Ranking early season performances of the NHL's top rookie forwards

The 2025 NHL rookie class is one of the most interesting ones we’ve seen. For the Calder Trophy, high-drafted talents are battling training camp surprises and newly arrived European professionals.

​We previously broke down the early-season performance of multiple rookie defencemen in another article. Now, we’re tackling the forwards.

​This article aims to go beyond the counting stats that usually decide who gets to walk home with the award at the end of the season. We’re going to be ranking the Under-25 forward rookies by taking into account not just their production, but also the eye test, best flashes, advanced metrics, and how we anticipate their impact will grow (or diminish) over the next few months. 

#1 - Ivan Demidov, RW, Montréal Canadiens  

Ivan Demidov looks like a special player in