from Allen, Texas, and you can make your way into the first round. I think it’s just super cool to show it to the younger kids that it’s possible.”
How Hurlbert’s NHL dream came to be
When trying to better understand how a kid from Allen became a first-round talent, you won’t find the answer in J.P.’s parents. His mother Sarah is a Fairview native and was a skilled basketball player but had no hockey background. Neither did his father, Jeff, whose only hockey connection was that he was a Michigan native and diehard Red Wings fan during the franchise’s prime.
The Red Wings won their last Stanley Cup — and their fourth in just over a decade span — weeks after J.P. was born.
His parents chose to settle in Texas because his mom’s job at Coca-Cola relocated her to the Dallas-Fort Worth area from Michigan, where they first met. They decided to stay there — not because they thought it was the best place to raise a hockey player, but where they wanted to raise a family.
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Still, J.P. was drawn to hockey during the Red Wings’ playoff runs in his early years.
A 2-year-old J.P. Hurlbert stands on the ice with the Allen Americans as an honorary starter in 2011.
Courtesy / Hurlbert family
“I was always watching them in the playoffs, and he kind of walked around the house in his diapers yelling, ‘Hockey! Hockey! Hockey!’ so I thought, ‘Well, why not?’” Jeff said. “We went out to the Allen Community Ice Rink and started to skate, and one thing led to another, and he kind of just took off with it. He loved it.”
Like any parents, Jeff and Sarah wanted opportunities for their children. But J.P. and his sister Caroline — an all-state lacrosse player — chose sports with far fewer resources in Texas than football and basketball.
“For somebody who never played hockey and wasn’t really familiar with the structure and hierarchy of how it worked, I asked a lot of annoying questions,” Jeff said.
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He consulted coaches, became involved with the Stars’ organization early and even leaned on families of others who had made it — like the grandfather of Houston native Max Gildon, a 2017 NHL draft pick, and former Dallas Star Vern Fiddler, whose son Blake was drafted in the second round last year.
His parents’ commitment paired with his natural ability helped J.P. get noticed. Jeff remembers a tournament when he was just 9 years old, and J.P. scored six of the seven goals in a 7-6 win to lead his team to the championship.
“At that point, I thought, well, maybe there is something different about him,” Jeff said.
Within five years of that, J.P. was drafted to the WHL by the Kamloops Blazers, owned by Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi. Two years after that, he left home for the first time to play for the U.S. National Development Team in Michigan and represented the U.S. in the 2024 Winter Youth Olympics. A year later, he made his WHL debut, where he scored 42 goals and 55 assists in 68 games, earning the league’s rookie of the year award.
His parents made the trip to Kamloops half a dozen times to watch him, including once by car — a 33-hour drive from Allen. But they were able to watch all of his WHL games on Victory+.
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JP Hurlbert is projected to be selected in the first round of the NHL Draft on June 26. JP practicing at the Children’s Health StarsCenter in Valley Ranch.
Steve Nurenberg/The Dallas Morning News
“I thought he’d do well,” Jeff said. “He led the [Canadian Hockey League] in scoring for almost 80% of the year. I didn’t expect that.”
Ask those who know J.P. best like Dallas Stars Elite coach Karson Kaebel, who has coached him since he was 8, and what separates the young forward is his scoring ability.
“High character, really good teammate, hard worker and a goal scorer,” Kaebel said. “That’s what he is. … We always knew he was good when he was younger, but you never know. It’s such a long haul. It’s a marathon. But he deserves it. He’s worked really hard for it.”
His dad says his scoring ability, paired with his vision and playmaking abilities, separates him.
But when asked what he wants the teams that may draft him to know, J.P. said his personality off the ice is an added bonus.
“I think they’re getting just a really enjoyable guy to be around off the ice,” he said. “I like to have fun, bring a smile to the rink every day. On the ice, just an offensive threat, can score goals, can make plays, will be a game changer and create a lot of momentum.”
Hockey’s growth in Texas evident
The gravity of potentially being the first native Texan drafted in the first round in over a decade isn’t lost on Hurlbert.
He’s just the latest example of how the game is growing in the state. In 2020, Coleman became the first native Texan to win the Stanley Cup, taking down the Stars in the Final with his Tampa Bay Lightning team. Five years later, Jones became the second, winning it all with the Panthers.
Both Jones and Coppell native Hannah Bilka represented the state when they were selected to the Team USA rosters for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. Bilka was named to the All-Star team for the Olympic tournament.
She also is a member of the Seattle Torrent of the PWHL and is joined by fellow Texan Ally Simpson of Frisco, who plays for the New York Sirens. Both women played at a showcase game at American Airlines Center in December.
“The thing that I love is that it just shows all these kids that they can do it,” Jeff said. “They’ve got the resources. They’ve got the support. They’ve got the teams and the coaches.”
Still, J.P. and his family know even after years of hard work, nothing is guaranteed until he hears his name called on draft night. Right now, he plans to go to the University of Michigan in the fall where he’ll be a fourth-generation Wolverine and play for the men’s hockey program. He hopes that next step comes with a trip to an NHL training camp beforehand.
A young J.P. Hurlbert smiles while on the ice wearing a Michigan Wolverines helmet.
Courtesy / Hurlbert family
Jeff gets emotional thinking about hearing his son’s name called Friday. Years of work, he hopes, will finally pay off in a big way.
“It’s surreal, but at the same time, I know what he’s done and what he’s capable of. He’s worked tirelessly for 16 years. It’s nice to see him be regarded as such,” Jeff said. “I’ll probably try and not have the camera on me when they call his name because I’m sure I’ll shed a tear or two. He’s handling it better than I am.”
Hurlbert is taking in the last few skates at the StarsCenter Valley Ranch rink before his career really takes off. He knows it’ll be his go-to place to train in the summers with his coaches, who have been with him the entire way.
And he knows that next time he’s back, the rink may look a little different.
His name could be up on the back wall like he always dreamed, inspiring the next generation of Texas hockey players to join him.