Scout's Notebook: Evaluating the 2026 WHL Draft's best defencemen
Every draft cycle, the forward class dominates the headlines. The dynamic centres and skilled wingers collect the scouting miles, the highlight clips, and most of the first-round conversation. It takes a special defensive class to pull attention away from that. The 2026 group for the WHL Draft has done exactly that.
There is a clear headliner. Aidan Potash is as projectable a defenceman as this region has produced in years, a 6-foot-2 right-hand shot with the offensive skill, size, and confidence to draw genuine top-three overall buzz. Behind him, Brady Leinenweber has been one of the most consistent and complete defenders in the country all season. Eli Vickers put together one of the great offensive seasons ever recorded by a defenceman at the CSSHL U15 level. Jevin Morrison broke a nearly two-decade-old AEHL U15 points-per-game record for his position, and Matthew Tranby has drawn attention from evaluators across the continent with a physical and skating profile that is nearly impossible to find at this age.
What makes this group worth studying closely isn't just the depth at the top — it's the range of archetypes. From the dynamic offensive creation of Potash and Vickers to the two-way reliability of Leinenweber, the record-breaking skating ability of Morrison, and the physically imposing presence of Tranby, these five represent nearly every profile WHL teams build their defensive core around.
With the draft only weeks away, here is our breakdown of the best defencemen available.
Aidan Potash, RD, Okanagan Rockets U18 AAA
Aidan Potash is the most complete profile in this group. With the kind of mobility usually associated with smaller defenders, he carries the profile of a player teams build around on the defensive end. His offensive game is built on his ability to carry the puck with authority, walking the blueline through deception and edge work, opening lanes with weight shifts and stick fakes that draw defenders out of position. He is a possession monster, stringing together multiple touches on a single shift and leveraging his frame to protect pucks under pressure while surveying the ice for the next play. The shot from the point is already a genuine weapon, and his activation habits, flying the weak side, timing himself into the play as a trailer, driving downhill off the outside, give him the offensive profile of a true driver from the defensive end.
What separates Potash from most skill-heavy defenders at this level is how much of his game held up when the competition jumped. He played meaningful minutes for Okanagan's U18 club this season, including penalty kill time in their championship run, as a 14-year-old. The early viewings at that level showed timing issues that were easy to anticipate, such as inconsistent gap control on the rush and reads along the wall that fell behind the play's pace — those cleaned up quickly. By the final, his composure was steady, and his adjustments were visible, including one defensive-zone sequence where he snatched a loose puck from a contested crease, shielded off two attackers, and converted it into a clean outlet without any visible hesitation. That kind of poise takes time to develop for most players.
His defensive game is still developing and should be evaluated honestly. Off the rush at the U15 level, he can be passive, waiting for attackers to come to him rather than imposing his length early. His pivots, backward depth, and lateral stability will require continued refinement as the pace around him increases. His reach is already an asset, and he uses it to poke through traffic, deny entry, and tie up secondary threats at the net-front. The physical dimension of his game is present but inconsistently deployed at this stage, and as he grows into his body, that assertiveness should become more natural and more consistent.
Potash won a U15 championship and a U18 championship in the same season with two separate clubs. The offensive production at the U15 level was dominant, the experience at the U18 level was meaningful, and the growth rate across both environments was encouraging. He has top-pair potential and top-5 upside for the WHL Draft, and his combination of projectable certainty and genuine ceiling makes him one of the most compelling profiles in this entire defensive class.
Brady Leinenweber, RD, Northern Alberta Xtreme U15 Prep
Brady Leinenweber is the kind of defenceman who makes a coaching staff exhale. At 6-foot with room left to grow, right-handed, and with a smooth stride and a passing game that consistently finds teammates in motion, his projection reads cleanly to the next level. His game flows from composure. He rarely forces plays, rarely looks rushed, and rarely compounds a mistake under pressure. When forecheckers close in, he uses his mobility to buy time, his reach to protect the puck, and his hockey sense to identify the outlet before the pressure fully arrives. At the John Reid Memorial, he took home the tournament's best defenceman award, and his performances across the event made that recognition straightforward to understand.
The offensive game deserves more credit than it typically receives. His playmaking from the blueline is a genuine weapon; he opens his hips to distribute in both directions, uses shot fakes to pull defenders out of lanes, and delivers passes with the timing and weight that allows recipients to receive in motion. On the power play, he drove a backdoor pass that looked entirely professional: he read the open lane, skated in, and delivered the puck to a wide-open teammate without breaking stride. Off the rush, he has shown both the willingness and the skill to carry end-to-end, and his catch-and-release wrister from the right circle carries real threat. The offensive contribution is present and reliable; it comes in efficient, well-placed doses rather than explosive volume.
