2025 T25U25: Tyler Hopkins is #9

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Drafted in the third round by his childhood team, Tyler Hopkins was a middle-six centre for the Kingston Frontenacs last season, but the highly regarded centre is hoping to be a leader on his team and many expect him to take a big step in his D+1 season.

Tyler Hopkins	Vitals
Age as of July 1	18.44
Position	C
Height	6'1"
Weight (lbs)	183
Shoots	L
Draft Year	2025
Draft Number	86

The Player

It is true that some scouting outlets — like EP — had Hopkins ahead of Tinus-Luc Koblar, but that’s not how the Leafs saw them, or at the very least they saw the opportunity to get both. While the two centre prospects can be compared superficially, it’s very hard to find overlap in their situations. Some might see Hopkins as the “safe set of hands” while Koblar is the “raw talent”. While that picture might put a bias on valuing one player over the other, Koblar is going to get lots of time playing in men’s leagues in Europe to develop the skills he needs to unlock his potential. Meanwhile, Hopkins will soon have to make a much much bigger jump from junior to pro where his positional strengths lay a good foundation to grow physically and take steps in his development that way.

Since I’ve already gotten ahead of myself, let’s take a step back and look at Hopkins as a player in case this is the first you’re hearing about him.

Tyler Hopkins is commonly described as a smart, fast, two-way centre playing on the power play and penalty kill. He’s been regularly called to play for Team Canada on the international stage, including most recently at the U-18s this summer. Last season he played on the second line for Kingston until they acquired centre Ethan Hay (Saginaw’s captain) midway through the season for a playoff run. Hopkins was then moved to the third line (but played up on the wing in crunch time) and generally got less playing time as a result. Next season, Hay (TBL) and fellow centre Cedrick Guindon (MTL) are leaving junior, meaning Hopkins will likely get his chance on the top line. And if our T25 articles have taught you nothing, it’s that points are correlated with icetime!

Brigs gives a great breakdown of Hopkins’ game, both his strengths and room for improvement. Instead of plagiarizing his work, give it a read!

Hopkins’ story is shockingly similar to our recently-departed top centre prospect Fraser Minten. Their draft year point totals are almost identical and they are both widely regarded as smart, fast, two-way centres. In Minten’s D+2 season he took the reigns of his WHL Kamloops Blazers after a jump in points in his D+1, becoming their captain long enough to get an opportunity with the Leafs and get traded to Saskatoon for a long run to the Memorial Cup. In keeping with the correlation of icetime and points, I expect Hopkins to have the same jump in points that put Minten on the map.

On the ice, Hopkins shows off a good set of hands and high end awareness that makes him a very good passer. Hopkins plays fast compared to other OHLers. For some players, when the puck gets on their stick the play slows down to a crawl. They’re not moving their feet and taking what feels like forever to make a decision. Hopkins doesn’t do that, he goes and goes and goes. He knows what he wants to do and does it quickly. I see a through-line here with other prospects the Leafs have acquired recently, namely Luke Haymes and Harry Nansi. All three prospects play at a high pace and push things forward without needing time to think and assess. This skill above most others is key in the NHL, and it might be a common thread in how Brad Treliving wants his team to play. It is probably what he sees in Max Domi, while he frantically covers his eyes for every other part of his game.

One thing I’ve spent a lot of the summer exploring is the large disparity in defending between the CHL and the AHL. It’s a gap the NCAA is filling in many ways. Weaker defending in junior means defense prospects have a harder time transitioning up to the NHL unless they’re among the very best in their age group. Forwards then struggle with the same learning curve. Cathy will tell you the London Knights are among the most difficult to attack teams because their team defense is focused on boxing players out and winning battles. Easton Cowan was one of their best forwards at it and many rate their entire defense group quite highly for how they’ve been coached. The Knights are run by the Hunters, who are also managing the Team Canada junior program. Hopkins is in the Team Canada system ahead of arguably better players because of the way he plays, and will get time training and competing against high level players under the Hunters, which will be good for his development.

But when the playoffs come around, teams are deeper, scoring goes down, and the intensity goes up. So, those games can be more insightful and show a player in a higher level environment, in similar ways to international tournaments. The following video are all of Hopkins’ shifts from the Frontenacs game 7 loss to the Barrie Colts in the second round (he's #91). You will be able to see the pressure he applies off the puck, his speed and explosiveness with the puck, and his usage. He played on the third line and was the primary forward on the penalty kill. He ran the second power play unit, then got moved up to the wing on the second line in the third period when the Fronts season was on the line.

