Welcome back to NHL Draft Week here at Sound Of Hockey. Today, we present our annual Sound Of Hockey Big Board. We also made a mid-season version of the Big Board earlier this year, which you can check out here.
What is the Big Board? It’s a ranking that compiles reputable draft analyst and public scouting service lists. This year, we gathered ranking data from 20 sources. (See the complete list below.)
We consolidated the various ranks into a single composite ranking by a weighted geometric mean calculation. Why do we use geomean? If you’re curious you can find an applicable explanation from a different context here. Weights were assigned based on our assessment of the depth of experience, sourced reporting, or scouting insight factored into the component lists themselves. For example, Bob McKenzie’s list for TSN, which is built based on conversations with scouts, is weighted the most. The voluminous work done by independent scouts at Elite Prospects is next in line, and so forth.
The Sound Of Hockey Big Board also provides information on each player’s measurements, statistics, and playing experience for the 2024-25 season, mostly drawn from Elite Prospects, NHL Central Scouting, and the NHL Draft Combine.
All told, the Sound Of Hockey Big Board covers more than 9,000 draft-eligible prospects. (That is not a typo. It’s up slightly from last year when the Big Board covered approximately 9,000 prospects.) The version published here covers the top 500. The full version will be shared on the Sound Of Hockey Patreon.
Based on what we have seen, we continue to believe the Sound Of Hockey Big Board is the most comprehensive public source anywhere compiling draft-prospect-related information in one place.
We used the following 20 sources to build the final 2025 Big Board:
- NHL Central Scouting
- Elite Prospects ($)
- McKeen’s ($)
- Bob McKenzie, TSN
- Craig Button, TSN
- Chris Peters, FloHockey
- Scott Wheeler, The Athletic ($)
- Corey Pronman, The Athletic ($)
- Steven Ellis, DailyFaceoff
- Tony Ferrari, The Hockey News
- Ryan Kennedy, The Hockey News
- Jason Bukala, Sportnet
- Rachel Doerrie, ESPN
- Dobber Prospects
- FC Hockey
- HockeyProspect.com
- Smaht Scouting
- HockeyProspecting
- AFP Analytics
- TopDownHockey
The Sound Of Hockey Big Board
Caveats on using the Big Board
At this point, a few more words on the Sound Of Hockey Big Board and its uses are likely in order.
First, as you scroll through the rankings on the Big Board, you will see that sometimes only the top-five ranked prospects are identified. This is because those rankings are behind a paywall. To get to Corey Pronman’s full ranking of prospects, for example, a subscription to The Athletic is required. While we utilized all of the individual rankings listed above to develop our composite list, we will not be sharing subscriber-only individual rankings in the public version of the composite big board.
Second, as you get to the player’s 2024-25 data, you will note that the Big Board displays only the date from the highest league reached by the player. (For example, Radim Mrtka’s line displays his 10 games in the Czech Extraliga, Czechia’s highest pro league, before coming to North America to play in the WHL for the Seattle Thunderbirds and compiling three goals and 32 assists in 43 games. The Czech Extraliga is viewed as a higher league than the WHL, so that is what appears as his highest level.) This is just for simplicity of presentation.
Third, the Big Board does not reflect our view on these prospects. We at Sound Of Hockey have read reports, watched some videos, and crunched a few numbers. I’ll be putting up more thoughts of my own before the draft, but that is not what this exercise is about. The Sound Of Hockey Big Board is simply a tabulation of the rankings of others. A player’s ranking has nothing to do with whether any of us here at Sound Of Hockey “like” the player or not.
If you’re looking for more on our preferences, we published a “data-only” watchlist earlier in the spring. We also published a top-eight mock draft after the NHL Draft Lottery, and plan to do a seven-round Kraken mock draft later this week.
Fourth, and finally, it bears emphasis that a “composite” ranking is not the be-all and end-all. In many ways, finding the “best” public list and trusting it is preferable. A consensus board cannot “explain” why one prospect is ranked higher than another, and it certainly cannot displace the work of scouts, draft reporters, or even number crunchers.
But a composite ranking can provide some added information. Think of it as the cherry on top of the sundae, not the sundae itself.
How so? In the first year of this Big Board I used the case of Brad Lambert as an example (coincidentally, the nephew of new Kraken head coach Lane Lambert). This year Ivan Ryabkin could be an instructive case. Both players are talented but viewed as risky for different reasons, leading to widely varying rankings on individual public boards. We synthesize that information with a composite approach that can exploit the wisdom of the crowd. Ryabkin’s final ranking may blend the upside and risk, placing him in a “fair” position.
Final thoughts
The 2025 NHL Draft is another strong year for Pacific Northwest hockey. Projected first-round picks Jackson Smith, Radim Mrtka, Braeden Cootes, and Carter Bear all spent most or all of their draft seasons playing for WHL clubs in Washington State.
