25 Surprising & Exciting Young Prospects Who Made NHL Opening Night Rosters

The start of the season is always very exciting for teams, players, and fans. New and young players get the chance to earn spots in the NHL to kick off the season, and it appears as though there are more surprising and exciting names than normal this season. Let's not waste time and dive right into the 25 prospects that made their NHL squads and are on the opening night rosters.

Beckett Sennecke helps progress the youth movement and playoff push for the Anaheim Ducks as the 19-year-old is expected to skate on the fourth line to begin the season. The 2024 third overall pick has yet to play a game in the NHL and it was expected that he would spend time in the AHL with the additions of Chris Kreider, Mikael Granlund, and Ryan Poehling to the Ducks' lineup this offseason.

Fraser Minten played 21 games in the NHL last season, but some players were brought in by the Boston Bruins that made it seem like there would be limited spaces. That was the case, but Minten beat out Matthew Poitras and is projected to be the third line center to kick the season off. It is looking like this trade acquisition, who is only 21 years old, so progressing well and turning out for Boston. He'll look to build off the three goals and five points from last season.

The Calgary Flames start the season with two forwards on the injured reserve, so that opened up space in the lineup and in the top-6 for someone to earn. That someone in preseason was Matvei Gridin, coming straight out of the QMJHL last season, where he put up 38 goals and 83 points in 60 games. He is projected to start on the second line left wing beside Morgan Frost and Matthew Coronato. Gridin will have a short time to prove he should stick around.

Ryan Greene came out of the NCAA at the end of last season and got into two games for the Chicago Blackhawks. It wasn't a special showing, but he is a talented young player who was expected to play in the NHL. With Landon Slaggert starting the season on the IR, Greene has made the team and will be the fourth line center. The Blackhawks have higher expectations for Oliver Moore, but he is better suited for the third line or higher to begin his career.

The Colorado Avalanche are a little top-heavy at forward, but that gives them the room to test out some younger players. With Calum Ritchie, Charlie Coyle, and Miles Wood all traded, that opened the door for Zakhar Bardakov and Gavin Brindley to make their mark in the preseason and make the opening night roster. It appears as though Bardakov will be starting as the fourth line center after spending last season in the KHL, and Brindley will have to work his way into the lineup from the press box.

The Detroit Red Wings are not messing around and want to speed up the introduction of their youth into the lineup. Emmitt Finnie, Michael Brandsegg-Nygard, and Axel Sandin Pellikka have all made the Red Wings out of camp and inject some life into the team that is trying to finally get over the hump and into the playoffs. Finnie is getting the start on the top line, Brandsegg-Nygard is sliding in on the third line, and Sandin Pellikka will be on the second defense pairing.

The Minnesota Wild have five players who are exempt from waivers on their opening night roster, but Danila Yurov is the only one who hasn't played a game for the team yet. He came over from Russia and is projected to start on the fourth line, but I can see that quickly changing and him forcing Yakov Trenin, Marcus Foligno, or Vladimir Tarasenko down.

The Nashville Predators have to rebound from last season, and they're addressing the lack of forward skill with some young players who weren't expected to start the year in the NHL. Brady Martin really surprised everyone as he not only made the team, but he is starting as the number one center and pushing Ryan O'Reilly over to the wing. While Fedor Svechkov is another young player in the Predators' top-6, it's Joakim Kemell who is the other prospect making the opening night lineup and playing on the second line. Nashville is looking to salvage the leap they took with bringing in the talented veterans last year with these two young players.

The New Jersey Devils really scrambled their bottom-6 from last season in the hope that the team would be able to handle injuries and get plenty of depth scoring. They did a good job and part of that change included bringing over Arseny Gritsyuk from SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL after almost a point-per-game season. He is starting on the fourth line, but that will quickly change if he can adjust to the NHL. There are a couple of interesting young players in Shane Lachance and Lenni Hameenaho on the roster as well.

If you're looking at the top-6, defense, and goaltending of the New York Rangers, you'd think they are set to compete for the Presidents' Trophy again until you look down to the bottom-6. There isn't a lot of money put into the bottom-6 and there will be lots of changes throughout the season. To start, Noah Laba made the team and will be the third line center after finishing in the NCAA last season. This leaves players like Brendan Othmann, Gabe Perrault, and Brett Berard to start in the AHL.

The Philadelphia Flyers are going younger again with three new looks on the roster to begin the season. Injuries to Cam York and Rasmus Ristolainen play a part in Adam Ginning starting the season in the lineup, but Nikita Grebenkin and Jett Luchanko made the opening night roster without the looming return of anyone from injury, so they could be sticking around all season. Luchanko really impressed last preseason as well and surprisingly made the team, but this time he should be here to stay.

The Pittsburgh Penguins, who are expected to be a bad team this season, are also injecting youth into their lineup to get them acclimated to the NHL and learn from some of the best. Ville Koivunen is projected to start on the top line with Sidney Crosby, as Bryan Rust is injured, while Ben Kindel earned the third line center job as Kevin Hayes is out with an injury as well. Kindel did very well in the WHL last season, but if he is cut, he has to return to junior. That may not be in the Penguins' best interest. As for Harrison Brunicke, he beat out the likes of Ryan Graves, Alexander Alexeyev, and Owen Pickering to jump into the opening night lineup on the third pairing.

It wasn't expected that Michael Misa would make the San Jose Sharks out of training camp, but it makes sense that he has due to how poor the forward group looks. After putting up 62 goals and 134 points in 65 games, he couldn't go back to the OHL and will be the second line center for the Sharks to kick off the season. The youth movement is in full effect. On defense, the highly anticipated Sam Dickinson will also be making his NHL debut on the third pairing.

Berkley Catton dominated the WHL last season and will find a place on the Seattle Kraken this season. It's yet to be seen where he will be playing, but Jared McCann and Chandler Stephenson are listed as day-to-day and there are some other young players in the mix for playing time and roles, including Ryan Winterton, Tye Kartye, and Jani Nyman, while Kaapo Kakko sits on the IR.

The Tampa Bay Lightning, who are always at the salary cap, have to find young players to come in and contribute. This happens year after year and most of them deliver. This season, we will see Jack Finley try to follow in those footsteps as the 23-year-old has made the team and should start on the fourth line. He has worked his way up from three years of development in the AHL and finally gets his shot after one NHL game to this point.

The center depth is bad for the Vancouver Canucks, so they had to look to the 15th overall pick from the 2025 draft, Braeden Cootes, who has made the team and will start as the third line center. If he can hang around, this will really help the Canucks as it pushes Teddy Blueger to the fourth line where he can match up well and gives the team another skilled option that can play center in the event of an injury or multiple down the middle.

The Winnipeg Jets lost Nikolaj Ehlers in free agency, and the external replacements at forward included Gustav Nyquist, Tanner Pearson, and Cole Koepke. But internally, that is where the talent comes from with Nikita Chibrakov projected to step into the role Ehlers played. The rookie, who scored two goals and three points in four games last season, will start on the second line, but it will be interesting to see if he sticks around once Cole Perfetti, Jonathan Toews, and Adam Lowry all return.

Some of the obvious exciting prospects to make the NHL rosters also include Matthew Schaefer, Zayne Perekh, Matthew Savoie, Isaac Howard, Zeev Buium, Ivan Demidov, Jimmy Snuggerud, and Ryan Leonard, but they were only worth mentioning at the end since it would've been much more shocking if any of them were returned to junior or to the AHL.