2026 NHL Draft Profile: Jonas Lagerberg Hoen

Every draft year, there's always at least one player who has some hype at the start of the season but suffers a significant injury and winds up missing most of the year after. It's always hard to write about those players because their draft hype slowly erodes no matter how good they looked and were thought to be before that, and because you just don't get to see them make the improvements and adjustments over what is arguably the most important age for a hockey prospect. And if the injury was so significant, it's hard not to question if that will be a long-term concern or limiting factor in the future that hampers their development.

Thankfully, today I am starting the first profile for players to consider with Toronto's third round pick. It's a lot more logical to take swings on these kinds of players when you've already picked twice in higher rounds where you care a lot more about having certainty you're getting the right pick.

So let's talk about who Jonas Lagerberg Hoen is and why he could be a steal despite only playing in 11 games this season, and none since mid-October.

THE BASICS: STATS AND CONTEXT

• Position: Right-shot winger
• League(s): U20 Nationell / SHL
• Height: 6'2"
• Weight: 185 lbs
• Birthdate: Oct 24, 2007

Here are his draft rankings, as of writing this:

• TSN NHL Scout Poll: Not ranked
• Cam Robinson NHL Scout Poll: Not ranked
• Corey Pronman: Not ranked
• Will Scouch: 44th
• Elite Prospects: Honourable mention
• Scott Wheeler: Honourable mention
• McKeen's Hockey: Not ranked
• Upside Hockey: 53rd
• NHL Central Scouting: 19th (European skaters)

The knee injury that ended Hoen's season so early is especially concerning for him because he is on the older side of this year's draft, his October 24th 2007 birthday puts him barely a month past being eligible last year. But there's a reason why he had some hype going into this season and through those first 11 games.

Hoen is another Leksands kid I saw a good deal last year and this one, at the start anyway. As a 17 year old, he finished in a tie for fourth in the league for all players with 27 goals in 38 games. On a per game basis, he finished only behind a 20 year old in his final year of eligibility for junior in Sweden, and some guy named Ivar Stenberg you may have heard about. The thing is, those 27 goals were great and all, but he also had a grand total of three assists. Three. Single digits. That's one of the more absurd unbalanced goal vs assist ratios I can remember seeing in any league or age.

Despite that, Hoen's 30 points were enough to rank 6th on a very deep Leksands team that won the regular season title. He also finished in a tie for third in playoff points with 2 goals and 3 assists in 7 games, ahead of perhaps the greatest prospect of all time Tinus Luc Koblar who is only three months younger. Hoen also played for Sweden at the Hlinka Gretzky in the late summer of 2024, but had zero points in 5 games playing a mostly depth role.

This season, Hoen started the season returning to Leksands junior team and, quite simply, dominated. He had 9 goals and 16 points in just 9 games. He also got called up twice to the SHL team, but only got onto the ice for one of them and played for 3:00 of ice time. Still, for a pro team struggling for offense and willing to give opportunities to the kids who were good enough, like Koblar, Hoen seemed poised to get a larger shot there in time if he continued his torrid play in junior... until the injury that is.

It's not a lot to go off of, but if you take Hoen's production rate in those nine junior games, he had the second highest point per game rate in the league behind only teammate August Lissel who is 17 months older and played almost as many games in Sweden's pro leagues. Among players in this year's draft class, Hoen was a tier or two ahead of everyone else and even still ahead of the top 2007 born players already drafted in 2025 like Mikkel Eriksen, Viktor Klingsell, Michal Svrcek, Max Westergard, and Theo Stockselius.

Now is the time where I tell you how, while the points are great and all, they aren't the main reason why I'm interested in him as a prospect despite being older and missing like 95% of his draft year due to a significant knee injury.

THE GOOD: NHL-LEVEL SHOT, DYNAMIC RUSH ABILITIES, HIGH DANGER CREATOR, POWER FORWARD POTENTIAL

The first and biggest standout skill Hoen has is his shot and ability to score goals, which you'd expect given his stats. His wrist shot is hard, heavy, and has a quick release. He can wire it on the fly at full speed, or off a stand-still catch and quick release when he receives a pass. He also has a bomb of a one timer that he uses mostly on the powerplay on his off-hand side. Scouts already rate his shot as NHL-level, which I can't argue with.

Hoen's offensive skills outside of his shot are still good, but not at that elite level. He's got a good set of hands, a bag of dekes he can pull out in open ice, and a strong ability to protect the puck from defenders even through contact. He is a very fast skater in a straight line and uses that, plus his handles, to be a highly effective transition driver so far in Sweden's junior league.

Then there's Hoen's playmaking and passing. There's more disagreement here from scouts as far as how good his playmaking is, both now and projecting into the future. Some think he can be an elite distributor that drives a high rate of successful passes into the slot, an efficient pass rate, good vision, and the smarts to use give and go's and other uses of passing to break defenses down.

But aside from Hoen's offense skills, I'm just as impressed by his brain and what he's willing to do with and without the puck. Despite having a good shot he doesn't rely on it to score goals by just firing it off from the perimeter where it could beat goalies at a good enough rate... in junior. He has an attitude of attacking the middle of the ice and shooting from dangerous areas. When he has the puck, he will try and drive it to the net or at least the slot. He has a physical frame and good skating to make it happen, plus his puck handling is pretty good too.

