2026 T25U25: Ethan MacKenzie is #10

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In a stroke of unbelievable coincidence, Ethan MacKenzie welcomes us into the top 10 of our T25U25 rankings on his 20th birthday! The Toronto Maple Leafs drafted him early in the third round as a D+2 prospect out of the WHL.

Ethan MacKenzie	Vitals
Age as of July 1	19.83
Position	LD
Height	6'1"
Weight (lbs)	187
Shoots	L
Draft Year	2026
Draft Number	69

The Player

MacKenzie was one of the youngest prospects eligible for the 2024 draft, so playing as a 17-year-old defender didn't put him on anyone's radar. He was also passed over in the 2025 draft, but by then the pieces were coming together that culminated in last season. MacKenzie is coming off an age-19 season as his team's top defender and getting to play for Canada at the World Juniors.

MacKenzie's age and draft situation took a little while for me to get my head around because he's officially a D+2, but also basically young enough to be a D+1. September 15th is the date cutoff for draft elibigility. Fellow September birthday Harry Nansi (Sept 10th) was in the same boat in his draft year as one of the youngest in his class, as was Nick Robertson (Sept 11th), while Auston Matthews (Sept 17th) was in the opposite situation as one of the oldest draft year players in his class.

To put MacKenzie's age in context, he's a year and a half younger than Noah Chadwick, and half a year younger than Ben Danford. And I think those two defenders are going to be the benchmark for MacKenzie over the next two years.

Offensively, Chadwick showed similar on-puck skills in the WHL to MacKenzie with his skating, passing, and shooting, so much so that I expect to see Chadwick promoted to PP1 on the Marlies at some point next season. The power play points line up too, both defenders had 26 PPPs in their age-19 and final WHL seasons. I'm curious to see what a middle step to the NCAA does for MacKenzie, though I think it'll help him more defensively.

Speaking of, Ben Danford is an exceptional defensive defender in the CHL and showed a lot of promise in the AHL playoffs, especially in his two-way play. In my opinion, he's the bar for MacKenzie when it comes to playing effectively in his own zone. MacKenzie has a lot to work on defensively, as described in Brian's "Getting to Know" article on him earlier in the summer.

The Votes

Cathy and I put MacKenzie right behind what we agreed was the obvious top-six, Brian was a bit behind us, and then there was the rest.

Voter	Vote
Cathy	7
Species	16
Hound Line	11
Shinson93	13
Cameron	10
Sclodiggity	14
Brian S	9
Svalbard38	11
Zone Entry	21
Hardev	7
Adam	10
Weighted Average	11.73
Highest Vote	7
Lowest Vote	21

Zone Entry, how dare you!

The Opinions

Shinson93: MacKenzie looked pretty solid to me across the board during his WHL season. One thing that had me put him near the top of my maybes was his performance at the combine. He finished in the top 20 in nine of the 15 tests (often outranking McKenna, who also ranked in 8 of the tests), mostly on strength and agility. While he is older than the other prospects coming in this year, he doesn’t turn 20 until next month. It might be the advantage of being slightly older, or it might indicate that he won’t have a big jump from growing into his body, but I think his physical traits should allow him to hit the ground running as he plays against bigger, stronger and faster players. I think of him as a high floor/low ceiling prospect.

Svalbard38: I’m sure this isn’t how the real scouts do it, but when I look at a re-entry draft pick, the thing I think is, “if we had drafted him when he was in his first year of eligibility at the spot where we’ve picked him now, would I consider him to have exceeded his draft position?” With MacKenzie, my answer is yes. The WJC roster spot dominates the conversation around MacKenzie a bit, and it’s always a feat when a lower draft pick, let alone an undrafted guy, makes team Canada, but even outside of that he had a solid season. When I watched Holinka I liked what I saw from MacKenzie, he’s a good skater with good offence without giving too much back on defence. He’s got some junior habits to work out of his game, hopefully he emerges an even stronger all-around player after his rookie season in the NCAA.

Hound Line: Smooth puck retrievals, good change of direction to create space from forecheckers. He's an accurate mid range passer and effective transition puck carrier. He simplified his game at the world juniors: made the right reads and didn't force plays - D to D to avoid pressure & open lanes. He has good hand-eye knocking down pucks; holding the line and breaking up stretch passes but his defensive positioning can be shaky. He over commits when he should be defending space and can get caught flat footed in puck support on lost 50/50 battles. His transition D is solid with his skating and active stick but his gap control and angles can be sloppy. He relies more on reacting than actively forcing puck carriers into bad spots. He does compete for space and effectively boxes out the net front. His offensive game at the U20 looked pro ready but his defensive game needs to take a big step over the next couple seasons.

Brigstew: Svalbard’s question is something I often do as well. If MacKenzie had been drafted by Toronto at any point before this past summer, we’d be happy to see him leading a team in the WHL and being a significant contributor to Canada’s World Juniors team in his D+2 season. His ceiling may not be very high, but he has such a balanced set of skills he can be a useful even strength and on the penalty kill. He doesn’t have a big weakness, even if he doesn’t have a high level strength either. My one concern would be if he’s big and strong enough for his defense to be as impactful once he turns pro, but we should get a good idea of that with how he looks in the NCAA this coming season in one of the better and more competitive conferences.

I hope MacKenzie doesn't spend too long in the NCAA, I'm very much looking forward to seeing what he can do on the Marlies.

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