2025 NHL Draft Profile: Ben Kevan

When a player is available in the late second round, 99.99% of the time there's a good reason for that. Their balance of strengths and weaknesses were not good enough to be considered first round worthy by anyone, and there wound up being several players more interesting to teams picking in the second round as well.

It could be that they have tons of intriguing tools but they're very raw and under-developed. Maybe they have the tools already developed but their skill level isn't at a high level. Either way, you're usually talking about long term projects that have some kind of interesting skills or tools, but need to do a lot of work in other areas.

When it comes to Ben Kevan, he's a bit of both. He has some flashy and interesting skill, but not so overwhelmingly great that he's up there with other top picks. He also has some intriguing tools and plays a projectable game, but there are some questions about his projection to higher levels that limits how much hype there is around him. Honestly, he's a bit of a weird player to assess, but he's someone I find fascinating.

THE BASICS: STATS AND CONTEXT

• Position: Right-shot winger
• League(s): USHL
• Height: 6'1"
• Weight: 179 lbs
• Birthdate: January 3rd, 2007

Here are his draft rankings, as of writing this:

• Bob McKenzie: 49th
• Corey Pronman: 93rd
• Will Scouch: 32nd
• Elite Prospects: 41st
• Scott Wheeler: 54th
• Dobber Prospects: 28th
• FC Hockey: 137th
• McKeen's Hockey: 48th
• HockeyProspect.com: Not ranked

From a quick look at his Elite Prospects page, Kevan looks like an average prospect. He's average in size, with good but not great production in the USHL. In fact, his 13 goals and 43 points are both a step down from his production the previous season when he had 24 goals and 57 points. Both seasons were on the same team, in the same league, of about the same quality (3rd worst record in the league both seasons). But there are signs that he became a more complete player, especially as a playmaker, and he may have been riding a pretty high shooting percentage the previous season.

The good thing about Kevan's previous season is it got noticed by Team USA. Before this year he had never played in any international tournament, but this year he played for his country in three. First, in the summer he was part of the U18 Hlinka tournament. He had a secondary role, but managed 3 points in 5 games – two back of the team leader. For context, Team USA at the Hlinka does not bring their A roster, they save that for the World U18s in the spring. Before that, he was also part of the U19 World Junior A Championship where he had a similar role but popped off – despite being on the younger side for the team, he led them in goals with 6 and had the 3rd most points with 8, all in 5 games. Finally, he cracked their roster at the World U18 Championships, more in a depth role getting between 5 and 12 minutes per game, but still managing 3 points in 5 games.

Something I've read from scouts who watched him all year was that he seemed to be better on the international stage than for his crap team in the USHL. Those aren't the words they use, but I think he does best when he has a precise and supporting role than when he has to take on a leading role. Despite that, his tracking data looks pretty great in many areas for his USHL play.

THE GOOD: HIGH-PACED SKILL, SUPER SUPPORTING POTENTIAL

What makes Kevan interesting to me as a prospect is his tools, and I'll start with his skating. I've seen numerous scouts refer to his skating as elite, and I can certainly agree that it looks very good compared to his peers. I don't know if I'd call it elite overall, he certainly is agile but I don't see him as super explosive or with excellent straight line speed. The good thing about his skating is how he uses it. In the past I remarked that Ovchinnikov was a real burner who was frustrating because he never used it unless he had the puck. Kevan plays at a higher pace most of the time, which he uses to pressure opponents on the forecheck to disrupt their breakouts and force turnovers.

The second good thing about Kevan's game to his strengths are his anticipation and awareness, which I notice the most on his forechecking and defensive game. Again, I don't think he necessarily looks elite in these areas, but he is very good. He has a knack for reading a play and disrupting it somehow, either jumping into passing lanes or timing his check, which he does pretty well as just an averaged sized guy, or timing his stick lift. He plays a good physical game at times, throwing hits to separate guys from pucks and knock them off balance so he can steal the puck.

When it comes to your standard offensive skills, Kevan is a true triple-threat with the puck. I'll start with the puck handling, since that's so important to his transition game. All that anticipation and skating helps him here, with his very agile skating and solid puck handling allows him to be a high-end puck carrier through the neutral zone. He can read the defenders setting up in front of him and then dangle and weave his way through them.

If they stack more than one up against him to cut him off, Kevan is a very good playmaker and can pass it through or past them to create an odd man rush. He does some more advanced things for junior players that help – doing cut backs and curls to relieve pressure and wait for teammates to catch up in a second wave, buying more time to find a good passing lane. Honestly, I would say his transition game is what helps bring his whole 200-foot game together. He can make good defensive or back checking plays, dangling it past the first pressure and passing/carrying it up the ice for a quick counter attack. His dangling helps him buy an extra half second and manipulate defenders so he can create a passing lane.

Then there's Kevan's shot and goal scoring. He does have quite a good shot, one that's quick and accurate. He can also fire it off of one foot and back across his body at weird angles, which is both a good and bad thing (more on the bad part below). Lastly, while it won't ever be at a Matthews level, he is capable of deceptive shots with things like a curl and drag to change the angle and fire it through or around a screen or a defender right in front of him.

