2026 NHL Draft Profile: Rudolfs Berzkalns

What if Tinus Luc Koblar, but Latvian?

I'm tired. This is all the introduction you get.

THE BASICS: STATS AND CONTEXT

• Position: Left-shot centre
• League(s): USHL
• Height: 6'4"
• Weight: 204 lbs
• Birthdate: Mar 3, 2008

Here are his draft rankings, as of writing this:

• TSN NHL Scout Poll: Not ranked
• Cam Robinson NHL Scout Poll: Not ranked
• Corey Pronman: 71st
• Will Scouch: 59th
• Elite Prospects: 59th
• Scott Wheeler: Honourable mention
• McKeen's Hockey: Not ranked
• Upside Hockey: 88th
• NHL Central Scouting: 30th (North American skaters)

Berzkalns is a big but lanky center from Latvia who has been playing in America for the past few years. He's been playing through various AAA levels with Bishop Kearney until he had his rookie season in the USHL last year with Muskegon. He played a more limited depth role in the bottom six and didn't play at all during their playoff run that culminated in winning the championship.

This year, Berzkalns started as mostly a middle-six center on a team that still had a lot of top talent. However, eventually some of that top talent moved on in the middle of the season. The move that affected Berzkalns the most was when Tynan Lawrence, another top prospect in this year's draft, was given an opportunity to join Boston University in the NCAA early.

That opened a spot for Berzkalns to get bumped up to a regular top six spot. By the time the playoffs came around, he was their fixture as the 2C and given high leverage deployment in all situations. He finished this season with 13 goals and 25 points in 48 regular season games, then added 4 goals and 10 points in 16 playoff games as they lost in the final game of the USHL championship finals. His games played took hits both from him leaving to play for Latvia at the World Juniors as a younger 17 year old, and when he had two injuries in quick succession – a concussion and a fractured hand.

When his team really needed it, Berzkalns stepped up in a bigger role. There was a stretch where Lawrence was gone and other guys were hurt, and Berzkalns was the guy the coaches leaned on for around 20 minutes per game for several games in a row. He became the coaches' favourite, like a comfort blanket they wanted to use whenever things got tight. He'd grind out shifts late in games, he played a ton in third periods whether they needed to hold a lead or come back from a deficit. Scouts have said he has such good conditioning that he became an advantage to use with his size and stamina while the other team got worn down by his heavy style of play.

Berzkalns was also heavily featured on both their top special teams units. On the powerplay, he mostly played on the half wall, usually to try and set up his one timer but he could also fire some good cross ice passes. On the penalty kill, he was relied on a lot to win important faceoffs, and use his reach and size to take up space in dangerous passing lanes.

Like his countryman and future teammate at Boston College in the NCAA, Olivers Murnieks, Berzkalns has also played in the World Juniors for Latvia the past two years as a 16 and then 17 year old. He only had one goal in all those games, but it was a big tying goal against Canada this past winter that sent it to overtime. His role for Latvia was usually as their third/fourth line center that was used mostly in a shut down role, though as a team playing a tight "shut down" defensive structure was the core part of their system.

THE GOOD: ELITE DEFENSE, PHYSICAL DOMINANCE, SKATING(ISH), SHOT

Like Murnieks, Berzkalns' biggest strengths as a player comes down to his utility as a heavy, physical defensive center. He has an elite attention to details without the puck, and is considered to have a very mature game. He supports the defense down low, rotates with them when needed to maintain tight coverage, adjusts his positioning to take up space in potential passing lanes, and with his size and reach he can clog a lot of the middle of the ice. He scans the ice a lot to stay aware of where everyone else is positioned. He is a high level supporting forward on rush defenses, and has been one of the top penalty killing forwards in the USHL this season.

When Berzkalns is playing without the puck outside of the defensive zone, his heaviness and physical dominance continues. He is a beast along the boards, and able to protect the puck when he does have possession on the cycle. He throws some heavy and punishing hits along the boards and in open ice, and his ability to win battles on the boards or in front of the net is similarly dominant in junior. He has a good sense of positioning and timing when it comes to arriving into open space low in the slot, fighting for loose pucks, and so on. Particularly in the playoffs, scouts were raving about his power-forward game with a very high activity rate and an improved motor, helping him a lot with more intense forechecking and even more punishing hits.

