I won’t have my draft list out until after the World Juniors. But I can say this with great certainty: J.P. Hurlbert is a top ten player all day long for me in the 2026 NHL Draft. I’m not looking at his WHL Player of the Month accolades or his WHL leading scorer stats and coming to this conclusion. I’ve tracked this player since he was 15.
I wrote about his backstory here. He’s a part of a growing hockey hotbed that’s been growing in Texas. He had a good season last year with the NTDP and then made a change. A big change. And I made sure I caught up with him when he arrived in Kamloops. He knew he was going to be a part of a good team there, but his humility didn’t allow him to say much more than that.
“Yeah, for me, the opportunity here in Kamloops was really, really great,” said Hurlbert. “My goal is to play in the NHL. I felt Kamloops was the best fit for me at the time. It was a long process.”
Some may have been surprised that he ended up far from home. But I wasn’t. He’s always traveled in search of good hockey, and he found it. He has a joy for the game that goes far beyond his skill set.
He can play center or wing. That’s important. Either way, he can be counted on to take face-offs, and he’s admitted to some, you know, cheating, while in the dot.
“I think everybody cheats on face-offs,” Hurlbert stated. “I think last year I was a little bit of a weaker guy compared to some of these bigger kids in the USHL. So, this year I spent a lot of time in the weight room and, you know, it’s the little things like just repetition, snapping it back, working on things like that. Some people might not say they do it, but, you know, I think everybody’s got their own little secrets and tricks up their sleeves that they keep to themselves.”
Whenever possible, I like to view players before the draft and in their draft year. I want to see their progress. The first thing that I saw was his strength. This young man is a tireless worker, and he’s built up his frame. He was always strong on the puck, and now, at 6’0”, 183 pounds, he’s harder to handle.
Two more things stand out. He’s averaging over 22 minutes per game according to InStat, and he has only three penalties so far this season. He’s smart and disciplined.
Hurlbert plays in all situations. He’s always talked about the little things, and that’s what interested me. He’s interested in the details. Not the highlights.
He’s fast; the puck leaves his stick quickly. He can be a play driver. When he gets into the offensive zone, he processes things quickly. That always shows up on the scoresheet.
There’s a lot of season left, and the CHL USA Prospects Tournament is just around the corner. That one should be fun for a lot of reasons.
