WYATT CULLEN NHL Draft Prospect

In this episode of The Draft Board Hockey Show, Linc and I talk about one of the biggest risers of the 2026 NHL draft class, Wyatt Cullen who plays for U18 USA NTDP, as we break down his game and some of his positive and negatives attributes. He could be a potential steal come draft day in Buffalo.

Hosts: Mark (NHL Draft Pros) and Linc (New Wave Hockey)

And PLEASE Subscribe to this podcast and leave a generous rating on your APP of choice to help us grow! Cheers!

FOLLOW US ON YOUTUBE! 

https://www.youtube.com/@nhldraftpros

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the draft board hockey show. My name is Mark. And as always, I'm joined by my co-host Link from New Wave Hockey. How are you, fine, sir?

SPEAKER_01 0:11

We are doing good. We're doing very good. Uh, I mean, you know, as good as one can be after a tough U.S. exit uh into Latvia at the US at the U18s. Yeah, Canada too. We're both out, Mark. We're both losers. It's crazy. Unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 0:26

Unbelievable. Yeah. I was working today, so I didn't get to see all the action, but I'm like, what is I was studying, so I've I also couldn't get to see the action, but it's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

It's it's it's it's but look, it's it's the U18's tournament, it's the craziest tournament around. It's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Yeah, that's that's some wild stuff. Now, another uh positive note, maybe the Flyers tonight. Let's go, boys. Come on, don't disappoint. It's go time.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

I I'm loving Porter Martin, uh, just and how he's been playing. Uh, I've not loved that Matthew Michkov was benched. I don't know why why that experiment was tried, but I think he's gonna come back like a man possessed today, so we'll see. I hope um, but yeah, oh yeah, oh my gosh, it's it's been a lot of crazy hockey news going on right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:11

Like, this is this is unbelievable. I love topic for today, though. Yeah, you're excited about this one, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

You are excited for this guy. That's right. Today we're going into one of my favorite prospects, Wyatt Cullen. Oh my gosh. This guy is generally one of my favorite players in this entire draft class. He has fought his way into a top 15 spot for me. I know me and Mark are gonna have some contention about where we put this player, but let's just let's get let's get right in. I'm gonna take your section from you. Let's get right into the the stats. Let's look at his measurables and what whatnot. Uh, I think they got that slide prepared.

SPEAKER_00 1:45

All right, let no no horsing around. Today is all business. We got White Cullen played for the U18 NTDP, 34 points in 34 games. Had some injuries that he dealt with throughout the season, but he is listed at six foot one, 176-pound winger. And you know what? So the one thing I want to mention is that at the beginning of the season, they had him listed at 5'10 coming in and then sprouted three inches this past season, which obviously can you know have an effect on you know the overall growth spurt balance and all that fun stuff, you know, that we talk about in hockey. But uh that's a pretty big uh jump in size right there to start off.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

Before we even get into anything with his game, I I wanna I wanna quote, I want to just get some some facts out of the way right way right away. Um, September 08, birthday, September 8th, 2008. He is a week away from being in next year's draft class. We talk about that a lot. Yes, that's a guy like uh Ilyam Murazov, yes, that's a guy like uh Oliver Suvanto as well. But Cullen also is doing that at this level. The August and September 08s are really shining out this year. I that's one of the things I've I don't think I've seen in any other draft class. Secondly, let me also let me first of all, I need to credit that I was not the first person to find this. Um, I was watching Sebastian High's podcast. Uh so credit to you, Sebastian. I know you sometimes watch this as well, but Sebastian mentioned that when Cullen came to the USNTDP, he was five foot four. And now, just a little over two years later, he's six foot one. He's more in the shape of his father. He could be growing more. And I just want to set that precedent before we go into the cliffs because this guy, he's had no, no, he's had no uh he's had no sleeper period. There is no been, there's not been an adjustment to his size, period. He's just been going. So uh Wyatt Cullen is distributing all is showing these crazy skills, these crazy skating clips while he's still growing. So I just want to preface that for the audience real quick. I mark, we're I feel like we're gonna go at this today. I feel like you and I are gonna run out of it. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

I'm not a hater, I'm not a here. However, I do there are some parts of his game that definitely need some work now. Granted, yeah, saying that you know, that growth spurt that he's had in the last two years, another player recently who had a big growth spurt and who went really high in their draft season. You wanna I know you're uh go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

