2025 NHL Draft Profile: Bill Zonnon

The QMJHL has not been a great development league when it comes to producing top prospects the past few years — there is a definite gap between it and the WHL and OHL by now. In 2020, the year Alexis Lafrenière was drafted first overall, there were five total players from that league taken in the first round. Then there were four in 2021, then just two in 2022, none in 2023, and only one in 2024. There hasn't been any taken in the top 10 since Lafrenière.

That's not to say that there hasn't been good players to come out of Quebec or the Maritimes, but the top prospects have increasingly been choosing to go the OHL/USHL/NCAA route. Michael Hage, Sacha Boisvert, Bradley Nadeau all come to mind from recent drafts. This seems to have been partially solved with the new CHL-NCAA agreement, as they've already had some prospects come back from the USHL to join the QMJHL... but only because they can play closer to home before heading to college hockey anyway.

I'm not the only one talking about this. I've heard and read scouts talking about this the past 2-3 years, and the general theory seems to be pointing to a complete lack of quality coaching or systems, and low quality of competition – perhaps too many teams. Play in the league an extreme form of free roaming hockey with little structure, and shots (and goals) coming from low danger areas everywhere on the ice that makes some guys' stats look better than what would match their projection and skill development.

All that said, let me introduce you to Bill Zonnon, a prospect out of the Quebec league that seems to buck this trend, and plays a very projectable style of hockey.

THE BASICS: STATS AND CONTEXT

• Position: Left-shot centre
• League(s): QMJHL
• Height: 6'2"
• Weight: 190 lbs
• Birthdate: October 3rd, 2006

Here are his draft rankings, as of writing this:

• Bob McKenzie: 34th
• Corey Pronman: 41st
• Will Scouch: 17th
• Elite Prospects: 28th
• Scott Wheeler: 31st
• Dobber Prospects: 18th
• FC Hockey: 28th
• McKeen's Hockey: 32nd
• HockeyProspect.com: 29th

Zonnon has had a fair amount of hype for a couple of years now. He was the sixth overall pick in the QMJHL draft back in 2022, and has seen his production jump from 39 points as a 15/16 year old, to 58 points the following season, and then to 83 points this year. That was good for fourth in the QMJHL for draft eligibles, only narrowly behind the three guys ahead of him. Statistics wise, he didn't quite break 30 goals but definitely profiles more as a playmaker and set-up man. His shot rate is low compared to other top offensive producers in his age group in the QMJHL.

Size is not a problem for Zonnon. He's 6'2" and looks it, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets an updated measurement at the draft combine (if invited) and he's closer to 6'3". His weight at 190 is a good weight to have for his height, and he doesn't look lanky per se — but I definitely think he can, will, and should add more muscle.

Zonnon didn't just improve his offensive production this year, he also greatly improved his all around play and became a much more versatile forward. He was moved from the wing with no time playing at centre, to being a full-time centre with all the extra responsibilities that entails — and he did it well. So well, in fact, that he was used as his team's top-line centre for basically all of the season. He was also on their top powerplay, and on their second penalty kill unit. His faceoff win percentage was just below 50% which is not great for a top centre, but considering this was his first season playing the position at all I think he has time to work on his technique and timing and get better. It will not be the end of the world for him to wind up as a winger.

This is a unique situation where I can also add a bit of scouting on Zonnon as a person. By all accounts, from scouts who have followed and met with him over the past few years, he is universally described as the nicest kid with a great attitude about everything. That and other reasons are likely why he is the youngest on the team to have a letter – the other three are all two to three years older than him – and why the coaches trust him with so much responsibility.

THE GOOD: HARD WORKING, HIGH END TWO-WAY CENTRE

What I like about Zonnon the most is that he has a lot of potential for being a skilled two-way forward. I think he can stick at centre, especially if he improves his faceoffs with more time, practice and experience. Even if he doesn't, he can be a valuable winger who forechecks hard, gets the puck off the boards and into the middle of the ice, kills penalties and contributes on the powerplay.

Honestly, I see a bit of Knies and Hyman in Zonnon – but only in specific ways. I'm talking about their bulldog pursuit of loose pucks on dump ins and forechecks. Zonnon doesn't show as much pure power as Knies did, but he does have a couple of tricks up his sleeve when it comes to gaining leverage on an opponent along the boards so he can come away with the loose puck. The easiest one to notice is this little spin move he does, where he initiates contact and immediately turns as he does so. I can't explain how he does it, but somehow him doing this also helps him establish stronger positioning to take the puck and block off the other guy from being able to poke it away.

