2025 NHL Draft Big Board: Ranking the Top 40 Players

The 2025 NHL draft is a little over four weeks away, and trying to peg what exactly the Nashville Predators plan to do with their three first-round picks (Nos. 5, 23, and 26 overall) is like, well, trying to get me to be excited about a Jaspers’ ad read: it’s extremely difficult.

If I had to place money on it, I would bet the Predators don’t make all three of those picks.

I’ve heard Trotz has already been on the phone about moving around in Round 1, and my best guess is he likely sticks at No. 5 and takes the best player available and he packages the other two picks plus No. 35 or 55 overall to move up into the 15-18 range and get a player that unexpectedly falls.

While this year’s draft is not even close to matching the talent at the top of the 2024 draft—Nashville would’ve had its pick of Ivan Demidov, Tij Iginla, Berkly Catton, Zeev Buium, Carter Yakemchuk, and Zayne Parekh had it held the No. 5 pick last year—there’s still some solid depth in the early-to-late 20s, and the Predators could benefit from having two picks to dangle to move up should someone like Roger McQueen, Victor Eklund, or Logan Hensler slide.

Below is how I would rank the top 40 players in the 2025 NHL draft with a brief in-depth scouting report on some of my favorite prospects.