Roger McQueen 2025 NHL Draft Scouting Report

Vitals

Position: C

Age on Draft Day: 18.73

Height, Weight: 6'5", 198 lbs

2024-25 Stats (WHL): 17 GP, 10 G, 10 A

Scouting Report

Finding comparables NHL talents for Roger McQueen is not easy. There are not many players with his makeup.

McQueen measured 6'5.25 "at the NHL combine, and yet he is surprisingly light on his feet. He has a remarkable ability to move with the puck and slalom around defenders. Even with his long reach, he is a very impressive stickhandler, using his reach to hold pucks outside the radius of a defending player while continuing to move up the ice.

Teams will also appreciate his patience in possession. With his stickhandling and ability to ward off checks with his size and length, McQueen can create room for himself in the offensive zone. His wrist shot is booming, but he also does a nice job of finding teammates in his periphery and feeding them for scoring chances by changing the angle of attack.

Be that as it may, sometimes McQueen can take a beat too long to make a decision. He'll need to work on processing the game quicker and making more rapid decisions in order to diversify his offensive options and also continue to excel offensively as he moves up the professional ranks.

McQueen puts on his hard hat in the defensive zone. He doesn't let his guard down off the puck and his reach is a big asset in disrupting plays with stick lifts or jamming of the opposition's blade.

The Canadian center throws some checks and is not afraid to get physical, mashing his stick shaft into backs during post-whistle scrums, but teams may have to get over a fantasy that the 6'5" McQueen will become some sort of domineering bully.

Draft Outlook

McQueen is this draft's biggest wild card for a few reasons. His unusual skill set makes him hard to project and the projection window for his career outcomes is wide. The baseline outcome is a do-everything, play-driving center that shades towards second-line viability.

"I think (McQueen's) going to be kind of average at 5v5, but a 2C once you take the 200-foot game into account," one Eastern Conference scout told B/R.

With that as the baseline, McQueen is a top-10 pick in this draft. But while this draft is full of those types of players, none offer an intriguing physical toolbox like he does. There are moments where one watches McQueen employ his puck skills in marriage with size and wonders whether he has even more to offer.

Further complicating matters is that McQueen missed most of the season thanks to a back injury, which is the type of setback no team ever wants to hear about for a big guy. The good news is that teams seem to believe that his recovery has gone as well as anyone could have hoped. But having played only just 17 games, with most of them while injured, nobody truly knows where he is in his development. In a full, healthy season, does McQueen play himself into a top-three spot in this draft?

McQueen's uncertainty, juxtaposed with his upside, makes him the draft's biggest wild card. He is unlikely to drop out of the top ten and certainly won't get past Pittsburgh at 11 and 12, but this is a wide-open draft. There are a few teams who are smitten with his skillset and a bold team could be willing to swing for the fences by picking McQueen in the top-five.

Loose Stylistic Comparables

Tage Thompson (if he hits the development jackpot)

Artem Anisimov

Kevin Hayes