2025 NHL Draft Profile: Max Psenicka

Some prospects are already pretty refined by the time they're drafted to the NHL, but most of them are not. The guys who have mostly mature physical tools and refined skills are usually the ones who get taken pretty high. Meanwhile, most players taken outside of the first round – honestly, probably the top 15ish depending on the year – have a ways to go. They're going through late growth spurts, they are on a later development curve, had some health issues, changed positions, are relatively new to high level hockey, things like that.

The forwards and defensemen I've profiled who I liked the most are also the ones less likely to be available in the late second round precisely because they're not certain things. They're long term projects who need to go through a good deal of refinement, growth and development over the next few seasons before we can really evaluate if they'll wind up as NHL players.

This is the case for Max Psenicka, a big but skinny Czech defensemen who seems interesting but is the most definite long term project out of any player I've profiled so far.

THE BASICS: STATS AND CONTEXT

• Position: Right-shot defenseman
• League(s): Czechia / WHL
• Height: 6'5"
• Weight: 185 lbs
• Birthdate: January 18th, 2007

Here are his draft rankings, as of writing this:

• Bob McKenzie: 55th
• Corey Pronman: Not ranked
• Will Scouch: 67th
• Elite Prospects: 31st
• Scott Wheeler: 57th
• Dobber Prospects: Not ranked
• FC Hockey: 83rd
• McKeen's Hockey: 61st
• HockeyProspect.com: 31st

Psenicka is another player who's had a bit of an usual season. He started the year in Czechia's junior league for 20 games, where he had 11 points. He then played for 16 games in the Czechia pro league, where he had 2 points. After that, he made the jump to the WHL and joined Portland. He had 7 points in 24 games to finish the regular season, then had 8 points in 18 playoff games. He also played in 10 international games for the Czechs, where he had 6 points. So he's always been a pretty decent offensive producer, but not an elite one.

I can't speak at all to Psenicka's time in Europe, since I was not watching him then and there's no way to go back and see his games there in retrospect. What I can say is that he seemed to really stabilize Portland's defense. They were a middling team, but they went on a deep run in the playoffs – they upset Prince George, and Everett who had the best record in the WHL in the regular season.

Psenicka was used as a top pairing defenseman. At even strength, he formed a more defensive/two-way pairing with an undrafted 20 year old, while their two top offensive defensemen who are both NHL draft picks formed a second pair to provide offense. Psenicka basically helped them have two good pairings, and they leaned on the two of them hard in the playoffs – that third pair barely got played from what I could tell.

THE GOOD: MOBILITY, INTELLIGENCE, TWO-WAY POTENTIAL

I'll say that from what I watched of Psenicka, I can see why he's an interesting prospect. But he's very much not at a fully matured state, in many ways. So before I get more into that, I'll get into the building blocks that make him worthy of being a second-round pick.

I'll start with his physical tools. Psenicka measures at 6'5" at the draft combine, and is already a very strong skater. That is always a strong foundation for young defensemen to develop into something real. The combination of his skating and reach helps him cover a lot of ground, and I've seen scouts note that his skating has improved a good deal this year alone – things like dynamic edge work, deceptive movements, and other mechanical scouting terms I don't really understand but sound good! The physical tools were something he showed at the draft combine, finishing with the 9th best horizontal jump and had the 23rd biggest wingspan.

Psenicka is a pretty active defensemen in all three zones. The scouts who are high on him like his commitment and attention to detail when it comes to his responsibilities as a defenseman. That means things like maintaining a good gap when defending against rushes and and positioning his stick intelligently to be in a position to block passes, angle puck carriers where he wants them to go, and so on. Those are other fine details I'm not the best at noticing in live games I watch, but I do think he shows a good amount of energy a lot of the time. He wants to have an impact on the play all the time. He'll jump into rushes, he'll be aggressive in chasing puck carriers in the defensive zone, things like that. I think that, defensively speaking, the eagerness is not fully matched by consistent execution yet, but I can see the flashes.

What will help Psenicka bring his defensive game together will be evolving his mental game, specifically. Again, the scouts who are high on him will say that he has a high-end processing power in his brain, and while I'm not sure I'd say he's consistently high level as of now I do think it's good. It doesn't appear in every area of the game, but it does show up at pretty high levels in a few specific areas.

For example, Psenicka shows it most of all when calmly dealing with forechecking pressure. More often than not, he can evade the forecheck and/or make a quick pass to escape the pressure without turning it over. He pretty consistently delivers accurate tape-to-tape passes to teammates in transition and makes quick, smart decisions when retrieving pucks. I do like defensemen that can exit the zone without just giving the puck away to the other team, and that is arguably his biggest impact on the ice right now.

