NHL
For years at The Athletic, our colleague on the MLB team, Stephen J. Nesbitt, has built an MLB All-Under-25 Team that tries to put together a batting order and a pitching rotation of the best young players in baseball. Over the last couple of weeks, NHL prospects writers Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler decided to steal the idea and try to assemble a 2025 NHL All-Under-25 Team.
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The idea is simple. Build a 23-man roster (13 forwards, seven defensemen, three goalies) made up of the best players born since 2000 (though a couple of them turned 25 in early 2025, this meant that they were all under 25 when the 2024-25 season began).
Executing it was much less simple, with Wheeler and Pronman putting together a list of 40-plus players and then working to whittle it down and come to an at times contested consensus. The goal was to build an actual team with actual lines and roles for today. So this isn’t a prediction or projection for these players into the future, but rather an annual team meant to capture the here and now.
Here’s the inaugural team they built.
The toughest roster decisions were up front, where you could put together two full teams with all of the young talent in the league today. Ultimately, though, we felt that the four centers we have slotted here had to be the four centers, and that it made more sense to move Connor Bedard to the wing than it did to move any of Tim Stützle, Jack Hughes, Macklin Celebrini or Wyatt Johnston (even if Stützle and Johnston have played a little wing). Lucas Raymond and Matt Boldy have established themselves as top young wingers in the game and we felt it made sense to load them up with Stützle. Reuniting Cole Caufield with his former NTDP running mate in Hughes also felt like a no-brainer. On talent, Bedard then made the most sense as the final top-six winger, though he was a little tricky to slot because he wouldn’t be a natural bottom-sixer and you’d probably have to shelter a second line that has both he and Caufield on it.
In the bottom six, we liked the synergy of pairing Canes teammates Andrei Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis together, and Blue Jackets Kirill Marchenko and Adam Fantilli together. Fantilli wasn’t originally on Wheeler’s roster but has been red-hot recently and played his way into the mix. His size and skating also work in a potential fourth-line role here and gives that fourth line two natural centers.
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We debated multiple players for the 13th forward spot before settling on Knies’ heavy game as the best fit. Wheeler originally had Matvei Michkov as his extra forward and we debated J.J. Peterka versus Knies as well.
There are several other young players at all three forward positions who are having excellent seasons that we just couldn’t find a spot/role/fit for as well. Here’s what a theoretical NHL All-Under-25 Second Team forward group could have looked like, just to give you an idea of how hard these decisions were:
J.J. Peterka — Marco Rossi — Matvei Michkov
Kent Johnson — Logan Cooley — Dylan Guenther
Leo Carlsson — Anton Lundell — Aliaksei Protas
William Eklund — Matty Beniers — Shane Wright
Extra: Dylan Holloway
This defense group is full of size, mobility and puck-moving skill. Rasmus Dahlin is a dynamic player who can generate a ton of offense and run the power play. Moritz Seider, Jake Sanderson and Brock Faber are superb defenders and athletes who can make enough plays. Thomas Harley’s strong play for Canada at the 4 Nations solidified his spot. The last two defensemen were points of debate, though. Despite a down year, we settled on Noah Dobson for the final spot in the top six due to his great traits and because he’s a right-handed shot (the roster would have had five lefties to just two righties otherwise, as the depth of left-shot U25 D is so much stronger than right-shot ones).
Owen Power, Luke Hughes and Lane Hutson were then considered for the extra slot. Pronman advocated for Hughes due to his elite skating. Wheeler advocated for Hutson due to his special offensive abilities. We split the difference on Power, who’s a very smart player with great size and mobility.
The next-best D we left off the roster after Hutson and Hughes were all also lefties — Simon Edvinsson, Kaiden Guhle, Alex Vlasic, Bowen Byram, Rasmus Sandin, K’Andre Miller, etc. — but it was hard to make a case for any of them over the four lefties we selected.
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We debated both Spencer Knight and Calder candidate Dustin Wolf as the team’s starter/1A, with Wheeler arguing for Wolf and Pronman arguing for Knight. Knight’s toolkit is certainly one of a more typical NHL starter between his size, quickness, hockey sense and technique.
The highly talented Yaroslav Askarov was the agreed-upon No. 3, though Leevi Merilainen, Lukas Dostal and Joel Hofer were given peripheral consideration.
(Photos of Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini: Luke Hales, Christian Petersen / Getty Images)