This helps Zonnon a lot with his transitions. He can build up speed with crossovers, and he's adept with his stickhandling enough to get it into the other zone with control more often than not. If he needs to, he'll do a dump and chase, and he has the speed, size, positioning and stickwork to come away with the puck even if a defenseman gets to it first. His physical style is less Knies-like, and more Hyman-like. It's more cerebral and about establishing positioning than crunching or just plain overpowering people. Here are some examples:

When it comes to his skills in the offensive zone, he definitely is a better playmaker than a goal scorer. He's not necessarily the most dynamic passer, but he has a knack for getting the puck to dangerous areas of the ice. From there, he can create high quality scoring chances for himself and, more frequently, his teammates. That's not to say he does not have a dynamic element to his offensive skills, because he does. One scout noted that he has a "ridiculous backhand pass to the slot", which are often created off the rush or off his forechecking.

Zonnon shows a strong awareness in the offensive zone with a good ability to deal with pressure by the defense. He uses accurate passes, and a very strong hockey sense combined with good vision of the ice so he can find teammates as they are finding soft spots in coverage. His puck handling is not necessarily elite, at least not yet, but his offensive instincts and anticipation combined with everything else allow him to have a high offensive impact.

The last thing I'll note is that I think Zonnon has a lot of projection as a goal scorer. He has a wicked shot, but it can be inconsistent. It's a weapon on the powerplay where he has more time and space to wind up and let it rip, but it's not something he shows as often at even strength. But he also is very strong around the net, using his size and work ethic to plant himself in front for deflections and cleaning up rebounds. He can be an utter nightmare for defensemen to deal with in junior.

Here are the best examples of his offensive abilities:

THE FLAWS: SKATING MECHANICS, CONSISTENCY, REFINEMENT

There are a few weaknesses in Zonnon's that will be his his biggest areas for improvement. The biggest one I see mentioned in pretty much every scouting report, and something I've seen in his games, are his skating mechanics. While he can get up to speed and outrace most of his peers in junior, he is slow to accelerate and not the most agile when it comes to more horizontal movements. A lot of scouting reports describe his skating as clunky and inefficient, with one thing I've noticed is that when he's at a standstill or slowly coasting but suddenly needs to accelerate, it looks like he does this little hop for his first stride where he pushes himself upwards more than he pushes himself forwards.

The other thing that gets noticed is his posture while skating, which is too upright and stiff. That seems to be the biggest problem that impacts his overall agility, and balance in tight spaces. While he is a handful along the boards and in front of the net, he's not as physically dominant as he could be and can be knocked over too often. I also got the impression that the longer his shifts run, and the higher his ice time in a game climbs, the slower he gets. I've seen scouting reports note that the problematic mechanics limits his stamina because he has to work so much harder to move around, and puts a lot of question marks for his projection to the pros unless he can smooth out the kinks and improve his agility, balance, and explosiveness.

The second and third issues have a similar theme as with Zonnon's skating, but aren't as significant — his puck control seems to be limited for now, and his shooting mechanics and shot selection also have problems. For me, the overarching problem for all three of these things is that he is still not as refined a prospect as the guys who are ranked ahead of him, and are more clear-cut first rounders. Right now he is still pretty raw, and could be more of a long term project as NHL teams and skill coaches work to add greater consistency and refinement for his mechanics and decision making.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

I really like Zonnon because I think he has such a solid foundation of skills and tools to work with. The lack of refinement and consistency are definitely problems right now, but I think since he's already so advanced in other areas that he has a greater ceiling than others in terms of his projection for the future.

My biggest worry is how much of Zonnon's skating can be cleaned up. This isn't one of those things I've said a lot about other prospects, where it seems like everything can be fixed by a guy just bulking up. But I think his skating overall is already in a pretty good place, just not ideal – and that's something where refinement and advanced skills coaching can smooth everything out enough to make it at least good enough for pro hockey. I think the same about the other issues, he already makes everything work at a high level so him having time to refine his game to clean everything up will potentially unlock his game to an even greater extent.

This is why Zonnon is not really a consensus first round guy, despite the size and the production and the enticing tools. But the reason why I am profiling him first is because while I like him a lot, pretty much everyone does. Those tools are enough to ensure that, if he does wind up not being taken in the first round, he won't last very long in the second. I wouldn't put his odds of falling to Toronto at 0%, or I wouldn't have bothered to write about him.

If he does somehow fall to the late second round, I'll be the first to welcome him to the organization if Toronto feels the same as I do.

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!