2025 NHL Draft Rankings: #7 Jake O’Brien
A playmaking center coming off a great OHL season figures to hear his name called early in the draft
Welcome back to our feature on draft profiles for projected top picks in the upcoming 2025 NHL draft. Catch up with the previous ones here:
No 1: Matthew Schaefer
No 2: Michael Misa
No. 3: Porter Martone
No. 4: Anton Frondell
No. 5: James Hagens
No. 6: Caleb Desnoyers
For the rankings, we have turned to the venerable Bob McKenzie from TSN for his listing of players. McKenzie’s list is typically in-tune with the NHL, because his rankings are an average that comes from surveying 10 active NHL scouts. As such, the list is set as follows for players we will look to profile in the coming weeks to spread some awareness and knowledge for Pittsburgh NHL fans to get to know some of the top prospects.
No. 7: Jake O’Brien, 6’2” 172 pounds, C, Brantford (OHL)
Jake O’Brien has been consistently moving up the boards during the draft process. He started out in McKenzie’s preseason rankings at 14, moved up to ninth at midseason and now checks in at seventh in the final edition. The reasons is he’s showing off “elite hockey sense, high-end playmaking ability and is a wizard on the half wall on the power play” as McKenzie wrote in January.
As to be expected from a player on such a rise, O’Brien’s excellent production in 2024-25 has put him on the map as a quality prospect. Broad Street Hockey pointed out that put him in some pretty great company:
Since 2010, only 10 draft-eligible OHL skaters have managed to score more points than O’Brien did this season: Alex DeBrincat, Arthur Kaliyev, Ryan Strome, Matthew Tkachuk, Cole Perfetti, Marco Rossi, Michael Misa, Mitch Marner, Dylan Strome, and some guy named Connor McDavid. Those are the player that excelled higher than this player in terms of raw point totals.
On the downside, O’Brien isn’t great at faceoffs and at 170ish pounds he will need to add weight and strength. O’Brien doesn’t turn 18 until June, the good news is those weaknesses should naturally shore up over time as he continues to develop and gain experience.
They said it
O’Brien has the skills and the smarts to be a very impressive center in the NHL. His off-puck play is great, and he’s always out-thinking his opponents. O’Brien just fell short of 100 points with 98, but he only continued to get better as the season wore on. He’s never going to blow you away with his pure skill, but his work ethic and ability to be effective in all three zones will allow him to have a solid career. I wouldn’t be surprised to see O’Brien go even higher in the draft.
Experienced a second half surge with 59 points in his final 33 games. Add to that a point per game pace in 11 playoff games and you have a player who has cemented himself as a top 10 choice. Elite playmaker.
O’Brien has been an excellent junior player as a leading player on a top OHL team. O’Brien displays the high-end patience and vision to hold onto pucks for an extra second to make difficult plays and run an NHL power play. He’s extremely skilled with the puck, showing the soft touch and quick hands to create a lot of scoring chances and improvise on difficult plays often. He’s a decent enough skater. His game can lack pace at times in part because he pulls up to make his skilled plays too much, but when he gets going, he moves well. O’Brien isn’t overly physical, but he gets to the net to create chances, can kill penalties and isn’t a pushover. He projects as a very good top two line center who could score a lot in the NHL.
he leads the crop of smart playmaking centres who may not carry a ton of pace in their game, but simply go with the flow making great reads, adapting to pressure well, keeping pucks away from opponents and driving great possession results with their overall impact. Similar to Kindel, blocking shots isn’t necessarily his forte, but his off-puck results are great. His shot selection is one of the best available, rarely wasting his chances and not shooting pucks from places he won’t score from, and his slot pass numbers are also quite good. He’s one of the best players in the class at finding creative ways through opponents and adapting to play on the fly, I just wonder what his upside is going to be in the NHL as he is.
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Given that O’Brien is an excellent playmaking center that has seen his stock get on a rocket ship, he won’t have to wait too long to hear his name called at the draft. Sitting at pick 11, the Penguins ought to have no expectation that he will fall for where they’re picking but if some defensemen start jumping up that might open an opportunity for teams to consider jockeying around in trades to move up.