Five Thoughts Going Into the Hlinka Gretzky Cup

Happy Hlinka week! The Hlinka Gretzky Cup is the kickoff event for the NHL Draft season, and it will run from August 3rd to August 8th in Edmonton this year.

Historically, it has been the signature event where you get to see the best Canadian draft-eligible players all playing together in an international tournament, and thus get to see what the top international players can do against the best Canadians. The Americans historically do not send the NTDP players to this tournament, but it does allow scouts and the general public to see what American-born players playing in the CHL, USHL, or prep schools can do against some of the best players in the world. With such a shake-up to the NTDP following the departures of some of their top players to the CHL, a few players will play for the NTDP in this tournament who did not previously do so.

I’ll let the game reports and Summer Scouting series handle the individual player analysis and my thoughts on their draft stock. These are the five general topics and questions I have going into the tournament.

Who amongst the <6’ offensive defenders is going to shine this week?

There are four offensive defensemen playing this week who all have the ability to be lottery picks this upcoming year, given their offensive acumen: Landon Dupont (Canada), Brock Cripps (Canada), Douglas Johnsson (Sweden), and Jake Prunty (USA).

Dupont will be the household name that most casual fans know, as he’s starting in pole position in the race for the number one pick next year. Douglas Johnsson has been my favorite player to watch so far this summer after looking at his games from the end of last season. Brock Cripps has so much in his offensive toolkit, and it’s going to be about putting it all together for a highly productive WHL campaign where he can take the offensive reins from the departed Daxon Rudolph in Prince Albert. Then there’s Jake Prunty, a player who popped multiple times for me last year while I was watching 2026 draft eligibles playing against Sioux Falls in the USHL.

There will be a microscope on all of them regarding their defensive game and how they defend against the top competition in this tournament. It’s tough for smaller defensemen to show NHL evaluators that either 1) they can defend bigger forwards effectively or 2) their offensive game mitigates the risk of defensive liability because of their size.

Will Brock England have his coming-out party in August?

I really, really liked Brock England’s game last year. He’s creative, breaks down defensive structure with both skill and his brain, and was always flashing in the games I watched him play last year. I felt very similarly about Mathis Preston going into last season, and he wasn’t able to put together a draft-eligible season, production-wise, that justified my ranking of him (10th overall on my board).

England is starting the year really high on my draft board. He’s a very late birthday and will play this entire tournament as a 16-year-old. I’m hoping he strings together enough performances to jumpstart him going into the 2026-27 WHL season.

Who amongst the unknowns (to me) will capture my heart?

I have worked as a North American crossover scout in the public sphere for the past five years, and in my junior scouting, I didn’t venture outside of North America either. I relied heavily on the Smaht Scouting European scouts to identify players I would then watch for my personal rankings. With Smaht no more, this will be the first year I’m watching and identifying Europeans from the get-go, and boy, if the past two months have taught me anything, it’s that I have a lot to learn about European junior hockey.

I’ve already found some Europeans I really like (Jonah Neuenschwander, Milan Sundstrom, Tomas Selic), but I don’t know much about players outside of America and Canada. I imagine I’m going to fall in love with more than a few of them during this week.

Can the Americans go back-to-back at the Hlinka?

The short answer: it would be a miracle if it happened. The USA winning last year was shocking, but they also had a very strong group of forwards and defensemen led by two first-round picks in Nikita Klepov and Jack Hextall, as well as the first pick in the second round in Brooks Rogowski. Levi Harper, one of my favorite players for the 2027 draft, was also on the team, and they had multiple NHL draft picks throughout the roster.

This year’s team has talent, but a lot of its offensive talent comes from undersized forwards and defensemen. It should be an uphill battle for them to reach the gold medal game, but if players like Gunnar Conboy, Joey Cullen, Gerry DiCunzolo, Michael Tang, and Ethan Sung can get rolling, perhaps they can reach the medal game.

What’s coming next: the 2028 draft eligibles to take note of.

While I’ll be doing game notes for this year’s draft eligibles, there are a few notable players with pedigree coming into this tournament who will be eligible for the 2028 draft. Maddox Schultz (Canada) and Joey Cullen (USA) are two of the top forwards I’ve watched in North America who should be battling to be considered for the number one pick in 2028.

Liam Pue (Canada) had a few nice moments in games I watched of Regina last year in the WHL, and I won’t be shocked to see him get buzz throughout this year. Ben Veitch (Canada) is a 6’3” center in the QMJHL, whom I noticed in the playoffs for Newfoundland. Paavo Fugleberg (Finland) put up numbers in both U18 and U20 leagues in Finland and could be poised to challenge for a lottery pick. Frans Karjalhti (Finland) was already a point-per-game player in the U20 league in Finland and has played a game at the men’s Liiga level.

Dominik Stefan Domonkos (Slovakia) was a player I heard about while following my own son’s travel team, and his dominance of the 15O circuit for Windy City will see him jump to the USHL for Tri-City this upcoming year. The same can be said about Wilson Boumedienne (Sweden), who torched the 15O and 16U leagues for Mt. St. Charles last year.

With 29 players eligible for the 2028 draft playing, I’m sure there will be a few more who make a name for themselves this week.