Nathan Behm heads into the 2025 NHL Draft full of Confidence
Nathan Behm is doing his best to take it all in.
The 2025 NHL Draft prospect is in Los Angeles this week for the draft, which starts Friday and continues into Saturday.
“You talk to a lot of teams about what's potentially gonna happen,” Behm said. “So I think it's just kind of being prepared for whenever and whoever it is. I think there's 32 teams, and so it could be any one of them.”
Behm is the 36th ranked prospect by Elite Prospects and is coming of a year in the WHL where he had 66 points in 59 games, second on Kamloops Blazers behind Detroit Red Wings prospect Emmitt Finnie.
The Elite Prospects draft guide described his game as follows:
With reach, handling skill, and a knack for pulling pucks through traffic, Behm slices through opponents in spectacular fashion. He taps pucks through defender’s triangles off his backhand, just outside of their reach, and leans into their space to complete the slot cut. From there, Behm subtly changes the angle inside the release or fakes before passing. A strong first-touch player, he moves pucks to the middle of the rink instantly and launches one-timers past goaltenders.
This season was a pretty big jump for Behm, production wise, who said he felt more confident in his second full WHL season.
“I think just consistency and be more dominant every game,” Behm said. “I think every game, I noticed that I was dominant more often. And I think now every time I step on the edge, I'm a dominant presence, and I make a difference.”
Behm said he learned a ton from Finnie and Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Harrison Brunicke about how to approach his draft year, both when it came to mentality and being consistent. He also took lessons that he plans to build on next season, again likely in the WHL with Kamloops.
"I think the biggest thing, everything just happens a little bit faster," Behm said. “So it's kind of just doing that in Junior, played in the dub, kind of just trying to process really fast, keep your feet moving. You have to pop quick and and make good passes. I think in pro you got to be super, super crisp and super fast. So I think it's just about doing everything, like, perfectly and a little quicker.”
Behm also attacks everything with confidence, which won't waver once he's drafted this weekend. Growing up he said he felt really had a gift for hockey around seven or eight years old, and now at the NHL Draft he's excited to see where that work has taken him.
“Maybe seven or eight, I kind of knew that I was one of the top guys, but I still had to keep working hard, and I did, and it's paying off now,” Behm said. “So I think from a pretty young age, I kind of knew, or at least had a good idea, that I was going to be decent player.”