And just like that, we’ve made it through the top-40! What a journey, and with a ways still left to go. As we hit the 40th spot in our ranking, we’re stopping to check in with William Moore, an intriguing — if a bit projecty — center out of the National Team Development Program.
It’s been an interesting arc for Moore over these last few years — one of the more highly touted prospects coming out of his age-16 year (which saw him scoring two points per game at the junior level), Moore made the jump to join the NTDP but hasn’t really seen his game making the significant steps forward that we might otherwise have expected. The tools are there and often on full display, but he’s struggled to put them all together into a high-impact play style on a consistent basis. All of this brings some question marks about where he stands as a player, but it also might make him an intriguing option for a team looking to make a swing and confident in their ability to right the ship for him with their own development infrastructure.
Pre-draft rankings
#29 by NHL Central Scouting (NA Skaters)
#35 by Elite Prospects
#55 by FC Hockey
#35 by McKeen’s Hockey
Bio
DOB: March 24, 2007
Birthplace: Mississauga, Ontario, CAN
Position: Center
Height: 6’2″
Weight: 174 lbs
Shoots: Left
Statistics
What’s there to like?
Despite the sort of strangeness of his development arc, to date, there’s still a lot to like about Moore as a player. His game might not be overly flashy in aggregate, but he falls more into the category of “guy who does just about everything right.” He can play a responsible game down the middle, bringing a focused, hard checking effort that makes him something of a menace to opponents with the puck. And while he’s not an absolute burner as far as the speed is concerned, he can bring a strong enough overall pace of play to make his game really effective.
Of course, Moore’s game isn’t completely devoid of flash, and he does have the skillset to pull off a high-skill play that really excites viewers. Whether that means bring a show of slick passing through traffic, or manipulating the speed of play to cut through defenders as the puck carrier in the offensive zone, or threading a shot through himself with some noticeable zip, there’s a clear high-level vision of the ice at work for Moore.
He brings a lot of finesse to his game, but he also isn’t afraid of getting to the front of the net for chances — he might not have the frame to be a really dominant physical presence there, but he has to hands to still come away with a good tip-in chance from time to time.
Consistency is going to be key when it comes to Moore’s development at large, and while, as we’ll see, there are some concerns about the habits he’s formed and the ceiling there is to his game, but there’s no doubt that, if he’s able to get things moving in the right direction as he graduated from the National Team Development program and the couple of underwhelming years put together there, there could well be some potential for him to be one of the more interesting steals from this draft.
What’s not to like?
On the most basic level, Moore is still a bit slight, relative to his frame, at 6’2″ and just a 174 pounds. There’s certainly room for him to grow into that frame, and that’s encouraging, but he’s not there yet. Getting into a college program will likely help with him filling out over time, but he might struggle a bit with the physicality of play at the NCAA level in the meantime, and this might be, shall we say a yellow flag, for any folks who are generally more highly concerned with a prospect’s size.
But the larger concern about his game — if we even want to call it that — is the sort of flip side of the game we laid out in our last section. That is, Moore can bring these real flashes of brilliance, but so far, he hasn’t been able to sustain that in a way which would see him both developing into a higher end player, and raising his stock in the draft, in turn. As much as he can make a play and bring some high skill to the mix, he can look disengaged off-puck and take shifts off, leaving his games looking quiet as a result. The lack of physical maturity likely plays some role in this, but it goes to mentality as well — Moore can seem to pick and choose when he wants to compete at a high level, rather than having a consistently high motor seemingly innate to him, as we’ve seen from prospects elsewhere in this ranking. As it stands, it’s hard to parse out whether this is an issue with the player himself necessarily, or if he’s been somewhat stifled by the structure with the NTDP throughout his time there, so it will be interesting to see how things might change for him when he gets into a program like Boston College’s in the fall.
How would he fit the Flyers’ system?
The question of fit here is a particularly slippery one because it’s not really clear just yet what exactly Moore is as a player. But, keeping it more basic, from a purely positional standpoint, there could certainly be a fit here. After all, the Flyers are very thin at the center position, and Moore would offer them a bit of much needed bolstering down the middle. And for all of the questions about whether he was held back by a poor fit at the NTDP or if there’s something not quite up to par with his habits, there’s no doubt that there’s the potential for a high-end skillset here, and with the Flyers being a team with draft picks to spare in the second round, Moore might well be the type of high-upside swing that they could look to take.
Could the Flyers actually get him?
With Moore projected to come off the board somewhere in the early second round, there is a chance that a team might really like to take a shot on him and grab him just about as possible, keeping him out of the Flyers’ reach, but the odds are on him at least being an option for them with one of their own early-round picks. But we’ll see how this shakes out.
What scouts are saying
“Moore does a bit of everything, from high-end plays right down to the finest details. In his best games, he manipulates defenders with driving crossover rushes, lands look-off passes, crashes the net, and puts on a down-low clinic with possession. He drives wide, gets the defender to follow, and then instantly cuts inside for a better look.
At times, power forward elements in Moore’s game surfaced, combining details with impressive handling skills for big results. Dir. of North American scouting Mitchell Brown wrote about March 22nd, one such performance:
“He was a menace along the walls and in front of the net. He had one shift where he won a battle by engaging the defender a few metres out from the wall, then screened the goalie, freed his stick, and grabbed the rebound. Down low, he battles off two defenders with one hand on his stick before setting up a chance. Won positioning proactively, giving him the inside track for loose pucks, and he also showed much more willingness to control contact/engage back pressure in these positions.”
Putting together all these great pieces has proved challenging for Moore. A lack of strength and sturdiness impacts his physical game and mobility, while a lack of consistent engagement and off-puck speed leads to many quiet nights. Too content to wait for the play to come to him, Moore will have to change his approach to achieve his lofty upside.
If he takes the leap in his development, Moore could become a middle-six, perhaps No. 2 centre. More likely, he gradually improves and becomes a well-rounded bottom-six forward who splits time between wing and centre.”
—Elite Prospects 2025 NHL Draft Guide
“Moore is a 6-foot-2 center who can challenge offensively and go directly at players with his skill and skating but can also at times drift to the perimeter and just needs to attack and create more consistently. When he plays to the middle and gets off the wall to the inside, he can show speed, skill and scoring and be a lot to handle.”
—Scott Wheeler, The Athletic
We’re getting closer to winding things down around here, but we’ll stick with one theme a little bit longer, and add another college-track player to the mix. Welcome to the poll, Benjamin Kevan!
“Benjamin Kevan is a little bit of a boom or bust player, but every time I’ve seen him, I’ve seen some very interesting potential. There’s a ways to go to get there and his offensive game is very difficult to project to the NHL, but he’s an impressive skater on the forecheck and creating gaps to make himself a breakout pass target. He’s one of the less active passers with the puck in transition, and he’s going to need to get stronger to fight off and evade pressure at higher levels, but he drove play up the ice very successfully more often than not. He’s one of the worst in the class when it comes to shot selection, peppering the net from all over the offensive zone and not really generating offense for linemates while on the ice. All that said, I can’t help but feel like there’s something more to Kevan in the future. Working dump and chases a bit more, making quicker decisions in the offensive zone to generate shots from other players he’s on the ice with, and coaching down the shot-based tendency he has a bit. He’s one of the most active transition threats of all wingers in this class, and he brings a great flow to his skating stride, but he’s a work in progress likely to need a good college stint to be a likely NHL projection..”
–Will Scouch, scouching.ca