Four Saints Named to NHL Central Scouting Final Rankings
April 15, 2025 - United States Hockey League (USHL)
Dubuque Fighting Saints News Release
DUBUQUE, IA - NHL Central Scouting announced its final list of top players for the 2025 NHL Draft this week with four current Saints players represented on the list.
Dubuque players featured on the watch list are defensemen Sean Barnhill, Edison Engle and Dryden Allen along with forward Gavin Cornforth.
The list is divided into groups with a rating scale based on what round each player is a candidate to be drafted in, ranging from 1st Round to 7th Round grades. Barnhill led the group at 64th on the list, a Round-2 grade. Engle followed in the third round as the 78th-ranked skater. Allen (205) and Cornforth (224) both earned 7th-round ratings on the final list before the draft in June.
Sean Barnhill finished the season with 12 points and a plus-8 rating for the Fighting Saints, while Engle had 17 points as a fixture on the power-play since his acquisition midseason. Allen scored 15 points this season with a plus-3 rating. Cornforth led the Fighting Saints with 27 goals and 54 points, both career-highs for the third-year player.
Saints affiliate players Jérémy Loranger (149, 5th-Round Grade) and Grayden Robertson-Palmer (174, 6th-Round Grade) were also named to the final list. Loranger scored 40 goals and 105 points in 54 games for Sherwood Park in the BCHL, while Robertson-Palmer has 39 points in 30 18U AAA games this season.
The Saints' roster this year features a league-high five NHL Drafted players with Heikki Ruohonen (PHI), Cole Spicer (BOS), Jonathan Morello (BOS), Kristian Kostadinski (BOS) and Lucas Van Vliet (VGK) all being selected to NHL organizations.
Following last year's Eastern Conference Championship, six Fighting Saints were drafted into the NHL (Noah Powell - PHI; Fisher Scott - DET; Erik Påhlsson - NSH; Reeder - LAK; Väisänen - PIT; Ralph - STL). Overall, eight players from last season's team were drafted by NHL teams with Kevin Reidler (OTT) and Juraj Pekarcik (STL) entering the history-making campaign as draftees.
The 2025 NHL Draft will be held in Los Angeles on June 27-28.
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