The 2025 NHL Draft kicks off with Round 1 on Friday, June 27, at 4:00 p.m. PT. Rounds 2 through 7 start on Saturday at 9:00 a.m. PT.
In the meantime, study the Big Board, bookmark it, share it, and return to it often between now and the draft. Keep it close during the draft too because, in the past, the data has been a pretty strong indicator of what the Kraken (and other teams) will do, particularly early.
Who do you want the Kraken (or your preferred team) to select? Any misses or other suprises in the rankings? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below or on X @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or BluSky @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com.
Header photo of Braeden Cootes courtesy of the Seattle Thunderbirds
Curtis Isacke
Curtis is a Sound Of Hockey contributor and member of the Kraken press corps. Curtis is an attorney by day, and he has read the NHL collective bargaining agreement and bylaws so you don’t have to. He can be found analyzing the Kraken, NHL Draft, and other hockey topics on Twitter and Bluesky @deepseahockey.
Very useful information. Thanks. Can’t wait to read your Kraken mock. With the top D-men all projected to fall a few spots after the Kraken pick, I hate the idea of leaving value on the board if Kraken chase their biggest need. With that in mind, I fashioned a hypothetical pick swap:
https://justramblin.quora.com/My-Hypothetical-Kraken-2025-Draft-Trade
I like how you think Bill. Love the trade scenario and reasoning behind it!
Great info, Curtis. Thanks. I will assume Martone is gone by #8. If not. He’s my preference. If he’s gone, Eklund, O’Brien or Martin are all quality players and would help our forward room (I hate that term, but I just used it). Gamble on McQueen if he’s there. Big body and skill! If an 18 year old isn’t resilient from injuries, nobody is. I’ll risk it. Take blueliners in Round 2.
I know this is probably the first of several related articles but this shows the same six potential Kraken prospects that I raised in a prior post.
The real question, does Seattle go F or D? If F, do they go with players who are different than what they already have (McQueen, Eklund) or players similar to what they already have (Martin, O’Brien)?
I feel that we should be looking at another forward this draft. We have two decent defensive prospects including Evans and not a lot of room for a number of years. Our need now is definitely higher end forwards, forwards also develop faster and have more opportunity to help us in the short term.
I see us selecting Eklund/Martin/McQueen/or Mirka, unless something drops onto our lap. I’m a little concerned about McQueen and Mirka. I worry Mirka could become Big Rig 2.0 at his ceiling and I worry about McQueens health and defensive awareness. I feel Martin and Eclund are players that could complement our current roster very well, it’s time we start thinking along that line.
Wow! AFP has some huge departures. Eklund at No.200? Veilleux at No.6 (consensus No.95). I don’t expect conformity, but they seem so extreme as to question the utility of using them here. I didn’t see them on last season’s Big Board, why the add?
Yeah 200 is crazy, rated as high as 4th by some.
Maybe I didn’t do this last year, but I used to do a separate “public analytics” list where I’d put sources like Hockey Prospecting, Top Down Hockey, etc., that build lists based on data only. That’s what AFP is doing too. I’m not positive but I believe it’s their first year doing a draft list (at least it’s the first time I’ve seen it). I decided to factor those three into the general list this year in order to inject a little number crunching opinion into the Big Board. But I did so at an extremely low weight. McKenzie is at a 10, and each of these three data-based lists were at 1. (The others listed fell in between. Agree that AFP is an outlier on a bunch of these, but fun to look at those and try to understand why. Overall I highly doubt Eklund being low on the AFP list affected his Big Board position at all.
I hope they don’t focus on positions at all. Players are busts so often I think drafters gotta trust their gut and data and hope their pick turns into a contributor some day.
I guess position value is good to consider, I just don’t like planning for what the team will be short on 3-4 years down the road
Love the information here!
I am in the opposite camp. They gotta get a defenseman, for example Jackson Smith if he is still available at eight. There is a yawning chasm in the future of the team’s blue line, and addressing it has been put off for a long time now. I can understand passing on a defenseman last year when a super high-ceiling guy like Berkley Catton was there, but now it has to get done or risk staring down a not-too-distant future with an empty pipeline and defensemen who are too old to be playing big minutes. I mean, they could use veteran free agents as a fill-in, but they usually are not the kind of guys who you want in your top-four. Nobody trades good defensemen; they’re too valuable. The only way to get an Adam Larsson or a Jamie Oleksiak of the future is to draft one, and they better get on that already.
Keep an eye on # 49 Benjamin Kevan. Hails from Northern California in Fairfield. Started skating in Vacaville.
I think the Kraken have done pretty well in Round 2 and I’m looking forward to that pick as well. I only know what I read on those players, but it sounds like there may be some interesting options there… Brzustewics, West, Vansaghi, Wang, etc.
Love the analysis here – and the link to the academic article – super interesting discussion of measurement theory. Great work Curtis!!!
Is there a way to download the list in a spreadsheet format? I have a hard time reading in this format.