Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?

Brunicke blew me away with his play at the Penguins’ rookie tournament last September and was going to be on Canada’s World Juniors team as an 18-year-old before he broke his wrist blocking a shot in practice. Before that, he’d registered 12 points in 15 games with Kamloops, playing his smooth-skating two-way transition game. Brunicke garnered increased attention from NHL clubs as his draft season progressed, too, before hurting his shoulder on a late hit in late February, which effectively ended his WHL season just as his momentum was really building. He returned to play at U18 worlds for Canada, though, and performed really well as an important top-six defender and particularly prominent penalty killer who was counted upon in defensive situations throughout the tournament. Last season, after returning from injury, he was involved in everything the Blazers did and finished the year with 30 points in 41 games on a low-scoring Kamloops team. At year’s end, he also registered four points in 12 combined regular season and playoff games in the AHL.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241