That's back at Seneca, of course.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

Absolutely. How could we forget? So, you know what? Listen, um the one the one game that I noticed him um a lot, like he he really kind of stood out to me was the uh all American prospect game at the USA arena. I was there live and I'm telling you, I was watching, I'm like, wow, uh this Cullen kid is just popping off today. I had seen him play against the USHL a handful of times, and you know, he was good, don't get me wrong, he wasn't good. But as I when I saw him at the USA uh the All-American Prospect Game, I was like, wow, this kid is impressing me today. And so yeah, you know what? Since then, he has just been climbing, climbing the rankings. Now, preseason or beginning of the season, NHL Central Scouting had him as a C ranking rating, I guess you could say, which is like you know, fifth, sixth round kind of ranking. Guess what? Not anymore. He's top 15 in the in the uh NHL Central Scouting. So yeah, they they saw what everyone else is seeing. He has just bumped up the rankings. Now, uh the first thing I want to show is you know the way he kind of uh controls. Well, here's the USA prospect game. This is where I was at, and uh yeah, that this is him coming out of the corner with a nice little dish right here. Quick thinking. Look at his pass. Wow. So the offensive chops are there for sure. Now, the you know, a point per game at the NTDP is not you know anything extreme, however, uh he did he was hampered with some injuries, and like I said, he kind of popped off near the end of the season, so it doesn't really necessary necessarily reflect uh his offensive uh ceiling, I guess you could say. But the the rest of the season, man, he has been looking absolutely beautiful. And we're gonna show some clips on here in a second, but uh yeah, what's your take on uh Mr. Cullen?

SPEAKER_01 6:10

I I see a fantastic uh point scoring winger here. Uh this is a guy with a ton of skill with his stick, a ton of skill with his skates. He's able to get separation uh speed-wise, uh just dexterity-wise. He is a very smart player in creating space, and he does a lot with that space as well. I mean, we've seen he's a good dangler. We we see that he's got a decent shot, or he's able to create good shots for himself. He creates passes very, very well. He's a good stick, uh, he's a good uh he's a good passer because he's a good creator of space. That's where it really starts off for him as well. He's been able to create his own space and he's been able to be fast. He's able to drive a line, perhaps, maybe in the NHL. This is a guy who we're looking at who I think there's no two ways about it. He will be in a middle six as a scoring depth role. Will he be as high as a second line? Perhaps. Could he be a first line guy? I don't want to completely rule it out. I I really think this guy has a lot of ceiling to a point where I really can't really say where he could be. It's all about his path of development. He's committed to the University of Minnesota, where his father is the player, uh, the director of player development uh there. And I see no reason why he won't be in that lineup as an 18-year-old, a freshly turned 18-year-old next season for the 2026-2027 season. He is going to be a fresh, uh he's going to be a legit 18-year-old throughout this that entire year of college, his freshman year, should he decide to play there. Tri-City has his rights in the WHL, so should he go there? He's going to dominate offensively. He's going to put up maybe better numbers than JP Herlbert did. Um, I really think there's the sky's the limit with this guy, but there are some drawbacks as well. Um, some of the decision making, he does like to play a little bit of hero puck as well. Uh, sometimes he tries to force plays, dangle himself into a corner. Uh, and and and we see that. I obviously I think the the most striking uh example of that, the the Czechs beat uh the United States in the U18s uh earlier on in the round robin play, and it was pretty much directly because of Cullen's fault. He was dancing, he felt that he was the one who was going to end the end the game, create the play, but he tries to do too much, he gets poke uh poke checked, and they s the checks score the goal in overtime. Um that's one of the main, that's the main thing holding me back from ranking him in the top 10. Because I see this requisite skill, I see the the confidence on his stick, I see the super supreme development path he seems to be on, and I want to rank him top 10. That's not where I'm going with this one. I have him top 15. I think 20 to 10 is is a very solid range for him, and that's where both McKeynes, Elite Prospects, the North American skaters for Central Scouting have him as well. Um this is a guy who I want to exert caution on, but he could really become a stud. I I do not see I definitely do see a team taking a chance on him earlier than a lot of people think. Um and I'll say this uh because I know you're gonna ask me later. Um, in terms of player comparisons, I the way that he stick handles, the way that he skates, I I see a lesser version of James Haggins. I know you don't believe me, but I really see the way that he plays.

