2025 NHL Draft guide: Here’s everything you need to know before the Utah Mammoth picks

The 2025 NHL Draft begins on Friday.

At long last, the Utah Mammoth will use their fourth overall pick — that they lucked into in the lottery — to select what could be a future franchise player.

“I’m over the giddiness of winning the No. 4,” general manager Bill Armstrong said. “Now we’re at No. 4 and let’s go to work.”

Armstrong and his staff, led by director of amateur scouting Darryl Plandowski and associate director of amateur scouting Ryan Jankowski, have extensively studied each prospect and it has the organization feeling confident in the decision to come.

“I’ve always said, it’s a process and you’ve got to follow the process,” Armstrong said. “It is really getting the best lists from your area scouts and your head scouts and exploring who you are going to get at the range you’re at. When you do that, you get into that range, and you exhaust the process ... of going through every single player, meeting them at the combine, going through their testing, going through their video, reading all the research that your staff has done on them.”

It is almost time to see how all that preparation pays off.

Here is everything you need to know about the NHL draft before the Mammoth make their picks.

How to watch the NHL draft

The first round of the 2025 NHL Draft is Friday at 5 p.m. MT. The second through seventh rounds will be held on Saturday starting at 10 a.m. MT. ESPN will televise the first round, while the NHL Network will air rounds two through seven. The full draft broadcast can also be streamed on ESPN+.

For Mammoth-specific coverage, SEG Media will air a 2025 Draft Special on Friday at 4:30 p.m. MT on SEG+ and Utah Mammoth+. It will include interviews with Armstrong, head coach André Tourigny and the first-round draft pick as well as commentary from the TV crew.

The draft itself will be held in Los Angeles at L.A. Live’s Peacock Theater. This year’s draft is, for the first time, decentralized, which means the prospects can attend in person, but the teams’ respective front offices will tap in virtually from their home bases.

Utah’s picks and overall NHL draft order

While Utah’s fourth overall selection is the most anticipated, the team has six total picks in the 2025 draft. After the first round, the Mammoth have the 46th overall (second round), 78th overall (third round), 110th overall (fourth round), 142nd overall (fifth round) and 174th overall (sixth round). Utah does not have a pick in the seventh round.

Those placings — and the general draft order — could change due to trades, though. Armstrong has remained open to the possibility of the Mammoth moving their No. 4 spot. It seems there is not a route Utah has not looked down when it comes to its options.

“Do you have to explore it? Yes. That’s part of my job,” Armstrong said. “At this process, every GM — especially the guys there in the top 10 — are all jockeying around, seeing can they move up, can they move down. What’s the best option for their club? We talk with GMs daily about that.”

Here is the full first-round draft order:

10 names to know ahead of the draft

It only takes one team to change the complexion of a draft. The 2025 prospect class — and its variance of skill and development — has made it especially hard to predict where players after the first two picks will land.

So, here are 10 first-round names to know. One will likely land in Salt Lake City.

Matthew Schaefer has been projected to go first overall to the New York Islanders. The 6-foot-2, 183-pound defenseman had a shortened season due to injury — he broke his collarbone in December — but still managed to rise to the top in his draft year. Schaefer had 22 points (seven goals, 15 assists) in 17 games with the Erie Otters in the Ontario Hockey League (as an alternate captain, too) before getting hurt. The Hamilton, Ontario, native also won gold at the 2024 IIHF Under-18 World Championship; he had five points (one goal, four assists) in seven games.

Michael Misa tore it up in the OHL this season as the captain of the Saginaw Spirit. The center, who is 6-foot-1, 184 pounds, had 134 points (62 goals, 72 assists) in 65 games. It was a point-high for all CHL players and tied Patrick Kane for the most goals by any draft-eligible player in a single OHL season. Misa also helped lead Saginaw to the 2024 Memorial Cup (CHL championship).

