Taking Our Best guess: Where Could J.P. Hurlbert Land on Draft Day?

Image Credit - Alex Beckett/Fallsway Marketing & Media

Fair warning before we get into this: we're guessing. This is us looking at the boards, doing some math, and taking our best shot at where J.P. Hurlbert lands when the NHL calls his name in Buffalo on June 26th. He could go higher than what we're projecting. He could slide. Drafts are chaos, and anyone who tells you otherwise hasn't watched many of them. But we figured if we're going to guess, we might as well guess out loud.

So here we go.

What Hurlbert did this season in Kamloops was genuinely special. Forty-two goals. Fifty-five assists. Ninety-seven points in 68 games, good for fourth in the entire WHL scoring race. Second in the whole league in shots on goal with 294. That's not a guy who quietly had a nice year. That's a player who came into this league after leaving the U.S. National Team Development Program in a move that raised a few eyebrows, and immediately announced himself as one of the best forwards in the CHL.

NHL Central Scouting handed him an "A" rating, the designation reserved for projected first-round picks, and the major public boards backed it up all season long. Draft Prospects Hockey has him 16th overall. The Win Column's consolidated board, which aggregates multiple sources, lands him at 20th. Earlier in the season Sportsnet had him at 23rd.

Average it all out and you're sitting somewhere in the 18-to-20 range, a mid-first-round pick, solidly projected, no debate about whether he belongs in that conversation. And look, he could go higher. If the right team falls in love with that release, don't be surprised to see his name called in the 12-15 range. He could also slide a touch in a deep class.

Now for the fun part. The draft lottery is actually drawing tonight, so we don't know exactly where every pick is landing just yet. But we can look at who's picking in that general neighbourhood and make some sense of it. We landed on six teams, and we'll be upfront about one of them being more dream scenario than projection.

Nashville Predators (Pick 14-16)

Nashville is headed into a rebuild. They need offensive weapons in the pipeline and Hurlbert is exactly the kind of goal-scorer that fixes that problem over time. His shot is the calling card, heavy, accurate, released quickly and from areas of the ice where NHL defenders don't give you much room. The Predators have the patience and the draft capital to take a swing on a kid who's likely heading to Michigan before turning pro. The pick range lines up, the organizational need lines up. This one makes a lot of sense.

Florida Panthers (Pick 15-16)

The most surprising team on this list, and honestly the most interesting story in the NHL right now. The back to back champion Panthers missed the playoffs entirely this season, a collapse that almost defies explanation, and now find themselves sitting in the lottery for the first time in years. They need to reload in a hurry, and adding a proven goal-scorer at the top of the draft is a strong way to start. Florida has always valued forwards who shoot the puck, who find the net consistently, who make their living in dangerous areas of the ice. Hurlbert checks every one of those boxes.

Columbus Blue Jackets (Pick 10-13)

Columbus isn't just a logical fit, NHL.com's mock draft actually put Hurlbert here. The Blue Jackets need to build a supporting cast around Adam Fantilli, and a player who can score 42 goals in a major junior league and play both wing and center gives them real flexibility. The Blue Jackets are still a few pieces away from being truly dangerous, but adding Hurlbert to that group accelerates the timeline. This feels like one of the cleaner fits in the whole class.

Ottawa Senators (Pick 17-18)

Ottawa got swept by Stankoven's Hurricanes in the first round, which puts them picking in the late-first territory. The Senators aren't in full rebuild mode. They have a young core already in place and are at the stage where they're adding pieces rather than tearing things down. A 42-goal scorer in the WHL is a pretty good piece to add. Ottawa has shown they'll take a run at WHL talent when the value is there, and at pick 17 or 18, Hurlbert represents exactly that.

Los Angeles Kings (Pick 19-21)

The Kings lost to Colorado in the first round and are in the middle of a genuine transition. Their defensive core is aging, several of their top blueliners are well into their 30s, and the organization needs to be thinking seriously about what the next chapter looks like. Hurlbert's speed, his right-handed shot and his hockey sense all fit what LA wants to build toward. NHL.com's mock draft had him landing here too, which at least tells you this isn't a wild reach. It's a logical pick at a logical spot.

Dallas Stars (The Dream Scenario)

This one is the swing. We know it. We're taking it anyway.

Hurlbert is from Allen, Texas. He grew up not far from the American Airlines Center, came up through the Dallas Stars Elite AAA program as a young kid, and the Dallas Stars seem to love a Kamloops Blazer.

The wrinkle is a big one. Dallas sent their 2026 first-round pick to Carolina as part of the Mikko Rantanen deal, with the condition triggering when the Stars qualified for the playoffs this spring. So they don't have the pick. If Jim Nill wants Hurlbert in a Dallas jersey, he'd have to get creative on draft night, trade up, package futures, find a willing partner. That's a steep hill. But if you think the Stars scouting staff hasn't had their eye on a Texas-born kid who just put up 97 points in the WHL, then you're wrong.

The 2026 Draft is six weeks away. The lottery draws tonight. And somewhere in that first round, a team is going to be very happy they called his name. We just tried to figure out who. Odds are we don't nail a single one of these, but with draft season heating up and Hurlbert's name buzzing around Kamloops, we figured it was worth the spitball. Come June 26th, we'll find out just how wrong we were.