DuPont tops the watch list, and Michigan gets the preview
Central Scouting gave the Michigan freshman one of 28 A ratings. Six games in, he has six assists and an 18-minute role at 17.
Landon DuPont got the grade everybody expected. The interesting part is where he's earning it. The projected first overall pick in 2027 is spending his draft year in Ann Arbor, and every Friday at Yost is a free scouting trip.
NHL Central Scouting put out its preliminary players-to-watch list Monday, more than 400 names deep. DuPont is one of 28 players with an A rating, the tier that projects to the first round. He's also the youngest player in men's Division I this season, and the scouts don't sound worried about any of it.
"He's on another level," Central Scouting director Karl Stewart said. "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."
That's a big sentence from a department that usually hedges.
The college bet
DuPont got exceptional status at 15, the first defenseman to get it and the second player after Connor Bedard. He was the WHL's rookie of the year, then put up 73 points in 63 games for Everett last season. Then he walked through the CHL-to-NCAA door and picked Michigan.
Six games in, he has six assists, 14 shots, a plus-6 and 18:13 of ice time a night. He missed the Oct. 16 game at Denver with an undisclosed injury.
Michigan is 7-0 and No. 1 in the USCHO poll with 49 of 50 first-place votes. So he isn't being asked to carry anybody. He's being asked to play against grown men on a very good team, which is about the best development deal in the sport.
Stock up: Landon DuPont. The A was a formality. Doing it at 17 on the No. 1 team in the country is not.
Prospect watch: Landon DuPont, D, Michigan
- Draft: eligible 2027; Central Scouting preliminary rating A.
- Rights: none yet. The 2027 draft decides them.
- This season: 6 GP, 0-6-6, plus-6, 18:13 a night.
- Timeline: the early favorite for No. 1. The question is whether he plays a second season in Ann Arbor after the draft or signs right away.
The rest of the A list
The North American skaters with A ratings include Saginaw forward Dima Zhilkin, Saint John center Alexis Joseph, Quebec forward Carter Meyer, Seattle forward Brock England and Prince Albert defenseman Brock Cripps. Overseas, Nizhny Novgorod forward Sergei Skvortsov, Biel-Bienne's Jonah Neuenschwander and MoDo's Milan Sundstrom made it.
There's a goalie in there too. Vilmer Salén Forsberg, a 6-foot-6 Swede playing for Brantford, is 6-2-1 with a .931 save percentage.
A preliminary list is a sorting exercise, not a ranking. The A tier is just where the fight for the top 10 starts.
The yardstick
Matthew Schaefer, the first overall pick in 2025, shows where the bar sits for a teenage defenseman. He's averaging 26.2 minutes a night for the Islanders through 11 games, with 10 points, per NHL data. DuPont is at 18:13 in college. Nobody should expect 26 minutes from him next fall. Schaefer is proof that a team picking first will try.
Kessler's read: Watch Michigan's road weekends, not the home games. A deep blue line at Yost lets the coaches pick DuPont's spots. The first time he plays 22 minutes in a tight road game in February, the A turns into a lock for No. 1.