Defensively, the fundamentals are polished and consistent. His poke check off the rush is well-timed and rarely overextended, his net-front tie-ups are disciplined, and his breakout reads are almost always sound. He defends well with his feet and his length rather than relying on physicality, which works at this level but will need to be complemented by more body usage as the game intensifies. He can lean on his reach when asserting himself, and using his frame would produce a cleaner result. Picking up the work rate and contact details in wall battles will be the primary developmental item going forward.
Leinenweber projects as a top-pair defenceman in the WHL with meaningful special teams upside on both sides. His consistency across every environment we have watched him in, from regular-season league play to high-level showcases, makes him one of the easier prospects in this class to project with confidence.
Eli Vickers, LD, Delta Hockey Academy U15 Prep
At 5-foot-9, Eli Vickers is the smallest defender in this group. He is also one of the most dynamic offensive players in the entire draft class. His skating is the foundation on which everything is built, and it is genuinely exceptional. The edges and balance he plays with allow him to accelerate out of pivots before opponents register the change of direction, cut through neutral zone pressure that slows most defenders, and maintain separation on the offensive blueline in a way that makes pressuring him a losing proposition. He is not fast in a straight-line sense only; he is mobile in every direction, and that multi-directional quickness is what makes his game translate beyond puck retrieval and transition.
The offensive production flows from that skating base, but Vickers is a more complete offensive player than the skating alone would suggest. His playmaking vision is high-end. He reads the ice well in advance, delivers passes into space rather than directly to players, and manipulates defenders at the blueline with shot fakes, weight transfers, and stick-angle changes before distributing. His shot has a quick, effortless release and finds gaps with purpose. He patterns into high-slot attacks off the rush, identifies cross-slot and backdoor options on the power play, and his ability to receive in motion and immediately make a play keeps the offence moving at a pace that is genuinely difficult to defend. In many of his best performances, all of the offence on the ice ran through him, and the chance volume and production reflected it.
The size question is real and worth addressing directly. Vickers plays with good physicality for his frame, times hits, and battles for pucks with positioning and leverage. But the physical demands at his position in the WHL will be considerably greater than what he currently faces, and his mobility, as exceptional as it is, will not eliminate that gap entirely. Continuing to add size and strength over the next few years will be the most important developmental priority, and it will have an impact on how high his ceiling sits and how much of his offensive game translates into heavier environments.
That ceiling remains one of the most interesting in this class. His skating is already projectable to the WHL level today, his playmaking instincts are advanced for his age, and his ability to generate offensive advantages in difficult situations speaks to a level of intelligence that tends to persist as competition improves. If the physical development follows and his defensive reads continue to sharpen, Vickers has the profile of an offensive driver from a WHL top pair.
Jevin Morrison, RD, Red Deer Rebels U15 AAA
Jevin Morrison is the wild card of this group, and calling him that is not a knock. The tools he plays with are arguably the strongest of any defenceman in this draft class. His skating is special in the full sense of the word: not just fast, but genuinely four-way mobile, able to accelerate out of pivots, shift weight to generate separation mid-rush, and carry pucks end-to-end through heavy forechecking pressure in a way that suggests an unusually advanced relationship between his feet and the puck. His point shot is powerful and well-aimed, his activation instincts are sharp, and his playmaking from the offensive zone is legitimately high-end. Watching him at the Rocky Mountain Classic, it was not uncommon to see him lead the rush on multiple shifts in a single period, seldom showing his target before launching the puck on net.
The offensive production at the U15 level was historically strong, though an injury cut the season short. In his best performances, he managed the blueline with east-west movement that kept defenders guessing, stepped into shooting lanes with real authority, and connected on one-timers cleanly and with full rotation. Over time, the physical dimension of his game grew alongside the offensive tools. He became more willing to step up for hits, to fight for positioning along the wall, and to complete his checks, and those gains held through tough matchups. The development matters for the overall projection because it speaks to a player who is actively building the parts of his game that don't come as naturally.
