The Toronto Maple Leafs have taken Bilecki with the 60th overall pick in the second round of the 2026 Entry Draft and made me the happiest nerd blogging in my parents' basement.

Vitals

  • Position: Left-shot defenseman
  • League(s): OHL
  • Height: 6'2"
  • Weight: 180 lbs
  • Birthdate: May 9, 2008

Career

Here's his highlight pack:

Scouting Reports

Honestly, there really isn't more to say on him that I didn't already say when I profiled him ahead of the draft so here you go:

2026 NHL Draft Profile: Alexander Bilecki
Bilecki has been buried in the depth chart for a strong Kitchener defensive group, but he’s made the most of his time and stepped up when needed.
PPP LeafsBrian S

The one thing I'll add that I didn't know then is that, if Bilecki returns to Kitchener in the OHL, he will be THE guy. They lost some of their older defensemen to aging out of junior, and their top defenseman Cameron Reid is leaving for the NCAA next year. Bilecki could always do that too, but having a big role on a team that may still be pretty good will be a huge opportunity for him.

But if you want more, here are some direct quotes from various scouts or scouting outlets...

Will Scouch (ranked him 74th)

I got put onto Bilecki later on this year and I can absolutely see what the fuss is about. He’s got some really impressive playmaking tools, juggling lanes, threading slot passes, and playing an aggressive offensive style of play that has been a huge benefit and a huge risk in my viewings. He might be the guy that leads my anecdotal sample in odd-man rushes allowed, because Bilecki will join the rush, trail the puck significantly, drift into the scoring area, and one rebound or missed pass results in a rush coming the other way and he’s nowhere to be found. He’s physically underdeveloped and I’m not sure the skating ability truly projects to play this brand of defending at higher levels, but there are offensive tools that could continue to grow and develop. He had some impressive moments, looking off defenders and firing passes into the slot, but I’m not as sure about a second round-level player as others are.

Elite Prospects Draft Guide (ranked him 41st)

There’s a parallel universe in which Alexander Bilecki gets the minutes needed to showcase his higher-end skills more frequently and competes with the top group of defencemen for the title of best back-end playmaker.
It’s not this world, unfortunately. Bilecki played a bottom-pairing role for the deep OHL champion Kitchener Rangers, picking up points against lower competition. But if he does get those top-four minutes next season, we envision a meteoric rise.
Bilecki attacks defences, beating the first forechecker with a fake and an explosive change of direction, before piercing right through neutral zone coverages. He creates high-danger scoring chances regularly off the rush, often with a give-and-go followed by a backhand slot pass.
One of the best backhand passers in the draft, Bilecki constantly finds solutions to pressure. With his explosive skating, a large playmaking arsenal, and deceptive acts, he pushes the play forward, orchestrating the power play while also helping Kitchener’s ever-dangerous formation at 5-on-5.
“He's playing about 12-15 minutes in the postseason, but he's making the most of his ice time,” OHL scout Lauren Kelly wrote in an April report. “Picked up two assists in this game, including a slick one on the power play that saw him lead the rush up ice through the middle, handle around a closing defender, and hook a pass to a teammate as he was falling.”
His limited role and defensive game capped how high we could rank him on our board. Bilecki is still learning the intricacies of it: When to close out, hold his position, scan for threats, and rotate properly. There’s a physical side to his game, so we’re confident he will improve as a stopper, but at this stage, he’s more of a fourth forward than a complete defenceman.
“There was a great half-ice 2-on-1 sequence where he took the middle away with the false gap, accelerated with a crossover, pivoted, and got a breakup,” Head of Scouting Mitchell Brown wrote in a January report.
Bilecki is the perfect second-rounder, offering a high level of upside despite the risk associated with his projection. A team in need of a future power play quarterback should target him, considering that he has NHL-level tools and size to go with his playmaking skills.

McKeen's Hockey Draft Guide (ranked him 35th)

Bilecki’s stock skyrocketed later in the OHL season after a strong conclusion to the year that saw him develop into a key cog for the Kitchener Rangers, helping them capture an OHL championship and Memorial Cup.
Bilecki, at his core, is a confident offensive defender. He has quarterbacked the Kitchener powerplay for large parts of this past season, showing poise with the puck under pressure and a knack for getting shots through traffic. He is a strong skater who can have a profound impact on the transition game. He can skate the puck out of trouble in the defensive end and consistently executes his breakouts. As he earns more ice time and develops more confidence in his carrying ability, look for Bilecki to develop into the kind of offensive defender who takes more chances by pushing and playing higher in the o-zone.
The best part is that Bilecki is not undersized, like many stronger skating offensive defenders these days. At 6-foot-2, he has the frame to be a more than adequate two-way option. Over the course of the OHL season, Bilecki’s defensive game improved a lot with the Rangers as he improved his physical engagement and defensive reads. He can be excellent defending downhill because of his reach and four-way mobility.
There’s obviously some risk that Bilecki’s game stagnates and that he ends up lacking standout traits that would allow him to carve out an NHL role; like say, Roland McKeown. However, there’s also an equal chance that he’s only scratching the surface of what he’s capable of after being somewhat sheltered on a deep and talented Kitchener team. The wide variance of outcomes makes Bilecki a somewhat volatile selection, however, we believe in his upside as a potential top four defender down the road.