Because of his skating and anticipation, Kevan is just around the puck a lot including around the net. That helps him pounce on loose pucks, or be open in areas where he can get a pass for a dangerous scoring chance. This season in the USHL he didn't get as many goals from that, but in international play and in the previous year he seemed to play or be used differently and it worked out for him with more goals.

Again, none of these offensive skills necessarily seem like they are elite. I would say his puck handling, then his passing, then his shot are all above average to very good. This makes makes him a handful to deal with for defensemen because you can't just sell out on the one thing he's good at, like giving Max Domi a lot of room to shoot but cutting off his passing lanes. It also makes him a real jack of all trades. Again, most importantly is that he is able to use all three of these skills when he is skating at speed, which makes them all more dangerous and dynamic.

THE FLAWS: CONSISTENT DECISION MAKING, PHYSICAL TOOLS

This is a kind of player that I'm all in on – I like jack of all trade kind of players. But Kevan's game has issues, which is why he's in the realistic realm for Toronto at the back of the second round instead of a first-round guy. There are two main problems I can see when it comes to projecting his game into the future – his physical tools, and his inconsistent decision making that I think limits his offensive impact.

When it comes to his physical projection, my issue is that a lot of his game currently is built around physical abilities being at a high level for junior. His skating, his defense, his checking or forechecking, these are all things that I worry will not be as impactful when he gets to the NHL. This is mostly because I don't know how much more physical development he can go through – he isn't one of those tall but skinny beanpoles who you know with time and aging will fill out more. He's an average height and already at an average weight. Will his skating and defense and forechecking be as effective if he isn't as explosive and strong relative to his peers?

I also have a concern about Kevan's decision making with the puck, though not as much. In the USHL, I've seen him make a mix of mistakes at times – hanging onto the puck too long, trying to solo rush against a wall of defenders, forcing passes that have little chance to succeed for not much benefit. The other issue is what I touched on above, where his ability to get a shot off in almost any situation leads him to taking some very low-danger shots. This kind of thing isn't a massive red flag for junior, as he could in theory learn and be developed into making better decisions as he gets older.

The other reason I'm not as concerned is because I haven't seen that issue outside of his regular USHL games. On the international stage, where he played more of a depth role, insulated with other equally talented players he could support, Kevan seems to have simplified his game a lot. My suspicion is that he feels the pressure to do everything himself on his bad junior team, which leads to those poor decisions with the puck. I'm not going to completely ignore this as a potential issue though, since it could lead to some bad habits down the line.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Honestly, I view Kevan similarly to the likes of Nestrašil– I see the potential for him to being an impactful supporting winger in the bottom six, maybe the middle six if everything goes right in his development. But where Nestrašil has the defense and physical tools at a high level but needs to develop his skills, Kevan has the skills but needs to develop more physically for the defense to play up at higher levels. So I see them as similar kinds of players, but coming from different directions to get there.

Not all, but many of the public scouts I follow the most, are pretty high on him, but it sounds like NHL teams aren't as much. The scouts who are high on him see a ceiling of being a second line winger, which I could see but I think will take a lot of improvements and development to get there. If he grows an inch, is one of those guys who can get legs as big as oak trunks, and I'm right that his decision making issues are more because of circumstance than due to an inherent problem, he could get there. With some improvements but not to that extent, he could make for a bottom six

Kevan committed to Arizona State in the NCAA, which is a relatively new but upcoming program. It's hard to assess how good the program has been at developing prospects, since they're so new to the Division I tier. This year, they did take on Cullen Potter who is likely to be a mid-first-round pick, despite him being one of the youngest players in the NCAA. He has been one of the big surprises in college hockey this year, and has a similar profile as Kevan in terms of having a mix of skill and two-way strengths.

While I wouldn't be as excited if Toronto got Kevan as Zonnon, Nestrašil or McKinney, I do think he's a much more realistic option to be available when Toronto picks. Among other forwards who seem likely to be available, he is one of my favourites.

Thanks for reading!

I put a lot of work into my prospect articles here, both for the draft and Toronto's prospects. I do it as a fun hobby for me, and I'd probably do it in some capacity even if PPP completely ceased to exist. But if you like reading my work, some support would go a long way! I pay for a few streaming services (CHL, NCAA, USHL, the occasional TSN options for international tournaments that are broadcast) to be able to reliably watch these prospects in good quality streams. I also pay for some prospect-specific resources, such as tracking data and scouting reports from outlets like Elite Prospects, Future Considerations, McKeen's Hockey, The Athletic, and more.

Being able to get paid for this helps me dedicate more time and resources to it, rather than to second/third jobs. And whatever money I make here, a lot of I reinvest back into my prospect work through in those streaming and scouting services. Like I said, I'd be doing whatever I can afford for this anyway, so any financial help I get through this is greatly appreciated!