Hopkins is from Campbellville, a town southwest of Milton and grew up a Leafs fan. This article from familiar name Gare Joyce tells the story of Hopkins’ summer. How he had to fly from his teams game 7 loss in Barrie to team Canada camp for the U18s, then the draft combine, then Leafs development camp, before finally returning home. but since he’s been back he’s been driving to the Leafs practice facility a couple days a week to train and not fanboy too much while working out with Auston Matthews. I really don’t like it when prospects say they “grew up“ watching hockey players who I was a full grown adult when they were drafted. It’s not cool, I don’t like feeling like a fossil, stop it! Give the article a read, it’s really good.

For Tyler Hopkins, hopes the boy at Leafs’ camp becomes the man for Frontenacs in 2025-26 season

Kingston Frontenacs centre Tyler Hopkins hopes top draw on experience of working out with Auston Matthews and other Toronto Maple Leafs

The Kingston Whig StandardGare Joyce

Below is Mitchell Brown’s tracking data, but note it’s only from four games, half of his usual eight game sample. Strengths include passing and transitioning through the zones. Shooting and offensive involvement is lagging behind mostly because of his usage and linemates last season.

Overall, I think Hopkins is a good pick relative to his draft position, and with a good likelihood of reaching the NHL than a lot of prospects taken after the first round based on his current array strengths. I think the reason why he wasn’t taken in the first round is a lack of high-end dynamic plays coupled with icetime. There’s a world where he blossoms into a top-six NHLer by gaining game-breaking skills, but less that there's a good chance he becomes a third or fourth line centre in the NHL. Comparing him to other prospects, he's not very far off from Fraser Minten, has more runway than Luke Haymes, and is already better than Miroslav Holinka two years sooner.

The Votes

Cameron ranked Hopkins 5th on his list, ahead of Cathy, Svalbard38, and myself who had him 7th. The rest weren't far behind, with the lowest vote coming from Shinson93 at 15th.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	7
Brigstew	9
Species	11
Hardev	7
shinson93	15
Cameron	5
Zone Entry	8
Svalbard38	7
dhammm	13
adam	14
Weighted Average	9.6
Highest Vote	5
Lowest Vote	15

I'm very hopeful for Hopkins as a prospect. He's highly regarded and will get a lot of attention if he does take on that higher leadership role on his team and potential WJC playing time. I'm sorry to say that it probably means he has significant trade value, especially if the Leafs need a significant piece. It breaks my heart to say because it seems Hopkins genuinely dreams of the opportunity to play for the Leafs.

The Opinions

Brigstew: Hopkins seems like a guy that could wind up being another Quillan sort of center. I don’t know if he’ll have the same level of defensive instincts and physicality, but he makes up for it with better potential with skating and offensive impacts. I’m a bit more tentative with him than some other Toronto prospects from this year’s draft, because I have more questions about his projectability in the future so I want to see him turn into something more concrete first. Oh and now I just remembered how glowingly the various players and coaches (read: Wickenheiser) were singing his praises at the development camp, and forgot to give him a little bump for that. Oh well…

Cameron: My favourite player that the Leafs drafted this draft. Hopkins I believe is a sure bet to at least play NHL games at some point, although most likely being a reliable two-way bottom-six forward as while he does produce some offence, it is not mind-blowing.

Shinson93: For me what stands out with Hopkins is his hockey sense. He skates well, is good positionally and has strong instincts at both ends of the ice. He’ll probably need to become a bit more physical if he wants to break through in a depth two-way center role. That combined with his speed and smarts could help him excel on a forecheck. I’d like to see him take another step this year, hopefully in a leadership role with Kingston.

dhammm: The only 2025 pick I liked on draft weekend, Hopkins’ statistical profile (fine size, fine production) is easy to get behind with any pick in the mid-to-late rounds of the draft. He’s still a distant prospect, and if he makes it, it probably isn’t as a high-impact player, but he’s as safe a bet as was available at this stage in the 2025 draft.

Svalbard38: Hopkins is a guy I saw a couple of times this season, and since he was projected to go around the range where we were picking, I tried to keep an eye on him and I really liked the player I saw. Defensively smart but with some decent offensive skills, and reasonably fast too. He strikes me as a Minten-lite, no one skill that leaps off the page at you, but he plays an intelligent game without any big flaws. He’s the guy I wanted with pick 64, so I was very pleased to pick him up with pick 86.

Where do you stand on Tyler Hopkins?

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