2025 NHL-affiliated prospects ranking

Welcome to our third annual analysis of all NHL-affiliated prospects and each organization’s prospect pipeline. With rookie camps and tournaments right around the corner and training camps following soon thereafter, there is no better time to get up to speed on the players that will soon take center stage across the league.

The “data score” approach

Today’s analysis is a “data-only” look at the prospect landscape. This is not a traditional scouting assessment of prospects or organizational prospect pools. Think of it, instead, as a supplement to the scouting and analytical work on prospects being published by other sources like Elite Prospects and The Athletic at this time of year.

What do I mean by a “data-only” analysis? As I have done in years past when looking at NHL-affiliated players (or draft prospects), I have organized this player list by “Data Score”—a rough metric we came up with here at Sound Of Hockey. Data Score begins with the bedrock of an NHL equivalency (“NHLe”). NHLe is a method to compare the scoring proficiency of players in the various professional and junior leagues across the globe. I used Thibaud Chatel’s model, which is the most up-to-date public research in the area. Check out Chatel’s Substack for an in-depth discussion of NHLe. For this project, I used Chatel’s newest model, which has been updated to account for 2024-25 season data.

In contrast with years past when I looked at only a one-year sample to create this list, this year, I applied this NHLe to three years of scoring data—from the 2022-23, 2023-24, and 2024-25 seasons. More recent play is given more weight. I think this is an important upgrade to the approach and one I will be continuing to iterate on moving forward.

After deriving an NHLe from the scoring data, I then make adjustments for age, height, and position, as well as a modest upward adjustment to the NHLe for low-scoring players playing in high-level professional leagues. I then normalize the resulting output and call it the prospect’s “Data Score.” This number no longer projects NHL scoring but is (hopefully) useful in describing the relative strength of prospects. I’ve gone through the methodology in more detail previously here and here.

NHL-affiliated prospects list eligibility

To be eligible for this list, the player (1) must be a skater on the roster or reserve list of an NHL team, (2) must be younger than 24 years old as of Sept. 1, 2025, and (3) cannot have played more than 50 NHL games. (I adjusted the age threshold downward from 25 years old this year.) This approach yielded approximately 850 players. The full list will be published shortly on the Sound Of Hockey Patreon. Let’s get into the top 200 players and prospect pipelines here.

Top-200 NHL-Affiliated Prospects

While the flow of talent from Russia and Belarus has understandably ebbed in recent years, two players from each country appear in the top ten in our NHL-affiliated prospects list.

Russian Ivan Demidov was widely regarded as one of the most talented players outside of the NHL until his debut late in the 2024-25 season. Igor Chernyshov, also of Russia, boosted his stock in the eyes of scouts and in this data-only analysis by posting 55 points in 23 OHL games in his first North American action. Belarussian forward Ilya Protas followed a similar upward trajectory after lighting up the OHL last season for 124 points in 61 games. Finally, Belarussian defenseman and 2024 No. 2 pick Artyom Levshunov performed well in his first AHL year, posting 22 points in 52 games.

The OHL accounts for half of the top 10, with 2025 No. 2 pick Michael Misa, defenseman Zayne Parekh, and forward Porter Martone joining Chernyshov and Protas. On the college side, Zeev Buium, who played for the University of Denver before debuting for the Wild late in the 2024-25 season, is the sole college hockey representative in the top 10.

Finally, three AHL players round out the top 10: former University of Maine forward Bradly Nadeau, Levshunov, and former Liiga standout and Kraken prospect Jani Nyman.

It may be surprising at first to see Nyman so high on this list, but that’s because he’s been a bit under-considered behind the high-profile centers Seattle has drafted. Two years ago, he scored the most goals by a 19-year-old in Liiga play in 40 years. This past year, Nyman was second in the AHL in goals among rookies, behind only Nadeau. He has scored in exemplary fashion at levels that fellow prospects Berkly Catton and Jake O’Brien have not yet reached. Nyman’s profile heralds a prolific NHL scorer.

Prospect pipelines and organizational outlook

The San Jose Sharks appear primed to improve—and quickly. Even after graduating prospects like Macklin Celebrini and Will Smith, the Sharks have three of the top 18 NHL-affiliated prospects by our Data Score method: Misa, Chernyshov, and defenseman Sam Dickinson.

The Calgary Flames had the most prospects overall in the top 100 with eight. The Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Minnesota Wild, St. Louis Blues, and Washington Capitals are next with six. The Seattle Kraken round out the top quarter of the league, as the only team with five prospects in the top 100.

Visualizing each organization’s top 100 prospects against 2024-25 regular-season standings points, we see which teams are well positioned now and into the future. Interestingly, only five teams were better than average in the 2024-25 standings and have more than the average number of top 100 prospects (i.e., at least four): Montreal, Calgary, Minnesota, Washington, and Winnipeg. Otherwise, teams are clustered in either the “win now” range (with productive NHL rosters but few top-scoring prospects) or the rebuilding range.

Digging deeper into the list, the Flames and Kraken are tied for the most prospects within the top 200, with 12 apiece.

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[Author’s Note: The ranking and article were updated on Sept. 6, 2025, after an error in the age adjustments was discovered. For example, Jani Nyman moved No. 7 on the originally-published list to No. 9 in this corrected list. I apologize for the inconvenience.]

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Did we miss a player? (It’s possible; the information gathering for this project is challenging.) Do you have any questions? Reach out to us in the comments below or on Twitter/X @deepseahockey or @sound_hockey or on BlueSky at @deepseahockey or @soundofhockey.com.