SPEAKER_00 9:20

I actually I actually I kind of agree with that. Uh James Haggins on a little bit of uh cooley as well, actually. Kind of the way they skate and stuff like that. You know what? Listen, I offensively he looks like he's gonna be really good. If he like if he takes that development path that we're hoping that he takes, this could be an offensive threat big time. My only contention with him is his defensive play. He is very he he's he's non-urgent, we'll say his urgency is not there on defense. I see him a lot of times, you know, along the wall or even when he's for checking, he's just kind of laxadaisical. I want to say, like, he doesn't have that urgency, you know. Like the James Haggins and the coolies, they're kind of like dogs on the puck. He doesn't have that defensively, offensively. Listen, offensively, there is some nice potential for sure. Like you said, if you're comparing him to a James Haggins type, you definitely can see like this is a goal at the U18s, which which was just unbelievable. Like it's just a goal. Yeah, this yeah, exactly. This is it kind of looks like him there for sure. And um yeah, so I I think that my like you know, and obviously the compete, the the physicality is is a little lackluster, but if he goes the NCAA route, and we gotta remember, like you said, he is one week away being in the 2027 draft, so very, very young in terms of draft wise. So I think that yeah, if he goes to the NCAA route, I think that that's gonna be a really good path for him for you know structure, you know, more responsibility-wise defensively, things of that nature. Offensively, though, man, I love watching his game, especially like I said, after that USA all-American game, I had some eyes on him and I'm like, wow, this kid, like he really impressed me. And then since then, he's just popped off. And and you love to see that, you know what I mean? It's it's it's nice to see these players uh make that big jump, especially when he had a growth spurt, like we said. Uh nice to see.

SPEAKER_01 11:19

Not to create yet another narrative. I know that's what I do all the time. Um, but it looking at what James Haggins has become, I I remember very clearly his uh his USN TDP season the year before he was drafted. He was an incredible offensive creator. I mean, one of the best the USN TDP had ever seen. They were saying he was like the next Jack Hughes and whatnot. Um, nobody really was concerned about his defensive urgency, and that is something that he struggled with in his first year at Boston College. That is something that James Haggins has really, really honed in on and become better on. I went to go see James Hagins in October of this past year against RPI, and it's RPI, it's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Uh, fantastic building, fantastic team. They have a very gritty, scrappy team. They build their team very tough, but they're no Boston College. And James Hagins, despite going into what would be more uh a bit of a weaker game on their schedule, he was pushing play. He was the guy that was really, really motivated and driving play. That could that dog could also be inside of Wyatt Cullen. We know who his father is. He comes from good NHL bloodlines. He's going to be going to the rough, tough Big Ten. The Big Ten has shaped players to become at the shaped players to become better defensively as well. Porter Martone is an example. He was a guy who did not have a lot of urgency in the OHL. There was a lot of lazy back checks to the point where I really was not the biggest fan of him. I know people were pushing for him um pretty high. I had him, I think, around like six or seven, um, despite his talent putting him into like a top five position. Now, look at what he's doing on Philadelphia after a year with Michigan State. I truly believe in the NCAA development model because I've seen it so many times. Cooley, Haggins, Martone. That could also be the case with with Wyatt Cullen here. I think if you got all the tools offensively, you're growing, you're in a position to succeed in a place like Minnesota. If he's put on the top two, the top two lines there, you're going to see him round his game out uh defensively. You're going to see, because he has the speed, he has all these things. I want to bet on him. I really do want to bet on him in terms of just uh the defensive proficiency. I think it's going to end up panning out. It's not going to be Mitch Martyr level or James Hagen's level, but I think it'll pan out.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

And that's what that's what, like I said, I I'm I'm not knocking him for how he's playing defensively because he does have, like I said, the offensive chops. I'm just saying that he needs to improve upon that. And like you said, Hagins, Martone, all those guys did it. And I mean, you were talking about Haggins at Boston, but I mean, how about playing for the Bruins? He was looking, he was flying out there chasing down pucks, making plays. Like, I mean, it's a totally different player. It's beautiful. And like you said, if he got he's got white color, has there's no can't go to Tri-City. No way. You gotta go. NCAA gotta go. You gotta, you gotta. I don't care how young he is.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

So now we talk about say that, but he, I mean, he he's 17, he turns 18 September. So look, well, we'll see. If he goes, he goes, and I think he will because of Matt Coleman being there, but I we have to be prepared for the possibility of him going to Tri-City. I mean, look, we were all deep faked by Macklin Celabrini when he was drafted first for all. There were a lot of people who thought he was gonna go back to college. Uh, there's a lot of noise around that. And I mean, you and I were both both fooled by that little chatter that happened. So you never really know until it actually happens.

