There may not be another prospect in this year’s NHL Draft who divides scouts quite like J.P. Hurlbert. The Texas-born winger left the U.S. development program for the Western Hockey League right before the 2025-26 season began. It was a gamble that could have gone sideways, but it paid off, as he finished fourth in the WHL in scoring as a rookie. The numbers say top-five pick. The skating, some scouts will tell you, says second round. That’s the debate, and it’s a fascinating one.
J.P. Hurlbert
Vitals
Date of Birth: April 11, 2008
Height: 6-foot
Weight: 183 lbs
Shoots: Right
Position: Left Wing
2025-26 Season
Hurlbert spent the year with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers after leaving the USNTDP, and the move paid off immediately — he scored a hat trick in his debut and never really slowed down. He finished with 97 points (42 G, 55 A) in 68 games, good for fourth in the WHL scoring race. He also led all rookies in both goals and points, and was named WHL Rookie of the Year.
Walker, Kamloops Blazer
Hurlbert is a long way from where he started. He grew up in Allen, Texas, and came up through the Dallas Stars Elite AAA program before the development path took him north. The decision to leave the U.S. program for the WHL was the kind of bet that defines a draft year — and it worked, vaulting him from a known offensive talent into one of the most prolific rookies the league has seen. Interestingly enough, he also had the exact same point total as the potential first-overall pick Gavin McKenna did in his first full WHL season. Moving to hockey-mad British Columbia from Texas was a long way to go to prove himself, but it worked.
The Polarizing Express
Here’s where the divide in opinion occurs. Hurlbert’s offensive brain is elite. He reads and manipulates the game faster than the players trying to stop him, and finishes with a shot he can disguise and get off quickly even in traffic. What he doesn’t have is a true extra gear. His skating is functional but not explosive, and he tends to play the game at a deliberate pace — slowing things down to make the game move at his speed. To some scouts that’s a manageable flaw on a player this skilled; to others it’s the reason to wait. The truth is probably that both camps are right, and whoever drafts him will be betting on the reward outweighing the risk.
Rankings by Independent Scouting Services
No. 21 by Daily Faceoff: “No CHL rookie was as lethal as Hurlbert, who recorded 42 goals and 97 points with Kamloops. He’s an exceptionally skilled forward who, at one point, was so far ahead in the WHL scoring race that nobody was in the same area code. The University of Michigan commit has a great one-touch shot that he routinely unleashes on the power play. He’s also an exceptionally smart puck-mover who has very little difficulty getting it where it needs to be against players his own age. My two pre-season concerns – his play away from the puck and his lack of high-end speed – remain issues. But overall, he’s a safe bet for the first round.”
No. 24 by McKeen’s: “As weird as it may sound, there is a certain “it factor” that many of hockey’s best snipers share but is difficult to describe or quantify, and Hurlbert sure seems like he’s part of that club. He has almost like a sixth sense for finding the puck on his stick in dangerous shooting areas and knowing where and how to place his shots against enemy goalies. What makes him even more lethal, though, is his fixation for doing so. Every single hockey player on Earth loves the feeling of scoring a goal, but with Hurlbert you can tell that his desire is that much higher and that he’s almost chasing the sensation. He is, unsurprisingly, a high-volume shooter, while also being bold when it comes to challenging defenders one-on-one and hustling hard to get the separation space that he needs to get his shots off clean.”
No. 58 by Ryan Ma: “Hurlbert feels like a player with a niche skillset and not a ton of margin for error to make the pros. His game is built around off-puck offensive instincts, some shooting ability and a bit of physical edge. The skating limitations, the pace and off-puck habit concerns scare me, and I don’t think there’s a ton of upside as a true driver of offense. Still, the combination of smart off-puck movement, flashes of skill manipulation on entries and some projectable scoring habits will be enough for me to keep him in my Top 64.”
See For Yourself
Final Comments
The most useful comp for Kings fans to understand Hurlbert comes from NHL Network Radio’s Shane Malloy, who likens him to Tyler Toffoli and believes they both “skate the game” the same way. The bull case is that his game is knowing where to be and putting the puck in the back of the net when he gets there, and that the speed, or lack thereof, won’t matter. The bear case is just as simple: if the skating never catches up, the offense may not translate cleanly to a league that increasingly tends toward speed.
A shoot-first scorer with this kind of hockey sense is a high-upside swing. The question every team looking at him is likely asking is, how much do you trust the brain to outrun the feet? And it’s one that can only be answered when he makes his NHL debut.
To see more profiles from this year’s Draft Preview series, be sure to check out the links down below.
Lead photo by Brian Johnson via Kamloops Blazers
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