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 Levshunov, Artyom Defenseman 19 6'1 205 2 5 -2.87 2 Reinbacher, David Defenseman 20 6'2 194 5 11 -0.92 3 Parekh, Zayne Defenseman 19 6'0 170 9 8 -4.33 4 Buium, Zeev Defenseman 19 6'0 186 12 6 -4.34 5 Sandin Pellikka, Axel Defenseman 19 5'11 180 17 15 -2.05 6 Willander, Tom Defenseman 20 6'1 180 11 22 -0.36 7 Silayev, Anton Defenseman 18 6'7 207 10 7 -0.52 8 Jiricek, Adam Defenseman 18 6'2 176 16 20 0.81 9 Dickinson, Sam Defenseman 18 6'2 203 11 7 -2.78 10 Mateychuk, Denton Defenseman 20 5'11 192 12 22 -2.66 11 Clarke, Brandt Defenseman 22 6'2 185 8 6 -0.64 12 Yakemchuk, Carter Defenseman 19 6'3 202 7 13 -2.53 13 Zellweger, Olen Defenseman 21 5'10 174 34 50 -3.57 14 Edvinsson, Simon Defenseman 22 6'6 216 6 5 0.62 15 Bonk, Oliver Defenseman 20 6'1 180 22 35 -0.74 16 Solberg, Stian Defenseman 19 6'1 205 23 21 0.31 17 Molendyk, Tanner Defenseman 19 5'11 181 24 37 -0.65 18 Simashev, Dmitri Defenseman 20 6'4 201 6 17 0.47 19 Dragicevic, Lukas Defenseman 19 6'1 194 57 39 -3.01 20 Gulyayev, Mikhail Defenseman 19 5'10 172 31 27 -2.23 21 Emery, EJ Defenseman 18 6'3 183 30 32 0.59 22 Morin, Etienne Defenseman 19 6'0 180 48 47 -2.81 23 Pickering, Owen Defenseman 21 6'5 185 21 22 -0.50 24 Hutson, Lane Defenseman 21 5'10 161 62 38 -2.32 25 Bichsel, Lian Defenseman 20 6'5 225 18 31 0.31 26 Rinzel, Sam Defenseman 20 6'3 180 25 36 -0.11 27 Lamoureux, Maveric Defenseman 21 6'6 199 29 49 -0.12 28 Badinka, Dominik Defenseman 19 6'2 185 34 33 -0.62 29 Elick, Charlie Defenseman 19 6'3 202 36 37 0.00 30 Luneau, Tristan Defenseman 21 6'1 189 53 35 -1.10 31 Akey, Beau Defenseman 20 6'0 175 56 56 -1.27 32 Danford, Ben Defenseman 19 6'1 191 31 54 -0.45 33 Brzustewicz, Hunter Defenseman 20 5'11 190 75 55 -1.66 34 Nelson, Ty Defenseman 20 5'10 185 68 49 -1.60 35 Mailloux, Logan Defenseman 21 6'3 214 31 42 0.10 36 Duda, Artyom Defenseman 20 6'1 180 36 71 -1.05 37 Mukhamadullin, Shakur Defenseman 23 6'2 170 20 45 -0.83 38 Casey, Seamus Defenseman 21 5'10 181 46 43 -0.88 39 Gibson, Andrew Defenseman 20 6'2 202 42 64 -0.26 40 Bertucci, Tristan Defenseman 19 6'1 175 61 81 -1.87 41 Nikishin, Alexander Defenseman 23 6'4 216 69 107 0.61 42 Wallinder, William Defenseman 22 6'4 192 32 33 -0.68 43 Freij, Alfons Defenseman 19 6'0 197 37 37 -0.94 44 Price, Caden Defenseman 19 6'0 190 84 54 -1.21 45 Heinola, Ville Defenseman 23 5'11 178 20 27 -1.81 46 Lambos, Carson Defenseman 22 6'1 201 26 21 -0.96 47 Cagnoni, Luca Defenseman 20 5'9 182 123 69 -2.18 48 Buium, Shai Defenseman 21 6'3 214 36 45 -0.38 49 Kleber, Adam Defenseman 18 6'5 215 42 54 -0.17 50 Morrow, Scott Defenseman 22 6'2 190 40 48 0.16