Morrison has historically been puck-focused in his defensive zone, which shows up as gap inconsistency, a tendency to target the puck carrier at the expense of structural coverage, and scanning reads that, at times, can be behind the pace of the play. Those areas improved meaningfully across this season, and the defensive performances late in the year were considerably more reliable than early viewings suggested. The injury makes the complete picture harder to read than it would otherwise be, and there will be more development required before the defensive game consistently matches the offensive tools. The trajectory of improvement, though, was clear.
When the ceiling conversation around Morrison comes up, it starts high for good reason. A defenceman with his skating, shot, and playmaking vision, who is also growing stronger and more defensively responsible, has the profile of a top-pairing driver in the WHL who contributes in all situations. Whether he reaches that ceiling will depend on whether the development continues at the rate it showed this season. The tools to get there are absolutely in the building.
Matthew Tranby, D, Spring Lake Park Bantam AA (Minnesota)
Not just because of where he plays, Matthew Tranby is easily the most unique profile in this group. He is an imposing physical presence on the blueline; a freight train with the kind of mobility that teams spend years searching for and rarely find. His four-way skating is the first thing that jumps out on film, because it simply does not match the physical profile. He accelerates, changes direction, and closes in transition with a fluidity that creates genuine advantages at both ends of the ice, and the combination of that skating with his size and reach is what makes him such a compelling prospect. He towers over the competition at his current level, and the game around him looks easier for it, but the tools are legitimate, and they will project.
Defensively, the indicators are strong. He surfs into checked-release stops, controls his gap with active feet, and uses his reach and stick to disrupt low-to-high rings and clog seams before they develop into dangerous chances. The physical edge shows up in high-leverage moments: at the Minnesota state tournament, he stepped up on the penalty kill, dropped a forward on the right circle, and then sealed the same player a second time to force a turnover. He picks his spots well, which speaks to a level of defensive intelligence that goes beyond just physicality. Building that assertiveness more consistently across every shift, rather than selectively, is the natural next developmental step.
The offensive game complements the defensive profile in a way that meaningfully broadens his projection. He works 10-and-2 edges to slip past pressure laterally, uses hip-pocket rolls to get downhill on the outside, and distributes with real touch when the lanes are available. He intercepts, clears, and converts them into early transition attacks, keeps pucks at the line with his range, and activates into weakside positions that show genuine positional awareness. The execution with the puck in motion is inconsistent at times, and his edge refinement will be an ongoing process as he continues to grow into his frame, but the instincts and the ideas are right.
The American factor will be part of the draft day conversation. With the US Priority Draft no longer in place, teams will approach Tranby with varying levels of interest and different recruitment considerations, and some will factor the process into their decision entirely. Those willing to invest will find a prospect with rare physical tools, projectable defensive instincts, and the skating ability to develop into a top-pair presence in the WHL, if he chooses to commit. The ceiling here is significant, and his combination of size, mobility, and offensive awareness makes him one of the more uniquely interesting names in this class.
Honourable Mentions
Hayden Harvey is the most difficult player in this class to place because the tools that make him so exciting are the same ones that create the projection questions. He is big, explosive, and relentlessly active, a defender whose skating and activation instincts make him a genuine dual threat from the blue line on his best nights. When he is at his best, he is an elite puck-mover who impacts the game in both directions on virtually every shift. The honest question is calibration. His decision-making around when to activate and when to manage is still developing, and the aggressive pinches that his skating bails him out of at this level will not always be forgivable as competition strengthens. That is an entirely expected development area for a player with his instincts, and it is a more solvable problem than lacking the tools to begin with. Top-four upside at the WHL level is a realistic projection, and how his reads develop next season will go a long way toward defining where his ceiling sits.
The depth behind the featured group is real. Marko Malbasa brings a physical profile that every WHL team covets, an imposing frame, elite reach, and a mean streak that makes him genuinely unpleasant to play against in his own zone, while showing more than enough puck-moving ability to project as a second-pair shutdown presence with upside. Rhys Parker is a powerful, complete two-way defender whose skating and strength combination gives him a projectable floor, with the puck-carrying ability and transitional instincts to develop into something more. Zachary Pomeroy has first-round tools in his own right, a tall, mobile, playmaking defender who controls the point, distributes efficiently, and drives play with his shot when the lanes are there. Ryson Barker profiles as a steady long-term defensive bet, a strong, physical presence with disciplined defensive habits, efficient puck retrievals, and enough mobility and early puck skill to hint at offensive growth down the line.
This class has a headliner and a featured group worth tracking closely, but the names behind them ensure there will be plenty to discuss from the defensive end when the draft arrives.