Another month and a bit has passed on the scouting calendar, which means it's time for the first OHL Draft Rankings update of the year. My rankings have been expanded to a top 50 and can be accessed via the 2025 OHL Draft Rankings page.
I'll start this rankings write-up with a small piece of transparency to help frame how this list should be perceived. After watching every one of the ~50 U16 Ontario teams at least a few times over the first month of the season, I had a long list of 150+ players who caught my eye that I could see making my final list, and my primary focus over November was filtering down and fine-tuning this watch list to add precision to where I see these players slotting in. The month was all about circling back to see if my initial assessment was correct and just increasing my confidence in what range of the draft I see these players as a reasonable consideration.
The majority of my time was spent making heads or tails of this long list of players to determine who is worthy of consideration for this expanded rankings. The last thing I try to do is add a player too early in the year, and they just slip and slip with every release, so I do my best to avoid this by being extra careful with the names I choose to add, especially this early.
As so much of my time was dedicated to determining the right names to add, the exact order, especially of the new 30 players, is something that will just have to evolve naturally over time as I watch more. In the second half of the year, I watch more isolated footage of these players to challenge the order, but as of now, the order is still a touch fuzzy. So, all is to say, if you're scrolling down the list and scratching your head as to why player 28 is ahead of player 35, things are just a work in progress for now.
As always I'm always happy to chat or answer questions, feel free to contact me on Twitter @jordanmalette.
Here are some of the highlights from this rankings update:
Change to the Original 20
In my initial rankings article, I outlined that I thought it was a three-horse race between Camryn Warren (1st), Charlie Murata (2nd), and Jaakko Wycisk (3rd) for the 1st overall slot. I highlighted that while Warren started the year at the top spot, my confidence that he would stick there wasn't super high. While I still think that's the case, if I had to answer today, I'd say Warren has separated himself a bit in my mind.
Over the Silver Stick, I was just so impressed with how fast Warren plays. While yes, he is a speedy skater, but also how quick he is to make decisions, can maneuver the puck in the blind of an eye, and just plays an incredibly up-tempo game. There were some jaw-dropping moments where all his abilities came together for a highlight-reel moment, which really cemented his game's potential. Lots can change between now and the end of the year, but I just wanted to share where my mind was on this top group as we get closer to the mid-way point.
For the most part, my original top 20 stayed intact, as my main focus was on who to add to the list. There were minor tweaks here and there as I nitpicked the ordering a bit, but nothing major. Ryerson Edgar (5th) and Max Delisle (6th) were the two most notable movers, jumping up a few spots as I played around with ordering the forwards beyond the top 3. It's a tight-knit group, and I see the case to order some of these names in many different ways, but for now, these two made their marks to move up a touch based on what I've seen as of late.
Kaden McGregor (10th) is the last notable change, creeping up a few spots after returning to action from an illness, earning his way into the top 10. His ranking is still a bit of a placeholder until I see him more and more, but over the Silver Stick, I thought he showed well enough to earn a slight uptick. After Kaden, there were a few more tweaks to the initial 20, but nothing super notable, as I've already said; my time just needed to be spent elsewhere to get this list sorted out.
New Additions
The main storyline to this ranking is the addition of the defencemen, with 10 of the new 30 being d-men, making up for the limited number on my first list. I spoke about this in my preliminary rankings, but it takes me a bit longer to be confident in placing defenders high on my list, and now that more time has passed, I've gained more confidence in some of these defenders relative to the forwards. Lucas Nutting (16th), Peter Green (20th), and Carter Kunopaski (28th) were all forgone conclusions to be added to this list as they were ones I debated including on the previous version who more than earned their spots this go-round.
Beyond that trio of defenders, after watching more of this defence class, I just simply grew increasingly confident in my initial assessment of many players and felt comfortable adding them at this point in the year. A.J. Gladman (33rd) and Gavin Christie (44th) stick out as two that, upon first glance, looked like they fit what I'm looking for, and after I watched their teams another 4-5 times over November, I concluded they were deserving of a spot on my rankings.
The second most prevalent storyline is players that weren't really on my radar to include this early on in the year. If I were to have created this list before the Silver Stick, I would have expected close to 25 of the 30 new additions to remain constant, but a handful really impressed over that event and earned a spot a bit earlier than I was expecting. Brenner Lammens (28th), Lachlan Larmand (34th), Carter Lewandowski (35th), and Eloan Le Gallic (48th) are all players who fit this description of players I had on my watchlist after liking their games previously but earned their spots mainly due to impressive showings at the Silver Stick.
Johnny McLaughlin (50th) earns the last spot as an honourable mention. After watching him plenty last year playing up with the U16 Jr. Sting, he entered the year as someone I figured would end up somewhere in my top 40. However, he hasn't been in the lineup much this season due to injury. I don't know the exact injury, but I've been told it is serious, and he won't return soon. Like Max Mews last year, these situations can be challenging for an outsider, but McLaughlin is a player who looked deserving of consideration in this range of the draft, and adding him now as a placeholder until he returns to action seemed fitting.
Looking Forward
Over the next couple of weeks, my focus will be on piecing together the reports from the Whitby Silver Stick. Ideally, that is all wrapped up before the start of the Marlboros Holiday Classic, but it takes some time to write those lengthy post-event reports, so it may bleed into the new year.
For the Marlies Tournament, my plan is to skew my views more heavily toward the teams that weren't at the Silver Stick. My sample sizes are currently lopsided toward the teams in Whitby, and rightfully so, given their talent levels, but I want to balance things out over the Marlboros Tournament. After the mid-way point in the year, I have to shift my focus more heavily to the top teams and players I've already identified to add precision to my list, so I just want to give some teams a smidge more attention to ensure I haven't missed anyone in the first half of the year.
As of now, my game plan is to release a top 75 toward the end of January after a few more key events have passed. Spacing things out by an extra few weeks has been beneficial to squeeze more views in, and giving myself a few more weeks in January to allow the Steve Richey and Oakville Rangers Winter Classic to pass before releasing my following list is probably for the best.
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