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# 2026 T25U25: Tyler Hopkins is #12
- URL: https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2026-t25u25-tyler-hopkins-is-12/
- Published: 2026-08-31T12:00:48.000Z
- Updated: 2026-08-31T12:00:47.000Z
- Description: Hopkins fits a certain kind of player that Toronto has seemed to covet for the past several years, both in the draft and in recruiting free agents from college.
- Author: Brian S
- Tags: Top 25 Under 25

Tyler Hopkins fits an archetype as player that Toronto as an organization has seemed to covet for quite a while, through three different regimes now. Fraser Minten, Hudson Malinoski, Miroslav Holinka, Jacob Quillan, Luke Haymes, heck even Tinus Luc Koblar and Cooper Williams from the last two drafts. 

They are all two-way centers with different elements and quality of skill. Minten was the cream of the crop, with TLK coming up behind him, they are the only two who are (or have a good chance to be) good enough to play in the middle six. The others are more faint and unrealistic chances to achieve that, and are far more likely to wind up as NHL depth or even just as an AHL-NHL tweener who will likely never play in the NHL for more than a cup of coffee.

 So where does Hopkins fit in that spectrum?

| Tyler Hopkins    | Vitals |
| ---------------- | ------ |
| Age as of July 1 | 19.44  |
| Position         | C      |
| Height           | 6'1"   |
| Weight (lbs)     | 183    |
| Shoots           | L      |
| Draft Year       | 2025   |
| Draft Number     | 86     |

### The Player

Hopkins is relatively young, drafted just last year in the same group as TLK. He was drafted with the reputation of being that type of two-way center who was used as a speedy, defensive center both by his OHL team in Kingston and for Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky and World U18s.

After last season, Hopkins was traded from Kingston to Guelph – who will be hosting the Memorial Cup this year and have gone through a period of partially rebuilding and going all in to prepare for this coming season. He had a small step forward in production, and while points are not going to be what gets him to the NHL anyway, I can't really say he had a big leap in his development. 

Where I thought Hopkins improved the most last year was in the consistency and level of his physical and defensive engagement. Previously, his defensive impact was mostly based around his positioning, intelligent play reading, and stick work. Last year he started to exert himself along the boards and in front of the net, sealing off his man with proactive body positioning to win loose pucks. He also started to use his speed more actively in his defense on back checks and to physically close the gap on his man in his own end rather than just relying on passive positioning. 

Along with that improved physical play along the boards was an improved offensive ability to get the puck off the boards, protect it, and maintain possession down low and in front of the net. He also showcased an improved shot, and those two areas helped him increase his goal scoring and scoring chance rate by a noteworthy amount. 

### The Votes

Here's how the votes broke down:

| Voter            | Vote  |
| ---------------- | ----- |
| Cathy            | 12    |
| Species          | 12    |
| Hound Line       | 15    |
| Shinson93        | 15    |
| Cameron          | 11    |
| Sclodiggity      | 9     |
| Brian S          | 20    |
| Svalbard38       | 9     |
| Zone Entry       | 10    |
| Hardev           | 12    |
| Adam             | 13    |
| Weighted Average | 12.55 |
| Highest Vote     | 9     |
| Lowest Vote      | 20    |

On the one hand, I'm a bit surprised to see that I ranked him 20th... but also not that surprised. To be clear, even if I ranked him 20th I had him in the same tier as Haymes and Quillan and even Holinka who I ranked 8th. It's a big mushy middle of guys who I think are all longshots to roughly the same degree, the order I ranked them was mainly just how much I liked their game compared to the others in the same tier.

But the reason why I ***relatively*** don't like Hopkins' game as much as the others is simple – and I touched on it when I talked about how he improved on how he weaponized his speed last year. I'm wary of players who are fast but don't seem to know how to use it to have a positive impact on the play. Usually, those kinds of players will ramp up their top speeds only in open ice and on scoring chances off the rush. I want speedy guys to use it to harass the other team on the forecheck and backcheck, to take time and space away from them and force turnovers or at least prevent them from making the play they want to make. I'll give partial credit to Hopkins that he started to do it more last year, but I still want to see it on a more consistent basis and in more diverse ways.