Caleb Desnoyers is a center with a bit more size — he is 6-foot-2, 178 pounds. Desnoyers had 84 points (35 goals, 49 assists) in 56 games this season with the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Moncton Wildcats. He also posted 30 points (nine goals, 21 assists) in 19 playoff games en route to the QMJHL championship. Desnoyers then won the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the league’s postseason MVP. The Quebec native accomplished all that while dealing with injuries to both his wrists (since around November), Desnoyers revealed at the NHL Scouting Combine. Desnoyers received MRIs and it was not clear at the time if he would need surgery or not.

“It’s always important to make sure you go through thorough evaluation when a player is hurt to make sure you know what you’re getting,” Armstrong said. “We’re not taking anybody in the draft that we haven’t gone through their medical 150%. And if they had something in there we’re not happy about, we follow it up with another medical usually in Utah or in their hometown through the MRIs and doctors that we know. We try to be as thorough as we can.”

Anton Frondell — according to the NHL’s Central Scouting Registry — is the top-ranked international skater in this draft. The Swedish center had 25 points (11 goals, 14 assists) in 29 HockeyAllsvenskan games with Djurgårdens IF this year. Frondell was one of 11 players to skate in HockeyAllsvenskan at age 17 last season — he led that group in goals, assists and points, finishing with the highest point total of any second-division player aged 17 or younger since the Toronto Maple Leafs’ William Nylander in 2013-2014. Frondell is 6-foot-1 and 198 pounds.

James Hagens was once believed to be the No. 1 prospect in this draft, but his stock has since dropped. He is still a highly-touted center and had a productive year in NCAA hockey at Boston College with 37 points (11 goals, 26 assists) in 37 games. Hagens — standing at 5-foot-10, 177 pounds — caught everyone’s attention at the 2024 IIHF Under-18 World Championship when he broke the event’s all-time scoring record with 22 points (nine goals, 13 assists) in seven games. Team USA won silver that year.

Porter Martone is one of the few wingers in the projected top 10. He is 6-foot-3, 208 pounds and had 98 points (37 goals, 61 assists) in 57 games for the OHL’s Brampton Steelheads this season as the team’s captain. Martone was also captain of Team Canada at the 2024 IIHF Under-18 World Championship (won gold) and alternate captain at the 2023 Hlinka Gretzky Cup (also won gold).

Jake O’Brien is a center who had 98 points (32 goals, 66 assists) in 66 games with the OHL’s Brantford Bulldogs this season. In 2023-2024, O’Brien was named OHL Rookie of the Year and was selected to the CHL All-Rookie Team. He is 6-foot-2 and 172 pounds.

Brady Martin had his stock rise at the combine after it was reported teams were drawn to his physical, unforgiving style of play that could lend itself to the NHL playoffs. The center — who is six feet, 186 pounds — had 72 points (33 goals, 39 assists) in 57 games for the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds as an alternate captain. Martin won gold with Team Canada at the 2024 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Championship.

Roger McQueen is yet another center. There has been some uncertainty around him because of health — McQueen missed 51 games due to a back injury this season. However, the 6-foot-5, 197-pound forward said he felt 100% at the combine and participated in all the physical testing. McQueen had 20 points (10 goals, 10 assists) in 17 games for the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings before getting hurt.

Radim Mrtka is a 6-foot-5, 202-pound defenseman from Czechia. He had 35 points (three goals, 32 assists) in 43 games with the WHL’s Seattle Thunderbirds this season, finishing second in scoring among all draft-eligible WHL defensemen. Mrtka also led all Czech defensemen in assists (three) and points (four) through five games at the 2025 IIHF Under-18 World Championship.

NHL Central Scouting rankings

NHL Central Scouting is a league department that evaluates each year’s draft prospects to help the 32 organizations make their eventual picks. While each team has its own staff, NHL Central Scouting’s work is a helpful supplement.

Every draft, NHL Central Scouting releases its final rankings of the players — this year featured the top 224 skaters and 32 goaltenders in North America as well as the top 140 skaters and 15 goaltenders internationally.

Here are the top 15 from each group:

2025 Top 15 North American Skaters

2025 Top 15 International Skates