Welcome to Scott Wheeler’s 2026 rankings of every NHL organization’s prospects. You can find the complete ranking and more information on the project and its criteria here, as we count down daily from No. 32 to No. 1. The series, which includes evaluations on nearly 500 prospects, runs from March 9 to April 8.
Moving out Calum Ritchie and Will Zellers hurt the Avalanche’s pool. So did making just three picks in the 2025 NHL Draft. And their fall in the rankings is the predictable result.
Colorado’s pool is still notably stronger than the ones that slotted behind it, though, and the first five of its 10 ranked prospects here are solid players and prospects.
2025 prospect pool rank: No. 23 (change: -5)
Tier 1
1. Gavin Brindley, C, 21, Avalanche (No. 34, 2023)
I’ve always had a lot of time for Brindley, so I’ve been happy to see the Avalanche give him an opportunity. He was one of three top 2023 NHL Draft prospects who played college hockey in his draft year, and it felt like he got better with every game at the University of Michigan that season, to the point where he was impactful every game, including at center and on the wing. He built on that as a sophomore, too, leading the Wolverines in scoring, breaking the 50-point mark to finish eighth in NCAA scoring and playing an important role (with a letter on his sweater and scoring some big goals) in Team USA’s run to gold at the World Juniors in Gothenburg. His rookie pro season got off to an unlucky start after he broke his finger in a preseason game and was sidelined until November, though. He then got off to a strong start in the AHL after returning, but cooled off before being traded (though he played 17 minutes per game as a rookie pro). This season, I expected the Avs to start him in the AHL, but I wasn’t surprised that he played his way into their NHL mix.
Brindley is a high-end, debatably elite skater who gets through his extensions quickly (including from a standstill), excels on his edges, rounds corners sharply and darts around the ice, hunting pucks and pushing through holes.
He also has quick hands and a natural touch on the puck. He thrives in the small-area game, using light passes and rapid movements to play in and out of coverage. He has impressed me across levels and events over the years (NCAA, USHL, Five Nations, U18 worlds, two World Juniors, etc.) as a small but highly involved forward who plays the game with energy and pace, making little skill plays between coverage. He buzzes around the ice, releasing from one battle or chance to hunting or getting open for the next one. He’s always moving. He’ll make the soft play to the middle of the ice from the perimeter, or go there to get to rebounds or position himself on screens/tips. He’s excellent in puck protection for a 5-foot-8/9 forward, twisting away from coverage to make things happen along the boards. He usually stirs the drink on whatever line he’s on, can drive play at even strength and has dual second-unit special teams value long term because of his ability to skate, work and apply pressure on the PK. He’s a constant who can make his game work in the offensive zone because of his mobility, maneuverability and tenacity, but I’ve also seen him wind up and go coast-to-coast with an impressive transition package that includes an ability to take his first touch in stride so, so well.
And he just always seems to play well, no matter the role/usage/stage. He has the approach/tools to play up and down a lineup, too (plus, he’s strongly built for his size). That limits concerns about his height (he has certainly never played small).
2. Ilya Nabokov, G, 22, Magnitogorsk (No. 38, 2024)
Nabokov was my top-ranked goalie in the 2024 NHL Draft and the first goalie chosen, and has established himself as one of the top goalies outside the NHL at an early age. He doesn’t have ideal size (though I wouldn’t call 6-foot-1 small, either), but was an MHL All-Star in 2022-23, KHL rookie of the year and playoffs MVP in 2023-24, backstopping Magnitogorsk to a Gagarin Cup title, and again one of the top goalies in the league last season. His numbers aren’t as strong this year, but he’s still winning games. He’s a mobile and extremely technically and positionally sound goalie who gets to pucks, recovers quickly, sticks with scrambles and tracks well through traffic, but also stays controlled and has good hands. I don’t see much to pick apart in his game, and I expect him to play in the NHL and even be really solid as an NHL goalie. He’s expected to come to North America after this season.
3. Mikhail Gulyayev, LHD, 20, Omsk (No. 31, 2023)
Gulyayev is still just 20 and is playing in his fourth season in the KHL (and third full one). He also put together, at the time, the most productive 16-year-old season by a defenseman in the MHL’s modern history (dating back to 2009) when he posted 35 points in 54 games in his draft year, regularly playing 20 minutes per game in a league that typically relies on older players. He did that after notching five points in five games at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup as a young 16-year-old, too. But after playing 15-16 minutes per game over the previous two seasons, he’s playing just 10-12 this year and has struggled to take that next step beyond just being a depth guy at that level.