The other area I have concern with him is his ability to drive the play. This comes partially from my latest thoughts in my always evolving idea of what makes for actually good defensive play, but Hopkins' skill with the puck as a handler or distributor did not seem to improve at all in my eyes last year. For how Hopkins projects as a potential professional player, I don't care about that when it comes to him creating offense and getting points. I care about him turning the puck over and giving up a possession to the other team. Between that and his still generally average size and strength, I'm not fully sold on just how much of a defensive impact I think he can have in the NHL without him having a big leap in his development somewhere. 

So for this coming season, I want to see him become an all around leader for Guelph. They've swung a lot of trades to bring in other solid junior players who have also been drafted to the NHL – Ethan Czata is the same age, bigger, drafted earlier than Hopkins by a round, slightly better offensive production, and also has two-way pedigree as a top center for Niagara. Owen Griffin is also the same age, a better offensive producer, a bit smaller but he's also been a top center on Oshawa. They have Jaakko Wycisk, who could be a very high first round pick in this year's draft and can also play center. 

So Hopkins isn't going to be guaranteed to be The Guy for Guelph. He could wind up being something like a third line center who kills penalties and gets some secondary powerplay time. Neither Czata nor Griffin are so high profile as draft picks that either are locks to make the NHL either, so if you want to consider Hopkins to have any kind of NHL potential you should expect him to emerge as Guelph's top all situations center when this season is done. At his age now, he should be who the coaches rely on to hold the lead, to push play in the right direction, and also to be one of the guys they look to when they are pushing to score late in games.

Now, I want to make it clear, and I tried to preempt this a bit by emphasizing "relatively" above so much – I don't actually dislike Hopkins. I like speedy guys, I like two-way centers, I like the improvements he made in his goal scoring and physical engagement, and I'm looking forward to seeing him on Guelph this year more than most of the others they'll have returning to junior. If he gets stronger I think he could have a slightly better chance of finding an NHL depth role than the likes of Quillan and Haymes who seem like your classic AHL-NHL tweeners. But while those are ifs and maybes for now, I still see – right now – those pretty fatal flaws that I just can't look past.

### The Opinions

Here's what some of the other voters had to say:

> **Shinson93**: I got to watch a bit of Hopkins last season and while there was a lot to like, it never felt like he was able to take control of a game and lead his team to something more. I’m sure the trade and switch of coach was a challenge for him. I want to see him take much more of a leadership role with his young Guelph team. I want to see him be more aggressive, especially with play driving. He has the chops to be that strong two way center, but I actually want to see more chance taking that pushes his offensive development and builds more confidence. Right now he’s right in the middle of my “maybe if he makes another development leap” guys.

> **Sclodiggity**: Hopkins feels like a classic prospect to follow. Early-ish round pick out of the CHL. Forward with offensive skill but needs to develop in a few areas. Some international play. Legitimate shot of being a middle six forward with an outside chance of being more than that. The comparisons to Minten last year are quite encouraging (and potentially biasing since Minten has exceeded all expectations) but a strong piece to have in the system. He dropped slightly after being ranked 9th last year, but with the first overall pick this year and the Marlies winning the Calder, his potential hasn’t really gained or dropped since last year.

> **Svalbard38**: I’m higher on Hopkins than most. He’s not a flashy player, I watched a few of his Kingston games and was surprised to see at the Christmas break that he was leading the team in goals and points, and after being traded to Guelph he led in goals and was second in points. Points aren’t everything in junior, but they’re not nothing, and combined with a solid 200ft game, Hopkins comes across to me as the kind of player who could make a decent NHL career for himself as an all-situations guy who coaches like and trust. He’s got a long way to go before he’s there though, looking forward to seeing how he does on a Guelph team that’s going for it.

> **Cathy:** I ranked Hopkins at 12, and he ended up there as part of my final pairwise comparison where I go up and down my rankings and compare two adjacent choices and ask myself which should be higher. I emphasize age here more than in the original ranking. So he crept up and up and got near the players he's like: Haymes and Quillan, and in my final question to myself I popped him up over Haymes. But I think he's a long, long way from TLK or Ben Danford. Much farther than the ranking places make it seem.

Let us know what you think about Hopkins!