Film Room: How Liam and Markus Ruck could become the NHL's next dynamic duo

Usually, at Elite Prospects, we avoid grouping prospects in a Film Room, preferring to highlight individual talents and projections. But the Ruck twins are a special case, having developed and risen to top-prospect status on the same line.

​Taken apart, they’re talented players in their own right.

​Together, they form one of the more promising duos we’ve seen come through the draft in recent memory,  the definition of the sum being greater than the parts.

​The twins, Liam and Markus, played their full minor hockey together, feeding creative passes to the shooty Mathis Preston, another 2026 NHL Draft top prospect. Drafted both to the Medicine Hat Tigers and again paired on a line, they largely replaced the playmaking void left by the departure of Gavin McKenna, climbing the league leaderboard and finishing atop it with almost identical stats (108 points in 68 games for Markus and 104 in 68 games for Liam),

One can easily draw parallels between their stories and Daniel and Henrik Sedin's. While the Rucks are not the same level of prospects and their identity is not as defined as the Sedins', their special connection had them replicate some of their plays this season.

Markus Ruck 

Markus maxed out his playmaking arsenal this season, spending most games drawing elaborate plays.

A highly precise passer, he deflects pucks to linemates directly off the catch, two-touching it under sticks, hooking it around pokechecks, and lobbing it to space. He uses the boards to bank passes behind the defensive lines and plans his movements in advance to create pockets of space for teammates to feed passes. 

His passing with his brother became impossible to stop in some shifts. The pair bounced pucks to each other and around defenders, constantly relocating and forcing the opposition to chase them around in circles. The give-and-go games broke Ruck and Ruck loose, enabling them to reach an opening before the defence could catch up.

Markus’ understanding of playmaking angles, timing, and routes is matched only by that of some of the biggest talents in the draft class, including McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, Wyatt Cullen, and Caleb Malhotra.

He knows the right number of strides and stick-handles to make before sending his pass, where his options are at all times, and how to skate to best link up with them. And he shows the same tactical intelligence away from the puck, planning his progression, knowing where his teammates will expect him to be, and attacking those spots at the perfect time.

Embodying the connector archetype, Markus distributes passes, moves predictably, and builds scoring chances step by step. His foresight, passing game, and tactical understanding could make him a highly effective NHL playmaker in time.

If he were more dynamic, better capable of blending skating, physical, and stickhandling skills in his playmaking, we would talk about him in the same breath as these aforementioned top playmakers.

At the moment, however, he's almost strictly a passer, and sometimes an inefficient one, who sometimes looks for the difficult, east-west or drop pass instead of streamlining the game. Not really able to take defenders one-on-one, break through their lines with his skate, or shake off back pressure to do the same, his game lacks dimensions. To be effective, he needs teammates to be in the right place at the right time and open for his passes. Although he contributes to creating space for them with his deception, the burden of getting open remains largely on others.

You see his tendencies in the tracking data from Head of Scouting Mitchell Brown. Markus creates offensive advantages (gaps in coverage and odd-man attacks), relays passes from the wall, and constantly finds teammates in space across the ice, but does so mostly with his passing. He’s not a scoring threat, and his physical traits rank as average-at-best in the CHL.

​In our ranking, the lack of diversity in Markus’ game caused him to fall below his more well-rounded brother, Liam.

More elements will have to break right for him to reach the NHL. Following his brother to the same organization would help his future. He wouldn’t have to rebuild the same kind of chemistry with another teammate, but even in that ideal scenario, pushing his skating and developing a physical game would still be required before he can hope to access the league.

Liam Ruck

Almost all of the skills that we attributed to Markus, his high-level passing precision, anticipation, and talent for moving away from the puck, Liam has them, too. With their combined vision and anticipation, the twins created some of the more impressive plays we’ve seen this season, shifting around defenders from the defensive end to the offensive one and cycling pucks all around the offensive zone.

While Markus laces more deception in his passing plays, creating more elaborate set-ups, Liam focuses more on creating space for the play.

Liam boasts a surprising level of strength in battles, getting under defenders and establishing body positioning on pucks. He retrieved them at a high rate this season, initiating the twins’ cycle plays,  keeping defenders on his back, shielding, and spinning out of pressure. Playing a more energetic, inside-driven game, he pushes defenders back off the rush, attacks the net, and even screens goalies.  

Capable of catching and releasing pucks instantly, even from difficult positions, he became the triggerman of the duo, sneaking around defenders and finding space in the slot to offer an outlet. He can also fire in between strides while coming down the wing and deflect pucks in around the blue paint.

Liam may have developed the rest of his skill set to complement Markus’ playmaking – or the opposite. Chicken or egg, the result is that he became the more projectable player of the duo.

He was just as guilty of overpassing and forcing passes through defenders this season, looking for the perfect play. And just like his brother, his lack of explosiveness limits his play options at the WHL level and will become a more severe hindrance at the next level if it doesn’t improve.

That being said, Liam seemed to adapt better to the opposition, relying more on his forecheck and wall play to create when needed. His more diverse skill set, adaptability, and better motor gave us more reasons to rank him higher, creating a gap between the two brothers.

Projection

On our final draft rankings, Liam finished the season at 24th overall, and Markus at 43rd overall.

It’s easier for us to envision Liam leveraging his physical and scoring skills to reach an NHL role without his brother's support. Some elements of his profile remind us of draft-year Nick Suzuki, who also had pace and skating issues but similar contact, playmaking, and scoring skills.

We also see a path for Markus to reach the NHL. More of a unidimensional player, however, he will have to develop at least another facet of his game significantly before he can aspire to a role in the league.

They both have middle-six upside and an outside chance at a top-six role.

As they have developed together so far, shaped their game around each other, and pushed their individual talents, drafting them together would surely maximize their value. We hope that the NHL will view them as a package, that one team will formulate a plan to acquire both and place them on a joint development plan, allowing them to continue growing together.  

Matching the Sedin twins' legacy is an impossible goal, but the Rucks could write their own, elevating each other en route to the NHL.