Psenicka hasn't yet fully brought that same level of processing, deception and creativity when in the offensive zone, but you can see it coming. He does try things like faking shots, sliding along the blueline with crossovers, trying to create a passing or shooting lane. He also is ready at the drop of the hat to activate and join a play offensively – he'll jump into a rush, he'll come off the blueline, deep into the offensive zone, using give and go's and trying to help pitch in to facilitate scoring chances.

Again, the execution is not as consistent as it is with his breakouts, but Psenicka is not hopeless offensively. I'd say he's at least above average, as a defenseman. The passing and shooting are things that looked to improve from the time he joined the WHL to the time his season ended in the playoffs – he had more points in 18 playoff games against much better competition than he had in 24 regular season games against a mix of good and bad teams. When the team leaned on him, and the other pairing, so much in the playoffs, he rose to the occasion more often than not.

THE FLAWS: CONSISTENCY, STRENGTH, LACK OF DYNAMIC OFFENSIVE SKILL

You may have picked up on what I think are the weaknesses from what I said, and didn't say, in the section above. I've said this about other prospects, but the problem with having a guy who has an interesting mix of strengths and tools, but has yet to fully put it all together and suffers from issues of consistency and refinement... is that they don't always put it all together. It's not a binary thing, where they'll either turn into the best version of themself possible or just stay the same. We've all seen prospects who were pretty hyped just never realize the potential for one reason or another.

Psenicka will be a long term project. He's not Ben Danford, who already was at such a high and consistent level in many aspects of his game. He will likely need at least the next two years in the WHL, or wherever he winds up playing in that time, before he makes the AHL. If he does turn pro at that point, don't expect him to be a top pairing guy so quickly. Not without him showing a remarkably huge leap in his development – which is possible, and we've seen it before, but is quite rare and is not something I think you should rely or bet on.

Defensively, Psenicka exhibits some rawness, both in his processing and in his actions. At times he can be too aggressive and overcommit, taking himself out of position, lunging for pokechecks or chasing a hit. But he can also be passive or slow to identify and react to what happens in his area of coverage – a player coming backdoor, a puck carrier coming his way, things like that. He can get overwhelmed and look indecisive when things break down and turns into chaos around him. Some of this I'm sure is just inexperience, especially as he played in three different leagues, the last one in a completely different country, culture, and language.

When it comes to Psenicka's skating, it may have improved a lot this year but will still need some more development as well. Some scouts have noted that his stride and balance can look unstable at times, likely from a lack of inherent strength on his feet. This limits his overall balance and explosiveness. The good news on this front is I think this is the easiest thing to fix, given he's a pretty lanky 185 lbs for being a 6'4"/6'5" 17 year old. In fact, when he was taken in the CHL import draft this apst summer he was still listed as 6'4.5" but even lighter at 173 lbs. I'm guessing that a lot of his improved skating came from just adding muscle and getting stronger in his legs.

Finally, the scouting reports who aren't as high on him will say that while Psenicka seems like he could turn into a dependable and effective defenseman, his overall game might be somewhat limited in terms of high-end play. He is characterized as potentially more of a passive, positionally sound defenseman rather than an elite defender who can shut down an offense. Offensively, some scouts doubt that he'll ever be able to a consistently dynamic offensive threat from the blue line.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Look hard enough, and you will find a scout who will agree with whatever you want to think about a player. Personally, I think I land in the middle, but skewed a bit towards the believers when it comes to Psenicka. I don't think he's a borderline first rounder, but I don't think he's a mid to late rounder who shouldn't even be ranked. A late second-round selection sounds about right to me.

I think that there is enough of a foundation and enough interesting tools to form building blocks for something special, that I would take Psenicka with Toronto's pick if he's available. He may not be my first choice there, but I'd be happy with the selection. I think a lot will continue to improve as he adds more weight and muscle, and not just to his skating – to his defense and checking, to the power behind his shot, to his transitions through his passing and stability to absorb checks, and so on.

Bob McKenzie just so happens to have ranked him 55th in his mid-season ranking, but since then he's gotten himself established in the WHL and had that playoff run. I'm not sure he'll get a huge bump in the final rankings, but with his size and skating and greater visibility in North America, I wouldn't be surprised if he got at least a bit of a bump. It will depend on if there were more who were ranked behind him that finished their seasons stronger, and have more hype to leapfrog him in the final rankings. The fact that Pronman didn't rank him, and NHL Central Scouting has him 40th among North American Skaters makes me think he'll stay around the same area on Bob's final rankings. And that would make him one of the more interesting realistic options for Toronto's second-round pick.

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!