2025 NHL Draft Profile: Henry Brzustewicz

Prospects who are on the London Knights have been weird to scout, especially the last three years. More than just about any other CHL team, they actually implement something of a pro-style system. That's a good thing, but also makes it different than watching a prospect on most other junior teams. Easton Cowan, for example, was weird because he only had his rookie OHL season in his draft year, and didn't get top playing time until the second half of the season.

That's how London has operated. They don't typically just hand the big roles to hot young prospects. They have to earn it, in part because they've been blocked by guys who are also hot prospects but are older and more developed. So much of scouting and ranking prospects seems to involve looking at who plays the biggest roles, gets the most ice time, and produces the most points. Usually, but not always, there's sort of an assumption that big role, big ice time, and big points means the player is great, and therefore the opposite must mean they're not as good.

So what happens when there's one weird team that tends to "hide" prospects when they're younger, like in their draft year?

THE BASICS: STATS AND CONTEXT

• Position: Right-shot defenseman
• League(s): OHL
• Height: 6'1"
• Weight: 194 lbs
• Birthdate: February 9th, 2007

Here are his draft rankings, as of writing this:

• Bob McKenzie: 41st
• Corey Pronman: 27th
• Will Scouch: 77th
• Elite Prospects: 38th
• Scott Wheeler: 53rd
• Dobber Prospects: Not ranked
• FC Hockey: 46th
• McKeen's Hockey: 37th
• HockeyProspect.com: 27th

I've actually seen Henry Brzustewicz more than any other prospect in this year's draft, going back to last season – I've watched a lot of London Knights games because of Cowan. So I know a lot more about his usage and context than anyone else profiled.

So Brzustewicz has gone through some weird development on London. Unlike Cowan, he actually played in the OHL for them in his D-1 season – 52 games in the regular season, and 20 in the OHL and Memorial Cup playoffs. The thing is, it was not at all in any big role. In fact, he spent a lot of games being used as a forward or a 7th defenseman. He wasn't used on the powerplay or on the penalty kill. The fact that London kept him around for that many games is noteworthy with as deep a team as they've had, when they make their young kids earn their time.

This season, Brzustewicz got a much bigger opportunity. Two of their top defensemen turned pro, and two of their other top defensemen missed time throughout this season due to NHL training camps, the World Juniors, and injuries. There were times that he was on the top pair, playing 20-25 minutes a night, and was used in all situations. When fully healthy, London had four defensemen drafted to the NHL with two being taken in the first round. But Brzustewicz, the 17 year old kid not even drafted yet was playing second-pair minutes, with time on both the secondary power-play and penalty-kill units.

Brzustewicz had 42 points in 67 games, which was third on the team for points by defensemen, 22nd in the OHL for all U18 players, and second among all U18 defensemen. Honestly, despite how weird his season was last year, his breakout this season wasn't too surprising. He has an older brother, Hunter, was drafted to the NHL in the third round and was the top point producing defenseman in the OHL last year. Henry's tracking data doesn't necessarily look that special, but I'll explain some of why I think that is later.

THE GOOD: PLAYMAKING, TWO-WAY POTENTIAL

The biggest and most obvious upside that Brzustewicz has is offensively. Scouts do definitely note his impressive play in the offensive zone – his ability to thread passes through defenders into high danger scoring areas, to join the rush thanks to good instincts and skating, and more. I can second all of that from what I've seen. His offensive creativity leads to some high-end and flashy highlights, and he demonstrates capability as both a higher-end passer and shooter.

As a passer, his vision, ability to read the play, and ability to create passing lanes with shifty skating and nifty stick handling make him one of the better playmaking defensemen in the draft this year. He is a very high-event player, consistently involved in the action in all zones. He, and all of London's defense honestly, are good at rotating with the forwards so someone is always occupying important spaces on the ice.

Brzustewicz also has potential of a high-end transition driver, because of the same skills in his skating and passing. He is already a top point producing defenseman, but it's more than that. He's very capable carrying and passing the puck, thanks to good instincts, vision, and anticipation. That gives him a lot of upside when driving transitions in addition to generating scoring chances in the offensive zone. I've watched him fire more than a couple of excellent stretch passes from the goal line to a teammate at center ice or even the other team's blueline. A good chunk of his points are produced by him passing or carrying the puck on transitions.

