Every year, the extensive scouting team at Elite Prospects releases their annual draft guide. It’s a massive collection of a year’s worth of scouting reports, stat tracking, and projections about what a draft-eligible player could be in the NHL. It’s an impressive body of work that is a must-read for anyone who wants to know about any player in the draft.
For each player rated with a first or a second round grade, Elite Prospects offers an NHL-level comparable for the prospect. In this year’s draft guide, there are four prospects compared to current and former Flyers. Let’s dive into the set of names that Elite Prospects offers up.
Alberts Smits, LD
NHL Comparable: Erik Johnson
Smits is one of the most tantalizing prospects in the draft class (No. 8 on our board), in terms of raw physical traits and projectability as an impact defenseman in the NHL. He’s one of the biggest risers in the entire class, prompted by his standout performances at the international level in the World Juniors and the Olympics for Latvia. It’s pretty rare that a draft-year eligible plays his way onto an Olympic roster, but for a smaller country like Latvia, Smits was able to showcase his skills against the best players in the world. He did pretty well in those minutes too, playing in Latvia’s top-4 and registering two points in four games.
The tools with Smits are pretty straightforward – a 6-foot-3, smooth-skating, physical defenseman that imposes his will on the opposition without sacrificing offense. He’s got an ability to kill plays that rates as one of the strongest in the class, and if he can continue his high-level hockey IQ and anticipation skills in the NHL, we’re looking at quite the player.
The comparison to Erik Johnson is interesting, to say the least. Johnson was a pretty valuable player in his prime for Colorado, but we’d like to think the top-end outcome for Smits is better offensively. Johnson’s career-high for points in a season was 39, and if the same happens for Smits’ career it is probably a disappointment. The other comparable Elite Prospects’ offers is Mike Matheson. Again, outside of Matheson’s outlier season of 62 points, we’re not sure the comparable captures Smits’ offensive upside. The comparables here really lean into Smits’ physical side and his ability to leverage his size to kill plays.
Xavier Villeneuve, LD
NHL Comparable: Shayne Gostibehere
One of the most polarizing players in the draft class, it’s only fitting that Villeneuve gets compared to a player that’s been pretty polarizing over his 13-year NHL career.
Villeneuve, No. 15 on our board, has been one of the QMJHL’s most prolific scorers on the backend for the last three years. He’s on the smaller side at 5-foot-11, but he’s so quick and shifty on his feet and with the puck on his stick. It’s so hard to contain Villeneuve when he’s given even a little bit of open ice, and he’s got a plethora of moves when he’s at the point. If he’s going to make it in the NHL, he’s going to do so via his raw offensive talent and ability to just make a fool of defenses on a consistent basis, similar to how Gostisbehere has made his money in the NHL. It isn’t a perfect comparison, but Villeneuve’s archetype is certainly in line with the role that Gostisbehere occupies.
Tommy Bleyl, RD
NHL Comparable: Jamie Drysdale
Bleyl is another defenseman from the Q, and he’s another prolific offensive defenseman with a few different question marks than Villeneuve. In 63 games this season with Moncton, Bleyl registered 81 points to lead the QMJHL’s defensemen scoring chart. As the Draft Guide notes, Bleyl’s skating is his best attribute, and it was a weapon throughout the season. In a league with so much space and little actual organization on defense, high-end skaters like Bleyl can feast.
Having said that, the main knock on Bleyl is that way too much of his game relies on his skating. When the defenses get more structured, Bleyl may have a really hard time in adjusting to the NHL game. He’ll no longer be able to use his speed to compensate for everything, and will need to round out his defensive game in order to continue to have a significant impact. In this sense, the Drysdale comparison makes a lot of sense. A slightly undersized defenseman himself, Drysdale’s separating skill in his draft year was his speed, and he really has honed the rest of his game in the past couple of seasons. If Bleyl can do the same, there’s probably a good player to be developed here.
Tobias Trejbal, G
NHL Comparable: “A more athletic” Dan Vladar
Trejbal is ranked as one of the top goalies of this class, and as the top Czech goalie in particular, the Dan Vladar comparison was obvious. Playing with the Youngstown Phantoms of the USHL this season, Trejbal put up a 2.15 GAA and a .915 SV% across 41 games started. He was a workhorse for the Phantoms, and put up stellar results while doing it. He also stands at 6-foot-3, and Elite Prospects describes him as a “positioning-first goaltender, rarely giving up an angle to shooters.” For a decently tall goalie, Trejbal tracks pucks pretty well, and can make both the consistent saves based on positioning, and the really flashy ones that require tons of athleticism. Projecting goalies is fickle, but Trejbal has all the tools to turn into an NHL-level goaltender in the coming years.
Tobias Trejbal with an incredible behind-the-back save.
— Czech Prospects (@CZprospects) December 29, 2025
The #2026NHLDraft prospect is having an impressive USHL rookie season so far.
He currently ranks:
• T-2nd in wins (14)
• 3rd in GAA (2.07)
• 4th in SV% (.917)
• T-3rd in shutouts (2)
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