2026 T25U25: Cooper Williams is #23

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Williams is a guy that fits an archetype that has been in vogue under Dubas, then Treliving, and apparently under Chayka now too. Fraser Minten, Hudson Malinoski, Miroslav Holinka, Tinus Luc Koblar, Tyler Hopkins, Jacob Quillan, Luke Haymes, and now good ol' Coop – your smart two-way center whose impact goes past their skill level. How much skill and how much impact they have may vary, but it's been a while now that Toronto as an organization has seemed to like their players having a high hockey IQ, hockey sense, intelligence, whatever you want to call it.

The other thing about all of them, even Minten who is likely to be the best of the bunch, is that they have all been long term projects to some extent. Minten improved by leaps and bounds to become what he is. Koblar has done the same and should be the closest to Minten as a player, and he still has to improve some more.

The same will undoubtedly be true of a sixth round pick.

Cooper Williams	Vitals
Age as of July 1	18.36
Position	C
Height	6'1"
Weight (lbs)	163
Shoots	L
Draft Year	2026
Draft Number	158

The Player

If you want a detailed breakdown of his game, I wrote a full profile on him after the draft that I suggest you read:

That out of the way, I'm going to talk about what I'm hoping to see from Williams this season and how where he plays can affect that. When I wrote his profile, I identified three more significant issues that I thought he needed to improve the most:

Lack of physical strength/weight
Skating mechanics and power
Slower decision-making

The first two issues are, to me, related to each other. At only 163 lbs, Williams has a lot of room to grow... literally. His skating mechanics could use some refinement for sure, but there are so many elements of his game that are held back because he's just not strong enough. His explosiveness and speed isn't as good as it needs to be because he doesn't have the muscular power in his legs. His shot has the same issue because he doesn't have the upper body strength. His general defensive game and ability to make plays along the boards and in close spaces/traffic is limited by his lack of weight and strength making him easier to push around.

The decision making issue is separate from those, and it is probably something that is much harder to improve on. It seems like more of an innate thing you either have or you don't, but I'm not claiming to be any expert in this kind of thing so I could easily be wrong.

As of now there's no confirmation on if Williams' returning to Saskatoon in the WHL next year, or making the jump to the NCAA with his commitment to North Dakota starting a year earlier than scheduled. Personally, I think it is more likely he returns to junior but I think North Dakota might be a better place for him to work on improving in those two areas.

The Votes

Here's how everyone voted. Three of the main voters didn't rank Williams at all in the top 25, but everyone was pretty consistent voting him between 18 and 23 otherwise.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	18
Species	NA
Hound Line	23
Shinson93	NA
Cameron	19
Sclodiggity	22
Brian S	21
Svalbard38	23
Zone Entry	18
Hardev	23
Adam	NA
Weighted Average	22.27
Highest Vote	18
Lowest Vote	23

Personally, I ranked Williams 21st. There were just too many players who I thought had better tools and/or skills, and didn't have the same level of issues to improve on. Of all those two way centers I mentioned that share his archetype as a player, Williams is (to me) clearly the lowest on that totem pole. He's also the youngest, so he has the most time to improve. I thought he definitely had some interesting potential that was held back by those two issues, so while I ranked him more conservatively this year I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped up a good chunk in next year's voting.

The Opinions

Here's what the other voters had to say about Williams:

Sclodiggity: Cooper Williams was drafted 3 slots before Yaroslav Fedoseyev yet I ranked him 4 spots after. Weird. Anyway, a two-way center with average size. Cool. Great. I found myself unable to get too excited about Williams but I did hear that he had more hype last year after his D-1 year, so hopefully that hype was real and his big development step comes post-draft and not pre-draft. The Leafs have made a thing of targeting guys who show signs of late-blooming but I’m not sure Williams shows those signs (e.g. a large increase in scoring rate in the latter half of the season).

Shinson93: I feel torn on whether Williams is a high hockey IQ guy that’s just hit the wall in terms of physical skills to push to the next level, or if he’s a guy that’s accepted a defensive role that will allow him the runway to make it to a next developmental jump. Right now he feels too generic of a 2 way center to break into my rankings.

Hound Line: He's positionally sound but I don’t see the skill or skating or physical game to project on; every attribute is just ok. I think his upside is Quillan. He's gonna need to make big strides in the next two years just to stay on the list.

Hardev: Williams was a winger in the top six for Saskatoon during a barn-burner of a seven game series against the Edmonton Oil Kings. That series featured Williams, Ethan MacKenzie, Miroslav Holinka, and Zac Olsen by the way so I recommend catching those highlights. Williams was sort of quiet in that series but had his moments and overall worked well with his highly talented linemates. I think the expectation is he’s going to take on a bigger role next year. I didn’t see enough to be excited for next season but that might just be me.

Cathy: I didn't so much rank Williams high as push a lot of older player lower. I moved my "you have to be something more than just trying hard" age line even lower this year because there didn't seem to be a better way to differentiate between a very large group of prospects all about the same. So it helps to understand that for me, ranking him 18th, is not forecasting that he dramatically outperforms his draft position, more that he's just a little more likely to be a little better than a long list of other guys.

Let us know where you ranked Williams, and why, in the comments!

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