He’s an offensive defenseman who’s at his best when looking to take charge with his feet. And while he’s not a physical 5-foot-10, he doesn’t play small, and I’ve typically liked his game at both ends of the ice because of his mobility and decent reads. He can activate to lead plays into the offensive zone and create something when he’s playing with confidence, which he seems to have lost a little bit. He walks the line and bends coverage well. He can make the heady escape play out of his own zone under pressure, slide into a passing lane to intercept a pass, or disrupt an opposing carrier with a tight gap and active stick. He has generally played to positive defensive results. If he can become a No. 5-6 offensively inclined defenseman at even strength and a PP2 QB, he’ll look like a fine pick at No. 31. But he needs to get over to North America, too (his contract with Omsk expires at the end of this season, so he should be in the AHL next year). While some argue his size makes his NHL projection more of a longer-odds one, he does have more of a track record than his stagnant KHL usage and production indicate, and he’s still young. I think there’s a chance he will surprise some people with the right development and deployment in the AHL, and I believe he would have more notoriety had Russia been participating in international events when he was U20.
4. Sean Behrens, LHD, 22, Eagles (No. 61, 2021)
I liked Behrens in the 2021 draft class and still believe he can become a depth defenseman in the NHL. After finishing third among under-19 defensemen in scoring as a freshman with 29 points in 37 games on the national champion Pioneers, Behrens suffered two injuries in his sophomore season (one at the summer World Juniors in Edmonton and another in-season) before having a strong winter World Juniors in Halifax as a first-pairing guy and alternate captain and a strong junior year en route to a second national championship and an entry-level deal with the Avalanche. However, he tore his ACL in his first NHL training camp, and it cost him the entirety of his rookie year in the AHL in 2024-25. He has returned and played to solid results for both a rookie defenseman and one who hadn’t played in more than a year, though.
I like the way Behrens moves off the puck, steers play on it and thinks about and uses spacing. He’s a heady, intelligent, mobile, active-in-all-three-zones (but within reason) defender who influences the flow of play with his ability to exit his own zone, navigate through the neutral zone, lead entries and then manage offensive-zone sequences with his combination of calculated aggression, efficiency and quick reads. He also has a good first touch and does a nice job identifying his next play before the puck has arrived on his stick. He has the ability to create time and space and then attack. He’s also a sound defender for his size (5-foot-10, now up from the mid-170s to the 180s) who is always engaged, plays a tight gap, fights in board battles and physical engagements to take or keep his space and rarely has a bad game. He plies his trade as a competitive puck-moving defenseman who kills his fair share of plays and then effectively gets play tilting in his direction. He’s capable of driving play on the puck, disrupting play off it, managing the game and playing physical against the rush. It’ll be interesting to track both him and Gulyayev in the AHL because there may only be room in a future NHL lineup for one of them long-term. It’s too bad the injury delayed his progress.
Tier 2
5. Francesco Dell’Elce, LHD, 20, UMass (No. 77, 2025)
Dell’Elce was on my missed cuts list back in 2023 after I saw him play at St. Andrew’s College and liked the potential and the skating. I didn’t list him as an overager in 2024 following a decent but not pick-me season in the BCHL with the Penticton Vees, but he impressed scouts and me last year with an excellent freshman campaign at UMass, finishing as my top-ranked overager and getting picked in the third round in his third year of eligibility. The Minutemen’s No. 1 D in his two seasons there, Dell’Elce (who was also named to the Hockey East All-Rookie team after registering 24 points in 40 games last year), has played significant minutes for a program with a track record of developing pro D prospects, often pushing and exceeding 25 minutes as a freshman and sophomore.
Dell’Elce’s game is about his edges, his four-way mobility and his elusiveness. He’s a good athlete who has worked to fill out a once-slight frame and improve his game defensively in space. He has learned to play harder and harder, and he’s now able to direct and influence play consistently with his feet, timing and instincts. He can evade and absorb pressure in his own zone or at the line, and he has a lethal shot, which is complemented by good offensive instincts to get open and/or attack into a look. And he’s also a June birthday, so he was on the younger side as a double overager in the draft and will play this full season as a 20-year-old. Mobility and instincts can take you a long way nowadays, and he still has time to develop in college before he turns pro (I’d guess after his junior year at the end of the 2026-27 season).
6. Trent Miner, G, 25, Eagles (No. 202, 2019)
Miner has played well enough to hang around the Avalanche organization’s depth chart. He bounced between the AHL and ECHL from 2021 to 2024, but they signed him to a one-year contract after his entry-level deal expired at the end of 2023-24 to give him one more year to establish himself as a full-time AHLer. When he took that step and even got his first two NHL games last year, they then gave him a two-year deal in the summer. He filled in nicely when Scott Wedgewood got hurt earlier in the year this season, too, and continues to play consistently well in the AHL, where his career save percentage has hovered between .915 and .920. He had a career .911 in his time in the ECHL as well, and had a track record of success in the WHL (though his WHL career also came in unusual circumstances in a rare junior hockey tandem with David Tendeck). I like the way Miner tracks pucks, moves on his feet, anticipates the play and stays compact in his movements. He’s competitive, too. Those attributes hide his below-average size (6-foot-1, 185 pounds) and OK athleticism. I think he fits nicely as a No. 3 goalie for an organization.