When it comes to Berzkalns' skills, it's a mixed bag but I think with more standouts than Murnieks. I think he's a faster and more explosive skater in a straight line, and better able to drive to the net with it. Multiple scouts I've read also think he's an excellent skater overall with the usual caveat of "for his size" added at the end. He has good crossovers to generate speed through the neutral zone, and he can look like an unstoppable train when he's at his top speed given his size.

I also think Berzkalns is a better puck handler, especially in terms of skating with it and able to drive transitions with his feet. By the end of the season and into the playoffs, a lot of scouting reports noted he seemed to greatly improve his puck skills. More specifically, he was showing more dynamic playmaking with an ability to create space from defenders and manipulate them into giving him a better passing lane.

I would also say that Berzkalns is a better finisher than Murnieks, both because he has a much better shot and because of having good hands around the net in tight spaces. His wrist shot has some good velocity and accuracy to it, and you can see in his highlights below, a good amount of his goals come from him executing some lovely looking snipes or one-timer bombs. Another area he's scored some goals, or helped set up goals, is parking himself around the net and fighting for loose pucks to put home rebounds, or pull it out of a scrum to pass back to the point to get better control for additional shots or passes past the piles of defenders.

THE FLAWS: CONSISTENT PLAY DRIVING, PUCK HANDLING, ACCELERATION

The issues with Berzkalns game is that he's still very raw. He has some flashes and isolated elements of skill, but being able to consistently put it all together didn't really exist until the end of the season and the playoffs. He isn't a natural play driver right now, and while he showed a lot of improvement moving the puck with his feet later in the year, he still relies more on his wingers to drive transitions more often. I'd like to see him improve in this area, because some of his highlights show the flashes of potential in terms of weaving, speeding, and/or dangling through the neutral zone on his own, but he'll need to improve in all those areas so he can still be effective there at higher levels.

The other element of inconsistency is with Berzkalns' passing and playmaking. His accuracy can get wild at times, and while he will try to do something more flashy or manipulative to create better passing chances, his success rate on them was all over the place for most of the season. He can be especially wild when he faces more aggressive pressure and only has time to react rather than think and plan his next move.

Other than that, a few of Berzkalns' other specific skills suffer from consistency issues that honestly may just come from unrefined mechanics. He needs a lot more practice to refine his puck handling, especially handling the puck while at speed and when trying to handle it along the boards when retrieving a dump in or receiving a rimmed dump in around the boards as a forechecker. His shot mechanics can also get wild at times when he forgets some of the fundamental mechanics to ensure consistent power and accuracy. And lastly is his skating, which is good right now but could be better in terms of creating more power and acceleration in his first 1-2 steps.

OVERALL ASSESSMENT

Honestly, I didn't think this until recently when I saw another scout say this, but Berzkalns' current state in terms of his strengths, weaknesses, and where he's at in terms of his raw skills and tools and the potential that it all hints at brings to mind a certain big Norwegian center that Toronto drafted last season. Not that he's very comparable in his style or general profile, it's more in terms of how it feels when you watch him and you can see how close he is to taking a big leap in his development. It feels like he just needs time, experience and practice to develop and refine his game so he can start putting it all together on a consistent basis.

Because, like with Koblar, you can see the areas Berzkalns has already improved over this year and just how good he looked by the end of the regular season and into the playoffs. His puck handling already got better, especially when handling the puck at speed and in close quarters with other bodies. His engagement level and motor became consistent and was a major strength for him, especially on their playoff run. He stopped stumbling as much as he moved or engaged physically and had much better balance and strength on his feet. He was able to play at a much better and more consistently high pace while retaining his effectiveness and skills.

It may take more than just a year, but with a commitment to the NCAA on a top program like Boston College, that could be the perfect opportunity for Berzkalns to get all of the right development that he needs. He'd be close to Toronto so he could remain in close contact with the Leafs' development coaches to touch base and give him notes on things to work on. They can especially help him in terms of refining his mechanics and improve those consistency issues – something they've done well at in the past with other prospects like Knies, Nansi, Chadwick, and Villeneuve.

Honestly with what I already wrote about another guy that reminded me of Koblar, Adam Andersson, I'm imagining the Leafs drafting both him and Berzkalns and creating an absolutely nightmare bottom six checking line with the three of them together. A guy can dream...

Thanks for reading!

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