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Top 100 NHLers 2025
The Hockey News has been providing the most comprehensive coverage of the world of hockey since 1947. In each issue, you'll find news, features and opinions about the NHL and leagues across North America and the world.
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> Top Prospects
BLUE PAINT TO BLUELINE
KEATON VERHOEFF has all the attributes an NHL team would want in a blueliner, including the fact he’s a right-handed shot. But if it weren’t for inline hockey, Verhoeff wouldn’t have become a highly coveted defenseman at all – in fact, he might still be a goaltender. Verhoeff got rid of the pads and mask less than six years ago, and it all came down to impacting the game. “I was still playing goalie on my spring hockey team, but I was playing inline as a player,” he said. “So, that helped my momentum in becoming a player. I’ve been a defenseman for five-and-a-half years now. The reason I switched was that if there was a 2-on-0 and I let in the goal as a goalie, there was nothing else I…
THE COUNTDOWN
THE TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS have a gift for inspiring disparate reactions. Thus, when we declared on the cover of Future Watch 2018 that Toronto could “plan the parade,” it provoked both excitement and ire. Mostly the latter. But – and bear with us here – could this be the year? Barring the 2023 Vegas Golden Knights and 2006 Carolina Hurricanes, every Stanley Cup champion in the post-lockout era has had their victory preceded by a top-five finish in our annual Future Watch rankings. All but three of those 17 teams have also climbed to the NHL’s summit within nine years of finishing at or near the top of the Future Watch heap. And, finally, those teams’ average time-to-title from their nearest top-five FW finish is a shade under six years. By…
NEW JERSEY DEVILS
B | RANK: 13TH WITH HIS CORE GROUP of forwards firmly in place and locked up long term, New Jersey Devils GM Tom Fitzgerald went out last summer and remodelled his D-corps and goaltending – and hired a new coach – with an eye on immediate contention. That doesn’t leave much room for prospects. It didn’t even leave room for players who thought they were full-time NHLers, only to become prospects again and face the task of working their way back to the bigs. When it comes to the future, the Devils are focused primarily on their own end. And, generally speaking, the bigger the prospect, the better. 1 SIMON NEMEC D, 21, 6-1, 190 Utica (AHL) 34–5–18–23–12 2022 draft, 2nd overall OVERALL 14 Nemec played 60 NHL games last year but found himself back in the ‘A’…
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> Between the Pipes
BEHIND THE MASK
ACQUIRING JACOB MARKSTROM HAS been a godsend for New Jersey’s on-ice fortunes. But given the netminder’s proclivity for adorning some of the most demonic-looking headwear in the game, his arrival has lent itself to some devilishly great designs. Already having paid homage to the mythological Jersey Devil with one of his first masks, Markstrom’s latest lid – designed and painted by longtime collaborator Jordon Bourgeault of JBo Airbrush – combines the obvious monster motif with tried-and-true portrait design to outstanding effect. The devil’s gaping maw, complete with forked tongue, stretches around Markstrom’s cage, while embers spit off the white-hot pitchfork and tail on the side panels. The Devils logo, painted to appear as if carved into bone, rests on the mask’s crown, too. Of course, seeing it requires one to…
FORGOT ABOUT TREY?
ADAM NIGHTINGALE WAS hardly off the plane from the Under-18 World Championship in Germany when the call came in. It was May 2022, and Nightingale was driving to East Lansing, Mich. Not even one day earlier, he had helped guide Team USA to silver at the U-18s, and here Nightingale was set to be named coach of his alma mater, returning almost two decades after he played his final game as a Spartan and nine years after leaving his post as Michigan State’s director of hockey operations. On the line was an advisor for Trey Augustine, who had just played his heart out for Nightingale’s American outfit, taking the blue paint in the tournament’s semifinal and gold-medal games. Augustine’s advisor wanted to know how the then-17-year-old keeper had fared at the…
RIGHT FROM THE JUMP
WHEN DUSTIN WOLF LEAPS skyward in his crease just before puck drop, his signature “jump for joy” is a fitting metaphor for his rookie NHL campaign. It represents his passion, excitement and readiness to seize every opportunity. Calgary Flames fans, too, have been energized by the 23-year-old goaltender’s rapid rise. “I wish I could go back and kind of pinpoint why it started,” said Wolf of his pre-game jump, which began in his last year of junior. “But it’s kind of transformed into the jump for joy. I mean, it’s a privilege to play in this league, and you try to take advantage of every opportunity you get.” Wolf’s leap is not just part of his game-day routine; it’s an explosive expression of the internal fire and athletic ability that has…
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