We’re settling into the 40s on our ranking here, and after a bit of a goaltending related detour yesterday, we’re right back to talking about skaters. Today, we’re welcoming into the mix Cole McKinney, a center committed to join the University of Michigan in the fall after wrapping up his tenure with the NTDP.
Despite being a bit of a down year for the program, McKinney managed to impress. The points leader for the NTDP, McKinney made a show of his positive playmaking and stepped up as consistent setup guy for Jack Murtagh, who we met on this board a couple of weeks back. McKinney is still a bit raw, but he’s on a good development path, and his skillset is projectable enough to make him an intriguing option for a team looking to add down the middle in the second round.
Pre-draft rankings
No. 51 by Elite Prospects
No. 32 by Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
No. 38 by TSN (Bob McKenzie)
No. 34 by Daily Faceoff
Bio
DOB: March 16, 2007
Birthplace: Chicago, IL, USA
Position: Center
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 201 lbs
Shoots: Right
Statistics
What’s there to like?
McKinney presents as, by and large, something of a prototypical details-focused, playmaking first center. He’s a slick passer, able to weave around defenders, utilize a sneaky strong backhand pass, and slip pucks through their feet to feed his teammates on the move. He doesn’t bring an overwhelming amount of speed, but he’s quick enough to make himself elusive (more than heaps of speed, he brings a good motor, and has found a lot of success bringing that to his checking game, a constant feeling buzzing around in the zone).
His defensive game, too, is already quite well developed. He was also one of the top penalty killers with the NTDP this season, and he’s able to leverage that motor into a pretty relentless defensive checking game, becoming kind of a nightmare for opponents and forcing them more often into positions under pressure to make mistakes, and McKinney’s quick and opportunistic enough to transition and turn those mistakes into chances against. There’s a good level of anticipation that he’s shown as well, a clearly well-developed hockey sense that supports the rest of his game.
And we’ll repeat a word for McKinney that we used once already — projectable. His game might not be the flashiest, nor his skillset the highest end, but with the right physical development, it’s easy to see him jumping into a role as a play making center in a team’s bottom-six at the NHL level, with some room to bump up the dynamism of that projection if he develops his shooting game. There’s a reasonably high floor to his game, and while that might ordinarily sound boring, but McKinney still brings enough finesse along with his responsible game to keep things interesting.
What’s not to like?
Of course, McKinney’s game isn’t perfect. He doesn’t bring a ton as far as physicality is concerned, and while he’s shown some real prowess as a playmaker, he hasn’t shown up as a major shooting threat (in that he’s been something of a low volume shooter), and this has held him back, to a degree. It also leaves some questions about how easy it might be to defend him when he graduates to the NCAA level next season (particularly in matchups where he and his Michigan team cross over and face heavier, more physical teams in the NCHC). These are certainly elements that he can and should work to add to his game, but the fact that they’re still a little underdeveloped heading into his freshman season mean that the jump to the next level is likely going to be an especially steep one for him.
There are also some questions around how meaningful the scoring he brought this season is. That is, it’s impressive to be the NTDP’s top scorer and one of the most efficient points getters in the USHL on a per game basis, but it’s also important to contextualize that within a weaker year for the NTDP, and an even weaker season for the USHL as a whole. The level of competition this time around just wasn’t as high, and while that certainly doesn’t mean we can hand wave away all of the work that he did put in over this past season, it’s useful to remember the broader context of things, and how this feeds into our understanding of where he stands in his development arc.
How would he fit in the Flyers’ system?
As we’ve talked about probably ad nauseam by now, if there’s one position of need within the Flyers’ system at the moment, it’s the center position. McKinney’s game, for all that he has to work on, still remains quite projectable to a bottom-six center in the NHL at minimum, and that would be valuable for the Flyers, to be sure.
What’s more, there might well be a good stylistic fit here as well. The Flyers, both at the NHL level with their young core and deeper in their prospect pipeline, are pretty well loaded with shooters, and now the task at hand is finding playmakers to support them, and McKinney would check that box for him. His game might not be the flashiest, but he does a lot well to support his linemates and to create chances for his shoot-first on his line, and that would make him valuable in the mix with the Flyers. There’s still a lot of developing that needs to go into his game, but you could certainly see why the Flyers might be interested in him for one of their second-round picks, if they haven’t already loaded up with centers by the time they come around.
Could the Flyers actually get him?
That said, with McKinney pretty comfortably projected to go early in the round, there is a chance that he might be snapped up by the time their name is called at 36, but the odds are more likely that he’ll still be around as an option for them, at least at that spot.
What scouts are saying
“Cole McKinney wasn’t just the NTDP’s leading scorer, but also one of the most productive players in the USHL. His 2.8 even-strength primary points per 60 was the sixth-best mark in the league, according to InStat Hockey. Although we were cautious about his upside, his strong second half and advanced details ultimately prevailed.
Night in and night out, McKinney brings the same high-end attention to detail and determination. Forcing turnover after turnover, he never stops engaging opponents. He pushes them into support, to the walls, and traps them. With proactive physicality and a strong stick, he rips away possession from bigger opponents and puts his team right back on the attack.
Offensively, McKinney is a play-builder and supporter. Most effective around the net, he wins battles, creates space, and frees his stick for loose pucks. He extends the cycle and flashes some playmaking at times, especially off the rush.
“Pace was constantly high, with McKinney passing, relocating, and attacking with speed,” wrote Dir. of North American scouting Mitchell Brown about a March viewing. “Started a give-and-go and turned to simultaneously receive the pass, protect the puck, and shoot between his legs. And he also showed some advanced vision, hitting tricky passes through traffic in transition and using the trailer and weak side option.”
While McKinney’s puckhandling and lack of shooting threat might limit his overall scoring upside, he’s a straightforward projection to a bottom-six role, provided he can add a bit more explosiveness and physicality and get off the wall more often.
-EliteProspects 2025 NHL Draft Guide
“A player I definitely have seen the light on in recent months. I’ll admit it took some folks to point me in the right direction but once I started analyzing McKinney, I haven’t looked back. Now, I don’t think he’s destined for NHL greatness, but I do think he’s destined for the NHL, and in a valuable role. There were times where I had him higher on the list and I could take him earlier in the first round for sure, but there are definitely questions. What isn’t in question is his resilience and ability to think under pressure. He’s a major driver of offense for the NTDP, and I believe he’s a major source of where Jack Murtagh’s offense has come from. McKinney is a natural centre who sucks in defensive pressure and defuses that pressure with ease, and to me that is very, very valuable. If you love guys like Brady Martin and he’s off the board, McKinney is a solid consolation prize. A very, very efficient transition player with great stick checking ability and a capable carrier, passer, and off-puck receiver through the neutral zone, McKinney has a little bit of everything is a good way from what I’ve seen. I don’t know if I see more than a bottom two line centre here, but getting that on day two is a successful pick and something tells me he might be a guy that moves up the board as more and more people see more of him, especially at the U18s.”
–Will Scouch, scouting.ca
We’re plugging away here folks! As we move into the middle of the 40s here on the draft board, we welcome Carter Amico to the poll.
“An aggressive, agile defenceman, Amico’s range is nearly unmatched. When he surfs into opponents, he completely erases the middle and then crushes the opponent into the wall. He clears the front of the net with vitriol and then gets play moving the other way. He fakes forecheckers with his edges, then looks into or across the middle for a high-value breakout play.”
-EliteProspects 2025 NHL Draft Guide
