10 NHL Prospects to Watch at the 2024 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

Original source (on modern site) | Article images: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

10 NHL Prospects to Watch at the 2024 NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Tournament

0 of 10

Macklin CelebriniRichard T Gagnon/Getty Images

If you've never taken in the men's NCAA hockey tournament before, put it on your priority list because the passion is unmatched and the upsets (if they happen) are always stunning.

And now that NHL teams are increasingly dipping into college hockey, the star power throughout the tournament is impressive.

Numerous players will take center stage at the tournament before being drafted in June or have already been selected by NHL teams.

We're eager to see how the biggest names, draft picks and scorers shape up this year. Top teams such as Boston College, Boston University, North Dakota and Denver are bringing in a ton of big names, but schools like Michigan and Michigan State have their fair share as well.

We've picked out 10 players to keep an eye on and if you're a hardcore draftnik, you're well aware of them by now. If not, enjoy the introduction (or reintroduction) to them.

Macklin Celebrini, 2024 NHL Draft-Eligible

1 of 10

Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

Macklin Celebrini will be the guy everyone is watching in the tournament this year. Not since Cale Makar with UMass and Jack Eichel with Boston University in the past has there been a player with this kind of attention focused on them in college hockey.

Celebrini's accomplishments this season when it comes to scoring had him being mentioned in the same breath as Eichel, Paul Kariya and Brian Leetch for winning Hockey East's Rookie and Player of the Year awards.

Celebrini is an electrifying player and worth all of the hype he's getting as the potential No. 1 pick in the 2024 NHL draft in Las Vegas.

The 17-year-old is tied for second in the country in scoring with Cutter Gauthier and Jackson Blake with 59 points, and his 31 goals are second-most behind Gauthier's 35.

His mix of creativity and brilliance with the puck allows him to create scoring chances where most players wouldn't find any, and he opens up the ice for himself like few others in the NCAAs can.

While Celebrini's Boston University team doesn't have a pile of other super high-end talent (defenseman Lane Hutson, a Canadiens prospect, is a lot of fun to watch, too), the Terriers have excellent scoring depth.

Make no mistake, though: Celebrini is the star of the show, and we're all hoping to see the best of him in the tournament.

Zeev Buium, 2024 NHL Draft-Eligible

2 of 10

Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

One of the more stacked positions in this year's draft is defense. There are a lot of high-end blueliners set to be picked this summer, but one of the more exciting ones is Zeev Buium of Denver.

He plays defense in the modern style where he's capable of rushing the puck on offense and creating offense on his own.

As a freshman, he's the highest-scoring defenseman in the nation with 48 points, including 11 goals. What's more impressive is he's done this while just turning 18 in December.

Watching how Buium creates from a defensive position is exciting to watch. With his puck skills and skating ability, he's able to shift the Pioneers from defense to offense in an instant and, at 6'2", 180 pounds, he's almost pro-sized already as a teenager.

Watching Buium and Jack Devine lead Denver into the tournament will be fascinating. But with the attack capable of coming from up close with Devine or from the back line with Buium, it's sure to be fun to watch.

Expect Buium to be a top-15 pick at the draft this summer.

Jackson Blake, Carolina Hurricanes

3 of 10

Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images

It's not uncommon to see sons of former NHL players in hockey these days, and North Dakota's Jackson Blake is one of them.

His dad Jason, was a 40-goal scorer for the New York Islanders in 2006-07, but the younger Jackson has made his name by piling up points in Grand Forks.

Blake is tied for second in the country in scoring with 59 points and is North Dakota's leading point-getter by a long stretch, potting 21 more points than his next-best teammate. While he has piled up most of his points with assists (38 this season), he's no slouch in scoring.

Blake was a fourth-round pick, No. 109 overall, of the Carolina Hurricanes in 2021 and we know what you're thinking: Just what the offensively gifted Hurricanes need, another guy who might be able to help them score goals at will.

However, it's how Blake makes his teammates better and spreads the wealth for the Fighting Hawks that really sticks out.

North Dakota will need his best because it's opening the tournament against Michigan which, even in a down season, is still terrifying to deal with and still has a lot of highly touted players itself.

Gavin Brindley, Columbus Blue Jackets

4 of 10

Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

Not every top player in the NCAA tournament has to be a first-round pick or a potential first-rounder. Take Michigan's Gavin Brindley, who went in the second round in 2023 to the Columbus Blue Jackets, for instance.

Sure, Brindley could have (should have?) been a first-rounder last year, but other teams sleeping at the wheel worked in the Jackets' favor and how he has picked up his game at Michigan this season has been impressive given the talent it lost a year ago.

At 5'9", 170 pounds, he's not going to intimidate opponents with his size, but when you watch him handle the puck and weave in and out and between defenders on the way to the net, it's a good reason to shadow him on the ice.

Brindley has 51 points and 24 goals this season, making him ninth in the country in scoring and tied for fifth in goals.

Smaller players often thrive in college hockey, such as Paul Kariya, Martin St. Louis, Brian Gionta, or Johnny Gaudreau. With Brindley and Rutger McGroarty, Michigan has the offensive weapons to make it a threat no matter where it was seeded in the tournament.

North Dakota could have its hands full trying to contain them.

Jack Devine, Florida Panthers

5 of 10

Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

Every year Denver University has one of the top teams in the country and although it's guilty of having success by having one of the deepest teams in college hockey, what it's getting from Jack Devine is a forward eager to lead the way.

