Ranking the NHL's top 100 affiliated prospects ahead of the 2025-26 season
It's our favourite part of the offseason at Elite Prospects, when we rank the best prospects and the best prospect pools in the NHL. That starts today with our ranking of the top 100 affiliated skater prospects in the sport.
Overall, this is a ranking focused on projected value in the NHL, so some archetypes may appear lower on this list than their potential upside might suggest.
Roughly speaking, ranks No. 1 through No. 8 are the elite prospects – the likely high-impact NHLers and potential stars. From No. 9 to the late-20s or 30s (depending on the scout asked), we see as high-probability NHLers in major roles. From there, it’s wide-open, with team fit, preference, and upside, being our determining factors.
In total, over 125 prospects could be included without a noticeable drop-off in calibre – but only 100 can be ranked.
As with past rankings, we've determined that any player who is still eligible for the Calder Trophy, given to the NHL's best rookie, qualifies for this exercise.
The NHL determines whether a prospect is still Calder-eligible based on these criteria:
To be eligible for the Calder Memorial Trophy, a player cannot have played more than 25 games in any single preceding season nor in six or more games in each of any two preceding seasons in any major professional league. Beginning in 1990-91, a player must not have attained his 26th birthday by Sept. 15 of the season in which he is eligible.
If you're new to these parts, we use a linear 1-to-9 tools grading system to judge players' skating, shooting, passing, puckhandling, hockey sense, and physical skills, based on how we project them to the NHL. A 5 represents NHL-calibre, 7 what you expect to see from top-line forwards and top-pair defencemen, and 9 being a skill that projects as top-five in the NHL.
Our strict Calder-eligibility rule for determining who is or isn't a prospect means that some players from last year's ranking who are probably prospects by most other definitions have graduated, such as Tristan Luneau and Isak Rosén.
Below, our top 100 affiliated skater prospects, and check back in later this week for our top 20 affiliated goalies, and next week for the start of our team-by-team prospect pool rankings.