Top Prospects: The Defensemen
Fall 2024
The entire top five from the last top Hockey Prophets' top blueliner prospects list graduated last year:
David Jiricek
Simon Nemec
Luke Hughes
Pavel Mintyukov
Kevin Korchinski
In total, eighteen players from the list graduated as NHL players, twelve of whom where in the lists top 100 prospects, while another 85 reached 24 years of age and have been removed. The highest ranking of the players who aged out was Lassi Thompson (ranked 37th), who never made much of an impact in North America and has returned to Sweden for the upcoming 2024-2025 season.
The new list is topped by the second-overall draft pick from the 2024 NHL draft, followed closely by Montreal's fifth-overall pick from the 2023 draft. Six of the new top ten defenders are 2024 draftees who will bring some tremendous scoring potential from the blue line.
See Also Top Prospects: The Forwards
Rank Name Position Age Height Weight Draft Selection Pre-Draft Ranking A/P Score Comment 1 Schaefer, Matthew Defenseman 18 6'2 186 1 1 -4.24 2 Levshunov, Artyom Defenseman 20 6'1 205 2 6 -2.84 3 Parekh, Zayne Defenseman 20 6'0 170 9 4 -4.29 4 Buium, Zeev Defenseman 20 6'0 186 12 5 -4.30 5 Dickinson, Sam Defenseman 19 6'2 203 11 9 -2.76 6 Yakemchuk, Carter Defenseman 20 6'3 202 7 17 -2.50 7 Silayev, Anton Defenseman 19 6'7 207 10 10 -0.52 8 Reinbacher, David Defenseman 21 6'2 194 5 11 -0.90 9 Smith, Jackson Defenseman 18 6'4 199 14 9 -1.75 10 Sandin Pellikka, Axel Defenseman 21 5'11 185 17 14 -2.03 11 Aitcheson, Kashawn Defenseman 19 6'1 199 17 15 -1.86 12 Mrtka, Radim Defenseman 18 6'5 218 9 17 -1.88 13 Hutson, Cole Defenseman 19 5'10 159 43 29 -2.35 14 Hensler, Logan Defenseman 19 6'2 198 23 32 -0.06 15 Reid, Cameron Defenseman 19 6'0 183 21 19 -1.74 16 Simashev, Dmitri Defenseman 21 6'5 203 6 31 0.47 17 Mews, Henry Defenseman 20 6'0 189 74 28 -2.23 18 Willander, Tom Defenseman 21 6'1 180 11 33 -0.35 19 Boumedienne, Sascha Defenseman 19 6'1 184 28 35 -0.05 20 Dragicevic, Lukas Defenseman 20 6'2 196 57 18 -2.98 21 Bonk, Oliver Defenseman 21 6'2 179 22 36 -0.73 22 Marrelli, Luca Defenseman 20 6'1 185 86 27 -1.59 23 Brzustewicz, Henry Defenseman 19 6'2 194 31 22 -0.91 24 Fiddler, Blake Defenseman 18 6'4 220 36 24 -0.72 25 Rombach, Jacob Defenseman 19 6'6 209 35 40 0.29 26 Gill, Spencer Defenseman 19 6'3 186 59 32 -1.57 27 Molendyk, Tanner Defenseman 21 6'0 181 24 41 -0.64 28 Solberg, Stian Defenseman 20 6'1 205 23 55 0.05 29 Morin, Etienne Defenseman 21 6'0 180 48 33 -2.78 30 Freij, Alfons Defenseman 20 6'0 197 37 30 -0.93 31 Amico, Carter Defenseman 19 6'5 232 38 59 0.73 32 Gulyayev, Mikhail Defenseman 20 5'11 183 31 23 -2.21 33 Rinzel, Sam Defenseman 21 6'4 190 25 59 -0.11 34 Kettles, Peyton Defenseman 18 6'5 195 39 54 0.22 35 Wang, Haoxi Defenseman 18 6'5 222 33 85 1.10 36 Pickford, Bryce Defenseman 20 6'0 183 81 50 -1.79 37 Psenicka, Max Defenseman 19 6'5 185 46 46 0.39 38 Mailloux, Logan Defenseman 22 6'3 214 31 78 0.10 39 Lamoureux, Maveric Defenseman 22 6'7 214 29 53 -0.11 40 Smith, Tarin Defenseman 20 6'1 187 79 51 -1.10 41 Bertucci, Tristan Defenseman 20 6'2 179 61 37 -1.86 42 Duda, Artyom Defenseman 22 6'1 187 36 43 -1.04 43 Pickering, Owen Defenseman 22 6'5 185 21 24 -0.50 44 Morrow, Scott Defenseman 23 6'2 190 40 77 0.16 45 Sahlin Wallenius, Leo Defenseman 20 6'0 180 53 46 -1.51 46 Danford, Ben Defenseman 20 6'1 191 31 75 -0.45 47 Jiricek, Adam Defenseman 19 6'2 176 16 58 0.80 48 Akey, Beau Defenseman 21 6'0 175 56 32 -1.26 49 Brzustewicz, Hunter Defenseman 21 6'0 190 75 39 -1.64 50 Limatov, Kurban Defenseman 19 6'3 198 67 31 -0.06