The fifth-last pick in the 2022 NHL draft (No. 221 overall) by the Florida Panthers is the force of the Pioneers' scoring attack. His 55 points are sixth-most in college hockey, and his 27 goals are tied for third-most with Boston College's Ryan Leonard.

Devine is in his junior season, and his year-to-year growth with Denver is quite pronounced. He went from 19 points in his freshman year to 31 points last season to 55 points this year. That kind of improvement is the sort of thing that must have Panthers management high-fiving each other.

Seeing him go from a depth contributor to a leader the way he has highlights what's made him so good this year. He's taken all that experience and used it to become a better player. As a 5'11", 180-pound forward, he's got the quickness to make plays happen for himself as well as his teammates.

Cutter Gauthier, Anaheim Ducks

6 of 10

Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

Philadelphia Flyers fans: Don't do this to yourself and read it. Anaheim Ducks fans...welcome to your next big deal.

Cutter Gauthier is having a dynamic season for Boston College, and while he hasn't been able to outscore teammate Will Smith, he's been able to pile up enough points to be tied for second in the NCAAs with Jackson Blake and Macklin Celebrini. Decent company, really.

Gauthier uses his size, skill, speed and tenacity to get to the net and score goals. He is college hockey's leading scorer heading into the tournament with 35 goals, four more than Celebrini.

At 6'2", 201 pounds, Gauthier is a handful for college defenders to deal with on the ice and he uses that to his advantage.

That he has been able to team up with a host of other first-round talents at Boston College is a bit mean to the rest of the college hockey world.

Gauthier, Smith, Gabe Perreault and Ryan Leonard make the Eagles a dangerous team, and Michigan Tech will get to see what they're all about in the first round. It's like David vs. Goliath, except Goliath is more like Voltron with all of its first-rounders.

Ryan Leonard, Washington Capitals

7 of 10

Photo By Winslow Townson/Getty Images

Another Boston College player? In this case, Ryan Leonard has taken to using his size and power, even as a freshman, to make his own way on the ice to create offense.

Leonard is tied with Jack Devine for third in the country in goals with 27, and his 54 points are good for seventh-best in the nation.

At 6'0", 190 pounds, his size is deceptive because he plays a smooth kind of game on offense and hawks the slot like a sniper, but he also flies around the ice like a bigger player would, eager to be physical.

Like teammate Will Smith, Leonard is a ferocious competitor. That kind of non-stop effort and competitiveness is contagious and helps explain why Boston College has been so nasty this season.

In Leonard's case, his style of play will be a great fit for the Washington Capitals in due time. He was taken eighth overall by the Caps in 2023 and while he's his own player, he does things that will remind fans of a lot of different kinds of established names when he gets to the NHL.

How Leonard gets the job done with Boston College in this tournament should be fun to watch.

Rutger McGroarty, Winnipeg Jets

8 of 10

Nick Wosika/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Rutger McGroarty is, arguably, the guy with the best name in college hockey and eventually the NHL. He'll be leading the Michigan Wolverines into the tournament in a bit of an underdog role.

The first-round pick by Winnipeg in 2022 (No. 14 overall) leads the Wolverines in scoring with 52 points, functioning primarily as their lead setup man with 36 assists. He did all that while playing in fewer games than most of his teammates after suffering a punctured lung and broken rib when he fell back-first into the end boards in November.

Incredibly, McGroarty was able to return in time to play at the World Junior Championships for the United States, and he's been tearing it up for Michigan all season.

He's an all-around gifted player and talent. Michigan enters the tournament as a three-seed in its region and is facing North Dakota in the first round, but would you bet against McGroarty and Michigan?

Watching McGroarty lead the way with fellow top talents such as Gavin Brindley, Seamus Casey and Frank Nazar III, they'll have a lot of options to open up scoring on any opponents.

Gabe Perreault, New York Rangers

9 of 10

Richard T Gagnon/Getty Images

Why yes, it's another Boston College player from the United States. Act surprised, OK?

Gabe Perreault, son of longtime NHL faceoff master Yanic, was one of the USNTDP's best all-time scorers and took that talent to Boston College to team up with the horde of other high-end players there to help make the Eagles loaded.

However, Perreault's move to college hockey only helped highlight how good he can be,

He is fifth in the country in scoring with 57 points, and the 2023 first-round pick of the New York Rangers did it by feeding his teammates with 39 assists. His 1.78 points per game is second best in college hockey and trails only teammate Will Smith.

Perreault is a true setup man in every sense, but it's not like he's a slacker when it comes to scoring goals himself with 18 of them.

How he and his teammates handle the pressure of being the best team in the tournament and needing to win the national championship to secure their legacy could be ominous.

But given how well Perreault and BC have performed all season and how they've risen to the occasion, expect him to rack up the points in the games to come.

Will Smith, San Jose Sharks

10 of 10

Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Will Smith is the future hope of the San Jose Sharks, but right now he's the nation's leading scorer with 67 points (23 goals, 44 assists) for Boston College.

The Eagles come into the tournament with a boatload of star power, and Smith shines brightest among them all.

The No. 4 pick in 2023 brings a deft touch in setting up his teammates, the speed and power of a goal scorer and an intense competitive edge that was even noticeable during interviews at the NHL Draft Combine a year ago.

Boston College is the No. 1 team in the country heading into the tournament after going 31-5-1 during the regular season and winning the Hockey East regular-season and tournament titles. With Smith leading the way for this stacked group, they're the favorites.

Sharks fans will especially want to watch how the 19-year-old helps the Eagles take over games and wear out opponents in games.

For as dismal as this season has been in San Jose, the future is a little less hazy knowing Smith is waiting in the wings