It's worth emphasizing that Brzustewicz's skating and physical tools are already high-level assets. I've read a bunch of scouts that project him as an exciting and dynamic skater, who will possess good overall four-way mobility and enough size to be a legitimate defenseman in the NHL. He can be difficult for opponents to handle because of his speed, agility and size combination – even if he isn't among the bigger defensemen in the draft, there are maybe one or two guys who are bigger AND as good a skater as he is. So his combination of skating and physicality is noted as a a solid foundation for his NHL development, especially when it comes to him handling the puck.

While not as high end as the other areas I mentioned, Brzustewicz has some promising defensive potential as well. I've read scouts that remark he has strong rush defense where he closes gaps and stick/body checks the puck carrier to disrupt their rush. They note he has showcased high-end defensive skills in flashes, including angling opponents and timing poke checks effectively. Looking more at his how his defense projects into the future, his "adaptability" is seen as a strength, given his usage on both sides of the ice, as a forward, in all situations, in depth and top pairing roles.

From what I've seen, I do think he has the ability to be disruptive defensively, even if he doesn't wind up as an elite defensive defenseman. I think his skating and willingness to use his stick and body defensively are good signs. Physically he plays with a bit of an edge – he won't chase hits or crush guys, but he can take guys out of the play along the boards just fine. He'll also lift sticks to go for straight steals at times.

THE FLAWS: CONSISTENCY AND DECISION MAKING

The one big problem that Brzustewicz has as a prospect right now is consistency and refinement, which I think comes back to an issue with his decision making and maturity. While everything I described above about his strengths is true – you can see a lot of examples of it all in the highlight videos – I touched on how his tracking data isn't that great. That will probably be surprising considering just how good he can look at times on both sides of the puck. The problem is, those are the HIGHlights – I didn't include either the lowlights, or even the this-is-what-his-average-right-now-looks-like-lights.

So let's go through all the ways Brzustewicz's inconsistency can manifest. Several scouts point to areas where Brzustewicz needs refinement when it comes to his decision making and consistency, such as controlling his physicality. While it could be an asset, he has a bit of the Easton Cowan problem where he just has a complete brain fart and takes the most unnecessary penalties by grabbing and throwing opponents, just boxing them out or pinning them against the boards.

The same kind of things are said about Brzustewicz's puck handling – trying to do too much, skating right into multiple defenders, losing the handle because his brain is trying to go in three directions at once, not doing a good job protecting the puck and having it easily stolen off, that kind of thing. So while he can pull off a superb looking rush dangling through an entire team, he can also make you tear your hair out. Same thing with his passing. He can hit stretch passes and thread the needle with saucer passes through layers of defense, but he can also just whiff on what should be easier and shorter passes. leading to inaccurate passes.

Lastly, with his defense, Brzustewicz displays more inconsistencies. Scouts report that he has times where he just loses track of players around him, and he can struggle in key physical confrontations in the defensive zone because he gets lazy with his posture and technique so he's easier to shrug off or knock over. I can certainly say that I've seen him just miss that his man moved from where they were before, and he's just standing flat-footed defending no one and doing nothing to take up passing lanes. He can also be too aggressive when choosing when to join in on the offense at times, leaving him way out of position when the puck goes the other way defensively.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

The one comment I want to make about Brzustewicz and those issues is that I've seen similar things in his teammates, Oliver Bonk and Sam Dickinson. Both were taken in the first round, and both in their draft years had a lot of hype thanks to their size and offensive capabilities but had bizarre consistency issues tied to their decision making and lack of refinement. But I've also seen how both have developed since being drafted, where their all around games improved significantly once they got more experience, more practice, more development, and just got smarter.

The thing is, I'm not nearly as confident that Brzustewicz could be available when Toronto picks as I was when I set my final list for these profiles. He's been hovering in various spots in the second round all year, and when Bob McKenzie's mid-season rankings had him 41st that was on the high side. Since then, and especially in the past couple of weeks (as of me writing this), he's basically become a borderline first rounder from pretty much everyone. Corey Pronman has him 29th, NHL Central Scouting has him 19th among North American skaters, and HockeyProspect.com have had him as 28th for a while now. Those are the three and Bob are the rankings I check to get a general feel for how NHL team circles are feeling about a player.

I'll stick with Brzustewicz though, because obviously a lot of people and not just me seem to think that he's likely better than a late second rounder. The other thing is, I can see him slipping a bit. His size is just average and he's already taller than his older brother. There are a lot of defensemen who have been ranked in the same range as him who have more of the usual factors NHL teams like – bigger, stronger, more developed and less raw. The way I see it, is that I would not bet on him falling to Toronto but if he does I wouldn't be too surprised. I'm kind of hoping he does, I've liked him all year and even more since I started working on his final profile.

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!