SPEAKER_00 14:45

So absolutely. All right, so let's take a look at some of the rankings here. Uh, the the the website that we work for, McKean's hockey, go check them out. Uh, we currently have them listed at number 19 in our rankings. I think honestly, just looking at some of the names ahead of him, I think that that is gonna change because you and I, you and I are both the uh American writers. So we're we're gonna push, I think we're gonna push that narrative a little bit more. Come final rankings, don't you think, there, Link?

SPEAKER_01 15:16

I mean, absolutely. I'm I'm right there with you. I'm somebody who's been a Wyatt Cullen fan ever since I've seen him do this sort of drastic turnaround. Um, there are two guys that I've really really advocated for since the the since the world juniors, and that's Cullen and that's Hemming. Those are two guys that I've been really, really demonstratively raving for. Um, so I I I like them both. Um, if I could put them in my top 10, I would. I don't know if I can put Cullen in my top 10, but I want to. And then Hemming. You know what? Oh man, listen, I really want to put Hemming in my top 10 too.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

So we'll see. If we look at a projection-wise, like future, um, like you said, if if if he can clean up, if Cullen can clean up some of his uh off puck play, we'll say, and he improved. And now you gotta remember, he's 6'1, 176 pounds. He's still got a bulk up too. So there's gonna, there's he's gonna get even harder to knock off the puck. Right now, he's 176 pounds, he's still slight. Once he starts to fill out and he gets that balance and that strength, watch out because it is gonna be even harder to knock him off the puck. I think that this this could be a sneaky, really good pick. And honestly, if we're looking projection-wise in terms of you know where he could be future, I I might put him in the top 10. I'm not even kidding. Uh, ahead of some players, like I said, I because I think that he's got a higher offensive ceiling than some of the players that float around that top 10, you know, like maybe 10 to 12 range. I'll go as far.

SPEAKER_01 16:42

I'll go as far to say that I think he's a higher offensive ceiling than a guy like Vigo Bjork. And I love Vigo Bjork. And I the reason why I'm gonna keep Vigo Bjork ahead of him because I know Vigo Bjork is going to be somewhat of a certainty, which is beyond asinine to say about a guy who's 5'10 compared to a guy who's like six foot one and growing. But I I I do I believe in them both. Um why I I think there is a level of caution that should be exerted with a guy like Cullen. That being said, I'm putting him in my top 12, probably, or top 13. Um, but I do think there is caution that needs to be exerted with this, with this pick. Um, I think he's a fantastic player. I mean, we see it every single time. We know the development path he's on. But then again, I mean, this is a new Minnesota, this is a new era for Minnesota. This is a new coach. We don't know exactly what's going to happen here. I Brett uh Brett Larson, we only really know what happened with him at uh at St. Cloud. And there aren't like the highest level uh developable NHL prospects at St. Cloud, not to crap on my St. Cloud fans in Minnesota, all right. Love you guys. But um we'll see. It's it's a new situation. Um North Dakota went to the they went to the frozen four, for goodness sake. They were a team that was this close to going to a championship game. And you look at Keaton Verhoff, he was going to this year a projected top two pick, number two, next to McKenna. And he's fallen quite a bit. So it's never a certainty that a player is going to develop throughout their first year in college or going to look particularly better. Verhoff is going back for a second year, that's a guarantee. Wyatt Cullen, you never really know. So that's why I'm saying exercise caution. But you know, that being said, me and Mark are going to be rallying for our boys. So I always just like I want to put that out there.

SPEAKER_00 18:28

I'll tell you right now, I we will advocate for him to move up beyond 19. He guaranteed, I'm saying 100%. We're gonna, I'm gonna I don't know about the rest of the crew at McKeyn's, however, I think if we can get him close to around 15 inside of 15 range, I think we've done the job. So I will have to we're gonna have to bring the tape, though, as they say. We're gonna have to bring the tape. All right, I think that's it for uh White Cullen from the NTDP. All right, so I think that uh covers it for today, there, Link. Good to see you, buddy. Uh go flyers tonight and uh everyone else. We'll see you soon. Cheers.