7. Nikita Prishchepov, C/LW, 21, Eagles (No. 217, 2024)
Prishchepov was one of the great stories in hockey last year. He was drafted in the seventh round as an overager and not only quickly earned an entry-level contract after his first development camp with the Avs but then played in double-digit NHL games for them basically immediately after he was drafted. He was a good junior player in Victoriaville, but I don’t think anyone expected him to play NHL games the November after he was picked with one of the last selections of the draft. He wasn’t just the first seventh-rounder from the 2024 draft to play a game, but also from the 2021, 2022 and 2023 drafts. He started this season on injured reserve with an undisclosed injury, but returned in late November and has been a solid contributor for the Eagles again. I do wonder if last year was the high point of his career. Prishchepov’s game itself is what-you-see-is-what-you-get. He’s a good-sized, good-skating, athletic forward. He’s competitive and plays with a motor, working effectively on the forecheck and along the wall. He’s never going to have a ton of offense, but he plays an honest, pro-styled game with pace and intention. The question is whether he can become more than a solid AHLer who gets the odd call-up and become an NHL regular. I’m not sure what role he’d play, which has left me feeling like he might just be a guy long-term.
Tier 3
8. Louka Cloutier, G, 19, Boston College (No. 132, 2024)
After splitting starts with the Steel in his post-draft season last year and playing to a .882 save percentage on a poor Chicago team, Cloutier has been a bright spot for BC, stepping in as their starter and performing as a freshman goalie. A fifth-round pick in 2024, Cloutier was three and a half weeks away from being eligible for the 2025 draft and just turned 19 at the end of August. He’s on the smaller side for a goalie and is quite lean, but he’s quick on his feet, he has great instincts and he anticipates the play really well. Hockey IQ is a thing for goalies too, and he relies on his to read shooters and the way plays develop in front of him. I do wonder if he just becomes an AHL/ECHL type, but he has most of what you look for in an undersized goalie (though I wouldn’t call him a dynamic athlete or the ultra competitor).
9. Jake Fisher, C, 20, University of Denver (No. 121, 2024)
Fisher took the Minnesota high school route through the USHL with the Fargo Force to Denver, where he’s now a sophomore this year and has played well in his role with the Pioneers over the last two seasons as a bottom-six center. He’s a 6-foot-2, 195-pound center with lots of experience on the penalty kill who works off the puck, supports play well defensively, will sacrifice his body to block a shot and is strong in the faceoff circle. He also plays with jump offensively, has a good one-touch shot/one-timer, and can play down low to pop into the slot and get open for his teammates (he’s more of a shooter than a passer). He looks more like a future AHL bottom-sixer than an NHL fourth-liner to me, but I expect him to be a really solid college player as an upperclassman.
10. Christian Humphreys, RW, 19, Kitchener (No. 215, 2024)
Humphreys is a crafty player who showed signs that he could facilitate and make plays at both center and on the wing at the NTDP, including with a variety of linemate types. He missed part of six weeks from late January to early March in his draft year at the NTDP, but came back with a four-point game, and I thought he finished on a strong note at U18 worlds, where he also showed more determination to take pucks and go to the net. Any momentum and confidence he’d built he didn’t show at Michigan (after he’d already decommitted from MSU to go there, only to leave after one semester), though. There have always been real questions of translatability with him and his game, too, and they were revealed in that difficult start at Michigan that saw him bolt for the Rangers 10 games into his college career. After playing to just above a point per game in the second half with Kitchener last season, he’s their leading scorer in his first full year there, and I decided to include him here even though I don’t expect him to get signed, and he most likely just becomes an ECHLer.
Humphreys’ niche is in his offensive craft. He has also developed physically to grow an inch and add some needed weight — he scored five goals in his NTDP once upon a time and was listed at 5-foot-10 and 150 pounds in his U17 year, but is now an inch taller and at least 20 pounds heavier. His game is decently talented and smart in possession. He’s an agile skater who side-steps close-outs nimbly. And he has quick hands and a decent feel for the game as a playmaker, which blends with a heady disposition and good instincts on and around the puck to create an interesting offensive package when he’s against his peers. He plays off pressure fairly well. He has some one-on-one moments and can flash skill off the rush. He has some work to do in his habits and off-puck play, though, and the questions about the translatability of his game beyond junior have become the consensus. There are times when I’d like to see him really own it and attack (he can be too deferential). I viewed him as a mid-rounder in his draft year; despite the consensus viewing him as a late-rounder or not ranked at all, I was obviously too high on him.
