- Landon DuPont earned an A rating on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary 2027 list
- Karl Stewart said the Michigan defenseman is “on another level”
- Read below for DuPont’s numbers and the other top prospects on the list
Landon DuPont, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, is one of 28 players with an A rating on NHL Central Scouting’s preliminary players to watch list, released Monday.
The list pulls from every major development league in North America and Europe, and Central Scouting will update it as the season goes on. An A rating means a player is considered a potential first-round pick.
Central Scouting director Karl Stewart was asked about DuPont and compared him to a recent defense star.
“He’s on another level. You watch guys in past drafts like Quinn Hughes, and say to yourself, ‘How is this guy not going to do that in the NHL?’ It’s the same thing with DuPont. There’s no projection there because you just know he’s going to step in and do exactly what he’s doing now in the NHL.”
The Michigan freshman is 5-foot-11, 192 pounds, and doesn’t turn 18 until May 28. That makes him the youngest player in NCAA men’s hockey this season.
Through six games, DuPont has six points (all assists), 14 shots on goal and a plus-6 rating while averaging 18:13 of ice time. He missed one game, Oct. 16 at Denver, with an undisclosed injury and was back the next night for a 4-3 win.
Michigan put him on its top pair from the start of his college career. Here’s the lineup for the season opener against Bowling Green:
DuPont came to Ann Arbor after two seasons with the Everett Silvertips. He put up 73 points in 63 games last year, won the WHL’s rookie of the year award in 2024-25 and led WHL defensemen with 23 points in 18 playoff games on Everett’s title run.
He was also the second player, and first defenseman, granted exceptional player status to play a full WHL season at 15, following Connor Bedard. This fall he captained Canada to gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup with eight points.
Other A-rated names in the top half of the first round include Saginaw captain Dima Zhilkin, who shares the OHL lead with 24 points in 13 games, and KHL forward Sergei Skvortsov. Stewart called Zhilkin “the smartest player on the ice, but the hardest working son-of-a-gun on the ice, too.”
The 2027 NHL Draft is still months away, but the scouts have already made up their minds about who is at the top of the board.