Without the puck, Hoen has a good engine and work ethic. His tracking data showed he had a very high rate (especially for a winger) of breaking up the cycle in his own end by using his size and physical edge to shut down the puck carriers on the boards. He was used as one of Leksands main penalty killers on the junior team for a reason. Even outside of defending the cycle, his willingness to take and give a hit gives him a lot of intrigue as a bit of a power forward. He'll throw reverse hits to initiate contact on his terms to knock defenders off balance, and he'll chase down puck carriers on the backcheck and level them with a surprise hit. He'll use the same approach chasing down dump ins on the forecheck, looking to cause havoc and force turnovers. He is a menace in puck battles everywhere on the ice.

Watching Hoen play, I see the potential for a very complete player who has the skills and ability to do a lot of things well and no major weakness. With a couple of standout skills that are near- or actually-elite, he could top out as a middle six, supporting power winger. A poor man's Matthew Knies, maybe somewhere around a Bobby McMann.

THE FLAWS: JUNIOR HABITS, PUCK MANAGEMENT, SKATING MECHANICS, THAT INJURY THOUGH...

This is where it's really hard to assess Hoen. There's no getting around that he suffered a knee injury so severe that he hasn't played since October. Outside of the fact that it could affect his play and development in the long term, if it affects his mobility and power base from his legs, but the time he missed is significant not just because of how long it was.

With most prospects in their draft year, you see weaknesses but you can also see them improve on them through the season. The ones that are really interesting are the ones who, by the end of the season, have shown those flaws are not significant problems for them anymore. They worked on the issues and either turned them into strengths, or at least got them to a place where they're neutral and not bad. But Hoen never had the chance to show that. So, with that said...

Outside of his shot, Hoen's weaknesses come down to how much of those strengths I mentioned were flashes rather than the norm for him as he played. The biggest problem he showed in the early part of the season that was his entire season was the consistency vs the flashes. At times, he definitely had some junior habits. Most guys who have never played above junior do, but Hoen didn't have the benefit of playing a full season with more call ups to the SHL where his coaches could help develop those habits out of him. While he could be intensely focused and locked in on defense, the backcheck, the forecheck, and driving to the dangerous areas for his shot, he at times would also be coasting, just reaching with his stick, losing his man in coverage, and trying to one-man-army everything on offense.

The other issue is the question around how much his offensive skills, beyond his shot, would project well to the NHL – especially since he's an older prospect in this draft. If his off puck play, power forward tendencies and two-way impacts remain inconsistent enough to not be viable, those offensive skills will have to be enough to make him a viable NHLer. But if they are not enough either, you're looking at shaky foundation for a prospect. I mentioned how there was conflicting opinions on his playmaking in particular among scouts, and the debate there is exactly that question at its core with some additional questions on his skating mechanics potentially limiting the projection of his mobility.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

As is my wont, now I'll explain why those flaws are not that bad to me and/or why I don't care about them, and why I would love for Toronto to draft him anyway. First, I think those 'flashes' are more real. His consistency issues are very much in line for the vast majority of prospects in their draft years outside of the very cream of the crop. Everyone has consistency issues with some parts of their game, but for me what I'm interested in is the fact that Hoen shows those high level flashes for everything. He's not someone who flashes a couple of interesting skills and then has consistent flaws in others. He shows promise with his puck handling, passing/playmaking, transitions, power forward game, forechecking, backchecking, in zone defense, work ethic... you name it.

And since Hoen is an older prospect, I can at least compare the improvements he made in the short period he played this season with where he was late last season. His playmaking and passing got a lot better, as evidenced by the fact he more than doubled his assist totals despite playing in only 9 games. He was much more willing and able to use his teammates by passing them the puck and then doing the good off-puck things that both help them have more time and space and also give them the chance to pass it back to him when he's in a dangerous area for shooting it.

The other noteworthy improvement is how he used his skating and speed changed. While last year he was definitely more prone to the junior habit of just trying to out-speed defenses as being a go-to strategy off the rush, this year he made much smarter and more mature decisions. He'd vary his speed – race hard at defenders to make them back up, only to slow down and create a bigger gap between him and the nearest defneseman. He'd use cutbacks, delays, give and goes, and wait for the late trailers to get closer and get open rather than trying to beat every defender himself.

Hoen's defensive and physical game is what I think improved the most from what I saw of him last season with Koblar and Johansson's group. He made much better defensive reads, worked a lot harder to create turnovers, and a much better and more consistent willingness to just crush a dude and play with that physical edge. Him being able to make those a consistently above average part of his game would give him a lot of versatility as a prospect and potential NHL player, especially as a supporting/depth player in the bottom six if his offensive skills don't pan out as well as you'd hope.

So while there is definitely risk in his game because of his injury and the amount of time Hoen missed as a result, there's so much promise in his game in so many different areas that I think you can make that swing on him. He's almost guaranteed to be available in the second round and could also potentially fall even into the third or fourth rounds. It will depend on how much risk a team wants to take with him, but the more picks a team already makes the more willing they'll be to take that risk on him. So with Toronto's third round pick, that's very close to their late second round pick...?

For next year, Hoen signed a one year contract extension with Leksands this past April. Leksands was relegated from the SHL to the Allsvenskan after this past season, but that may actually wind up being better for his development. Now he can get that pro experience in a slightly easier league first, and the team may be more likely to give him that opportunity with more significant playing time.

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!