What I’m hearing on Canada’s World Junior roster, NCAA commitments, a 2027 NHL Draft riser, more

Each season, on the eve of the NHL Draft, I produce a “what I’m hearing” notebook that details the last-minute chatter. This season, we’re expanding the format into a regular column where I’ll periodically share some of what I’ve gathered on the road or from conversations with sources. The goal is to provide an inside look into the prospect world.

Here’s the first installment, packed with info and tidbits on Canada’s World Junior roster battles, some college commitment talk, a new name to track out of Czechia and a 2027 riser. The sources cited within the story spoke on the condition of anonymity so they could freely discuss the relevant topics.

Canada’s World Junior roster battles

• I’ve heard from two sources that Jackson Smith is out of favor with Hockey Canada. He’s had some highs and lows this season, and I was told Canada’s brass caught him on a bad night with Penn State recently. The tools have always been there. I think the worry is the hockey IQ component costing them in big games. As of today, I get the sense the Blue Jackets’ first-rounder is not in their plans.
• There has been chatter among scouts about some tough games both Keaton Verhoeff and Carson Carels have had for North Dakota. Carels has been the better of the two, and I still expect him to play an important role as a returnee, but Canada hasn’t shied away from cutting returnees in recent years, and I get the sense that Verhoeff is a bubble guy at the moment. If they do bring him, expect it to be as a third-pairing or No. 7 guy more than the top-pairing/captain role he has played with Hockey Canada in the past.
• One reason Verhoeff and Smith are at risk: I’ve heard from a scout source that Hockey Canada loves Denver’s Ryan Lin. His numbers haven’t popped as a freshman (four points in 10 games), but he’s playing almost 22 minutes per game for the Pioneers and is extremely polished for his age as a player. That plays well at the World Juniors, where others tend to lack it.
• The Ruck twins weren’t at the World Junior Summer Showcase, and I don’t get the sense they’ve played their way into the mix. As one scout told me, “they don’t deserve it” right now. The Penguins prospects are eligible for next year’s event.
• You should have seen the look on one scout’s face when he asked which forwards other than Cole Reschny, Braeden Cootes, Brady Martin, Caleb Desnoyers, Dima Zhilkin, Tynan Lawrence and Caleb Malhotra were in the mix, and I told him names like Ethan Czata and Tyler Hopkins could be bottom-sixers. It amounted to “woof.” That’s going to be the shape of their forwards this year, though. There’s no Gavin McKenna or even Porter Martone or Michael Hage in this age group, and they’re going to have to do it by committee.

A couple of college commitment notes

• I reported last week that breakout Avalanche third-rounder and Red Deer Rebels captain Beckett Hamilton was being pursued by the NCHC schools you’d expect, but there was some belief he might also sign. It’s sounding more and more like it’s going to be Denver. These things are never official until the players themselves announce it, and even then they’re liable to change, but that’s where multiple college sources think it has landed.
• Projected 2027 first-rounder Jaakko Wycisk has told schools he’s going to wait until the end of the season before making any decision. Wycisk’s Guelph Storm are hosting the Memorial Cup, and he wants his focus to be there. I believe Michigan and others have been in touch with his camp. He’s a what-you-see-is-what-you-get player with size, tools and a pro look, but also, as one scout put it after a recent viewing, “lots of missing pieces.”

Get to know the name Dominik Železný

“How good is that 21? Might be the most fun player here!”

That’s what one NHL scout said to me in passing over the weekend at U17s about Czech forward Dominik Železný. He was the youngest player in the tournament (he turned 15 in July), but he still made the tournament all-star team, finishing with four goals and six points in four games to lead the Czechs to a silver medal. He played the wing in Oakville, but he’s a natural center. It was my first time watching him play. He looks like a slick, shifty playmaker with nasty hands, good overall skating (including excellent edges) and oodles of confidence.

Jamie Glance, a draft riser

American forward Jamie Glance, a Boston University commit for next season, has impressed scouts when they’ve caught Saint John Sea Dogs games. Glance has often outplayed teammate Alexis Joseph, a No. 1 pick in the QMJHL draft once viewed as a contender for No. 1 in the 2027 NHL Draft.

“He stepped right in and right in preseason looked like a dominant player, and he hasn’t let off in the regular season,” Sea Dogs head coach Jim Hulton recently told me. “He’s a force every game.”

Glance has 23 points through 18 games, and Hulton thinks he should be sitting on half a dozen more goals if not for his puck luck and hitting some posts. Hulton called him a “junior version of Mitch Marner” and said that even on his so-called off games there are still a handful of plays where he uses his high-end acceleration and speed to either burst through a seam offensively or track back and make a big play defensively.

He came up as an all-offense type viewed as a little one-dimensional, but he turned into a really diligent winger in his two years at the NTDP and has been one of the Sea Dogs’ better penalty killers this season.

“He can play at a high pace, he’s got a terrific release and a hard shot, and then he’s got a lot better playmaking skills than I appreciated from a distance,” Hulton said. “He’s got the ability to see and then make plays under pressure.”

The Sea Dogs selected him in the sixth round three years ago even though he didn’t attend the QMJHL draft and was committed to going to the program and then college. Sea Dogs president and general manager Trevor Georgie kept in touch with the family and went to see them in Sarnia at U17s and then again in Calgary at the CHL USA Prospects Challenge. The team felt it needed a dynamic winger to play with Joseph and has found that Glance has actually made Joseph better. There was one three-on-three goal against Halifax that Georgie used to illustrate that. Glance drew two Mooseheads players to him, held the puck for an extra second, and found Joseph, who passed it to Brandon Delarosbil to end the game.

Some background on Glance: He’s from New Hampshire, which isn’t a hockey hotbed. His dad is a Planet Fitness franchisee and has built it from one location to now more than 60. They’re also a big lacrosse family, and Glance played it right until he went to the national program. He has two older sisters, Lily and Sophie, and Lily just graduated from Holy Cross, where she played lacrosse for four years. He’s a gym rat himself who’s 5-foot-10.5 and 184 pounds and is viewed as an impressive athlete. This summer, they used his dad’s access to equipment to build a home gym in their basement.

He has cemented his place as a first-rounder with his play this season, and some NHL scouts are talking about him as a top-16 pick.