2026 T25U25: The Unranked

Sign Up to PPP Today

You have to be a member to comment at PPP. Membership is free and requires only an email address.

Become a Member

With 39 names on the T25 eligibility list this year, it's inevitable that there will be some that got zero votes, but surprisingly there are only three this year. There are usually more, but I think this year's vote has so many players plausibly at the same level in the lower two or three or four tiers, however you split it up, that the votes are scattered around a lot.

With no votes from anyone on the official list, we have:

Vinny Borgesi

Borgesi is young for a free agent signing, and it's possible he got no notice simply because he is a brand new signing. He has played in seven games for the Marlies last spring, but not in the playoffs, and is a right-shooting defender who graduated from Northeastern last year, finishing his final season as team captain.

The Marlies did not play any of their new signings in the playoffs, so when all eyes turned to the eventual Calder Cup winners, those new prospects were in the pressbox. That said, it's not all that often that undrafted college players make big strides, and at 5'9", it's even more unlikely. There were six defenders at 5'9" or shorter last season who played at least half the year. One of the Emil Andrae. Jared Spurgeon and Lane Hutson are the only established NHLers, though.

Maybe we're all wrong about Vinny.

Matthew Lahey

Lahey is another defender, but with a very different profile to Borgesi. Lahey is two years younger, was drafted in 2024 (200th overall) and is a left shooting defender listed at 6'6" and 200 lbs.

When he was drafted, he was coming out of the BCHL (where he got some points) and moving into the USHL for a year before college. His freshman year last season at Michigan State was not a big success. He only played in 19 games and made very little impression. At 20, he's not exactly young for the NCAA, but there is no one perfect formula for development. He didn't generate any buzz at the most recent Leafs development camp either and he was unranked last year.

Hudson Malinoski

Also unranked last year, Malinoski is 22 like Borgesi, but has been around as a prospect since he was drafted 153rd overall in 2023. He is an average-sized forward who isn't flashy at all. After three years of solid play, and results well down the points list for the team at Providence College, he's moving to the University of North Dakota this season.

At the recent development camp, where he would have been one of the older experienced players, Brigs said:

Malinoski was solid in this game. He and Plesovskikh did a lot of the grunt work with strong two-way play and then to help set up McCue where he's most dangerous – around the net. He would work a clean cycle in the corner before whipping a sharp pass out front to find McCue open for his first goal. He later scored after being part of a 2 on 0 rush with the net empty to seal the game, with Belle nicely gifting him the easy empty netter. Not a spectacular outing, but the kind of thing I've come to expect from him as a more defensive center.

A solid depth forward who can play with the more physical energy players, he's never quite convinced any T25 voters that that's enough of a package to make hime one of the top 25.

Given the format of the Community Vote, there are no unranked players, but the full list of those who finished below 25 will be part of this weekends T25 summary post.

PPP Runs on Your Support

If you enjoy the T25U25 every year, and want to see it continue, please consider becomming a paid subscriber. We want to keep all our content open to all users, but to become a sustainable site, we need more support from paid members.

Subscribe Now

More Top 25 Under 25