Inside Wheeler’s Shocking Summer 2025 NHL Prospect Rankings: Who’s the True Future Star?
He’s a tremendous north-south skater who can join the rush with ease off the puck, skate it down ice when he has it and close gaps quickly to play a physical and tight-defending brand of hockey and funnel opposing carriers wide into rub-outs along the wall. If he does get caught down ice trying to involve himself, he tracks back easily.
His decision-making does need some tightening up at times and has gotten him into suspension issues both in Sweden (in the SHL and J20) and internationally (at the U18 and U20 worlds), but his reads in other areas of the game have improved. I like his comfort level under pressure and confidence for a player as young as he is. He moves really well in all four directions, he involves himself in a lot of plays offensively, he has a pro frame and build, and most of his finer skills (including his shot and his handling) get good grades. He closes and snuffs out a lot of plays and projects as a two-way top-six defenseman at five-on-five who may be able to help out on either special team. It doesn’t hurt that he’s a 6-foot-2 righty, either. His problem at times in the past has been that his actual tools were better than the way he utilized them. That was something I was comfortable betting on when I ranked him 39th on my final draft board for 2022 (the Jets took him 55th), though, and I think he has figured out what he needs to be at the next level. He looks like more of a first-rounder than a second-rounder now and looks like how most teams want their D to look. Big, strong, highly mobile.
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