HockeyProspect.com Draft Guide (ranked him 56th)

Bilecki had a solid season with the Rangers, and his game improved steadily as the year progressed. He finished with 29 points in 66 regular season games and added 11 points in 18 games during their OHL championship run. A puck-moving defenseman, his ability to distribute and transition the puck is his standout quality. He's confident and composed with the puck on his stick, and while he doesn't project as a power play quarterback at the NHL level, he showed good creativity. His real value lies in his transition game — he makes a crisp first pass out of his own zone, he can make some creative passing plays, he’s a quick thinker with the puck and can also skate with the puck to create better options for himself.
His skating is above average. He's quick to retrieve pucks and capable of skating himself out of trouble. There is some excess upper-body movement that, if corrected, could make his stride even more efficient. The combination of his puck-moving ability and skating is what makes Bilecki a potential top-three-round pick in this draft.
On the other side of the puck, he is not a physical defenseman. He can be too passive defending against the rush and could use better stick positioning. However, he does compete a bit harder against the cycle down low and around his net. Overall, physicality is not part of his game. He's somewhere between 6'1" and 6'2" and is physically raw, with room to develop. A shutdown role at the NHL level is not a projection we'd make for him.
He fits a similar mold to Ben Macbeath out of the WHL and Vsevolod Matveyev from Russia — defensemen who move pucks well and possess decent to good skating, but lack a secondary game in the sense that they don't bring physicality, don't project as shutdown defenders, and aren't power play guys at the NHL level, at least not on a first unit.
With fewer and fewer defensemen of this type carving out NHL careers, that limits how high we're willing to rank him. But we do appreciate how much better he got this year and also we want to note that he was well coached in Kitchener and good coaching matters for prospects for them to improve their stocks.

Upside Hockey (ranked him 33rd)

The Kitchener Rangers are currently 5th-overall in the OHL, even though their win % of .719 is third-best, and they have scored the 6th-most goals (178 in 48 games) in the league. The Rangers made some big moves before the January 9th OHL trade deadline in an effort to bolster their lineup for the playoffs, bringing in C Sam O'Reilly, F Gabriel Chiarot, F Dylan Edwards, and D Jared Woolley in separate deals, while jettisoning D Jacob Xu, and D Jakub Chromiak. They were also elevated by the return of D Matthew Andonovski from the AHL, who was their Captain last year. Since the deadline, LD Alexander Bilecki (6'2",181lbs) has posted 7 points in 9 games, to give him a total of 23 points in 47 games to date, which prorates to 33 in 67. While he has mostly been used on the third-pairing this season, he has seen a big increase in ice-time and responsibility in January, with the departure of Xu and Chromiak, forcing Central Scouting to change his "C"-rating from their Preliminary Rankings to a "B", which indicates a possible 2nd, or 3rd-round pick. He is also #38 for North American Skaters.
Bilecki is a formidable defender, and one of the best transitional defensemen available in this draft-class. He plies a solid, mistake-free puck-moving game, devoid of much dynamism or flash, and wields intelligence in all three zones. A second-round pick of the Rangers, he has his own-zone game down pat, displaying proficiency in derailing rushes with his quick feet, tight gaps, and active stick, while disrupting the cycle with sound positioning, keen awareness, and a noticeable physical edge. He defends his net vigorously, breaks up plays, intercepts passes, and blocks lanes against the cycle; he has been tasked with PK duties, and performs well in those situations. Bilecki makes a high number of recoveries, and shows a lofty panic threshold when outmaneuvering (or outrunning) pressure in retrievals, while scanning for an exit pass. He moves the puck quickly and efficiently in breakouts with remarkable confidence and poise, and is a huge part of the Rangers' transition, tilting the ice in his team's favor by pass, or by carry.
Bilecki is a quick and agile skater, with the puck-protection and handling skill to rush the puck through exit and entry, while evading defenders' efforts to stop him with quick changes of pace and direction, mixed with a bit of deception. In the offensive zone, he exhibits top-tier instincts, and uses his smooth edges well to walk the line in search of open lanes for his cannon of a shot, or to pry open passing seams. He will not only join the rush, but he will lead it, and will activate into the play off the line when he sees an opprtunity. Bilecki is only now getting a real chance to flex his offensive muscle with increased ice-time, but I think his presence in the lineup made it possible to trade Xu and Chromiak. All in all, he's an incredibly well-rounded blueliner with emerging offensive flair. Look for him in the 2nd, or 3rd-round.
NHL DraftMaple Leafs Prospects