Film Room: Ilia Morozov's advanced two-way game could make him the surprise of the 2026 NHL Draft

Ilia Morozov took a gamble this season.

First, he enrolled in college a year earlier than most top prospects, becoming just the 10th player to play their entire 17-year-old season in the NCAA since 2012. 

Unlike most of these prospects, Morozov wasn’t coming off a dominant 16-year-old season. He was a defensively sound, low-scoring USHLer. His 0.37 point-per-game clip ranked 144th among 16-year-old USHL seasons in the last 10 years. 

And Morozov wasn’t even stepping into a top NCAA program. The Miami Redhawks had just three wins in 2024-25, and haven’t hit double-digit victories since 2019. 

It looked like Morozov was in for a tough season. Instead, that gamble paid off. 

Morozov started the year on fire, scoring 11 points in nine games, and then spent the season anchoring Miami’s No. 1 line as they won 18 games – their most since 2014-15. 

Now, he looks firmly locked into the first round, with a real chance to be one of the early surprises of the class – especially with Stanley Cup playoffs around the corner. 

Elite shutdown skills 

Unlike most prospects, Morozov builds his game from the defensive zone and out. He’s the ultimate safeguarding forward, making calculated decisions across the ice and never sacrificing his positioning. There haven’t been many comparable defensive forwards in recent drafts – he’s that good. 

Here are some defensive metrics from an 11-game sample versus hundreds of other players and top prospects. This is the second-youngest player in college hockey!  

When rushes come back the other way, Morozov is like having a third defenceman. In the defensive formation, he holds the middle, guides opponents to the outside, and then pivots and takes the opponent into the walls – over and over. In the rare instance he’s not above the puck, he’s flying back to get level with the puck carrier and steal possession. 

Inside defensive zone coverage, Morozov is constantly scanning, tangling with threats, and engaging. In a single shift, he defends across the zone, pushing opponents wide and forcing panicked plays. He sets picks on opponents to allow easy receptions for his teammates and lingers on net-front threats and keep them behind the play – he has those playoff details every night. 

Then, there’s Morozov’s retrieval game. He leverages his 6-foot-3 frame in battles constantly, widening his stance to seal off the puck. If he’s in a 50/50, he engages early, using every possible tool – limbs, sticks, and subtle holds – to slow the opponent down. 

Then, Morozov gets to work with the puck:

Rather unusually, Morozov’s puck skills appear most in the defensive zone. There, he reads incoming pressure and evades it, sometimes faking first to secure the lane. He’s not afraid to pull off complex moves through the forecheck. Despite rigid, choppy handling, he makes it work by putting the puck in an easy-to-follow-up spot, timing his acceleration, and playing against the forecheckers’ momentum. 

Increasingly through the season, Morozov steadily became Miami’s best transition carrier. He linked his exits into entries, attacking the middle before pushing wide and passing off. Though his rushes seldom amounted to rush offence, his combination of give-and-gos, delays, and occasional trailer use allowed him to instantly set up Miami in their cycle.

One-man cycle machine 

Inside the offensive zone, Morozov’s usually found right in front of the net, giving goalies no room to breathe. He creates chaos, tips pucks, and he reacts very quickly to the play around him, outpacing coverage to win the rebound race. 

Where Morozov separates himself from other net-front presences is how quickly he detaches from the defender to win the short retrieval race behind the net. His contact skills prove especially beneficial here, as he uses little shoulder checks and shoves to knock them off balance before accelerating for the puck. 

While Morozov occasionally spins off pressure and drives the net, he’s primarily making one- and two-touch plays to keep the cycle alive before going back to the net. It’s not a flashy skill, but it’s exceedingly valuable in the NHL, especially in the playoffs. He pre-scans every reception and then taps the puck into the slot, makes a short-range pass to a teammate down low, or rims it with perfect weight up to the point. Simply put, his first touch along the wall is usually perfect, building his team’s offensive zone pressure. 

At times, it’d be great to see Morozov get inside more often, but it’s tough to argue with the results when he’s single-handedly keeping Miami’s cycle alive shift after shift. 

Though not particularly frequent, Morozov will venture away from the low cycle when space opens. There, he shows more playmaking skill, finding teammates in and, sometimes, across the slot for chances. After passing off, he is, of course, a bowling ball going straight down the middle, powering through contact to get back to the net. 

In a very limited offensive environment where Morozov’s offensive puck touches were heavily contested plays, he was reasonably productive – 20 points in 36 games for fifth on the team – and was an incredibly impressive puck manager. 

Not only did Morozov create advantages – plays that resulted in time and space for himself or a teammate – at a borderline first-line rate as the second-youngest player in college hockey, he seldom ended advantages. He extended the cycle, picked his spots, and didn’t force plays. 

The projection

Morozov isn’t a highlight reel player or likely to become a big point producer, but NHL lineups are filled with Morozovs, ranging from specialized middle-six forwards like Adam Lowry and Dmitri Voronkov, or even power forwards like Tom Wilson. Though Morozov certainly has a long way to go to become a special physical player like Wilson, there are some similarities between their forechecking and cycle games. 

Further handling skill and agility development seems required for Morozov, but, at this stage, it’d be unwise to bet against him. He’s improving quickly, crushed expectations in a tough environment, and shows glimpses of expanding his offensive repertoire further.

There’s a wide range of outcomes in his projection, from No. 4 centre straight up to top-six complementary player. Most likely, he lands somewhere in the middle, a playoff-ready No. 3 centre who locks down opponents and creates time and space for his linemates. 

With such an NHL-friendly style of game and the maturity and frame to match, Morozov brings a rare amount of NHL certainty. Because of that, he could be the surprise early pick of the 2026 Draft, perhaps going in the top 15.