5 Way-Too-Early 2027 NHL Draft Predictions

October is far too early to make any predictions for the upcoming NHL entry draft, but we're going to do it anyway.

For public scouts, the draft season is a year-long rollercoaster of myriad leagues and players and narratives. Everyone is in love with Landon DuPont's play right now, and rightfully so, but at the moment there doesn't appear to be much consensus across the board after him. Maybe that will crystallize as time goes on, but right now so much is in the air.

And rightfully so! We haven't seen enough of these players to make a full and coherent judgment yet. That's what makes it fun and exciting.

Here's a quick prediction for you before we get into the real ones, though, because this isn't a hot take—it's ice cold. It's going to be another down year for the USNTDP. There's maybe two players who are first round-level right now. USA Hockey really needs to figure that out, and fast.

1. Landon DuPont Will Fall Out of the Top Spot

Every guy who is considered the consensus first overall going into the season inevitably falls out of favor at some point. It happens with fans, it happens with public scouting services. It probably happens with teams, but we don't have access to their information. It's a long year and attention spans are very short these days.

DuPont is off to a good start with the University of Michigan, after two excellent seasons with the Everett Silvertips of the WHL. He's currently sitting at six assists in five games—which makes complete sense, because DuPont's biggest strength is distribution.

He's absolutely incredible at getting the puck precisely where it needs to be at any given moment; his vision allows him to break down opponents' play to identify weaknesses. He's also an incredibly deceptive player, able to surprise guys going up against him with how he finds teammates and how he gets them the puck.

Across a long and difficult hockey season, consistency in a top-ranked player can be a double-edged sword. People start to question you; are they really seeing what they think they're seeing? What if this other guy who has surged late is actually better? So I do think we'll see DuPont fall back behind a few others in conversation, at least for a while, though I couldn't tell you when.

But I don't think he'll stay behind them in the end.

2. We'll See More NCAA Commits from Top CHL Prospects

The CHL-to-NCAA pipeline looks like it's here to stay, and will continue to grow as a prominent development path. Players will rev up their pre-draft careers with their CHL teams, get the consistency of those close-to-professional-comparable season lengths under their belt, and then transfer to the NCAA for post-draft years that they would otherwise spend as overagers on a CHL team to sand off any rough edges that their NHL organizations deem obstacles. It feels like one that should be effective, and thank god. NHL teams need to get better at the development process.

When it was initially introduced, there was some mild speculation that the new CHL-NHL agreement might help curb the flow of players to the NCAA. It doesn't appear that's going to be the case. The agreement only affects one player from each organization, and it only applies to 19-year-old players. It also only applies to players drafted in the first round. For the most part, guys affected by that rule are not guys who are going to go from the CHL to college hockey anyway.

There are, of course, the rare cases of players who make that transfer for their draft year itself. We saw it last year with both Gavin McKenna and Keaton Verhoeff. This year, as far as top prospects go it's only Landon DuPont (Sammy Nelson, at the University of Notre Dame, comes from the USNTDP).

3. It's Going to Be A Center-Heavy Draft

Center. Centre. However you spell it, there are going to be a lot of them selected in the first round.

Multiple of the (very few) draft lists out right now have nearly half the slots filled by either natural centers or players who can play or have played both center and wing. We're going to see a lot of them go pretty high. It's still extremely early, but let's take a look at a few guys who fit this mold.

Jaxon Jacobson — Brandon Wheat Kings center Jacobson is considered undersized at 5'10", but his skill level is high enough that his height probably won't matter. His Draft-1 year point totals landed at 85 in 63 games; right now he's at 9 in the first 11 games of the season. Highlights of his game include his playmaking and speed.

Alexis Joseph — Saint John Sea Dogs center Joseph didn't overly impress at this year's Hlinka Gretzky Cup; that said, the pieces for a top-10 talent are all there if he keeps driving forward and puts them all together. His puckhandling in particular shines. He had 60 points in 54 games last season; currently he is at 10 points in 11 games.

Carter Meyer — Quebec Remparts center Meyer joined the QMJHL this season from the USNTDP (something we are seeing happen more and more often lately). He played with the U18 squad as a Draft-1 player and was one of their best guys, intelligent and hard working and a heck of a lot of fun to watch. You can't really compare USNTDP scoring to QMJHL scoring, but so far this year he has 12 points in his first 10 games.

There are so many more. We'll get to them in our next look at the overall class.

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4. Vancouver Will Miss First Overall Again

Sorry, Canucks fans. The hockey gods just aren't on your side.

I'm not going to try to predict how the Canucks' season is going to go; I'm not clairvoyant. But other people smarter than me have, and most of them project the Canucks finishing at the bottom of the Pacific Division and in the bottom three of the NHL. That's not ideal; even if it does give them better chances at the top pick, it gives them even greater chances at getting the second or the third.

And sure, at some point the draft balls have to start falling their way. But they've been on such a rough run of draft lottery results that it's hard to envision them getting the first overall pick.

And hey: even if they do, Landon DuPont is not going to be a franchise-changer for them. They're in far too much of a hole offensively. If the Canucks were looking for a top prospect that would drag them into a better timeline, last year was the time for it. Which brings me to our final prediction.

DuPont could be a game changer for the right team. After him, though, much like last year it's a lot of swinging on potential.

From a team standpoint, that's a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if you're in the mix for a lottery pick, you're pretty much always looking for a prospect who can help tilt the ice in your franchise's direction. If you miss out on that top slot and DuPont is off the table, your next choices are players who will almost certainly need a few years to develop.

On the other hand, it's an opportunity to truly shape your prospect pool in a specific way by looking for player types that your franchise is lacking. In drafts where there are several consensus strong prospects at the top of the pool, aiming for a particular player mold over simply drafting the best player available typically comes with significant opportunity cost. Not only are you taking a chance on potential, you're leaving that BPA on the table for someone else to draft.

But when there's not a strong top pool and everyone is pure potential, you've got more freedom to play around.