2025 NHL Draft’s Adam Benak might be small, but his skill level isn’t

Credit: Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff

There’s always one smaller player draft savants fall in love with each year.

In 2022, it was Lane Hutson. 2023, Zach Benson. The 2024 NHL Draft didn’t have a clear favorite, but Aron Kiviharju and Justin Poirier were among the best.

The 2025 NHL Draft season might have just started, but there’s already a favorite: Youngstown Phantoms forward Adam Benák.

It helps that he’s been so productive for so long. Since dominating in his two U-16 national team games in 2021-22, Benák has managed to keep himself relevant in the scouting sphere in a big way. He was a point-per-game player at the 2022 U-17 World Hockey Challenge as an underager and was one of the team’s most prolific producers all year long.

Last year, Benák started off with 10 points in five games at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup en route to a silver medal. And then, returning to the U-17s, he had eight points in eight games despite playing below expectations. By all accounts, Benák was looking to be the highest-profile Czech forward since David Pastrnak.

Fast forward to this past August, and Benák is now the all-time scoring leader at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup – the first major event on the scouting calendar each year – with 21 points in 10 games. Nobody has been in spitting distance of him in international play already this year, with 17 points in just eight games with the national team.

So why aren’t more people talking about Benák? He has been dominant against his peers for a while now. The reality? He’s 5-foot-7 and 157 pounds, and that’s hard to overcome.

Scouts will discount him because of it, and he’ll fall farther than he probably should. But Benák’s pure skill and ability to beat anyone in 1-on-1 situations – including top 2026 NHL prospect Gavin McKenna – has gotten people talking.

“I need to work harder because I’m smaller,” Benák said. “So I need to be faster than the bigger guys. I focus the most on building up my speed.”

Some scouts actually think he’ll be one of the few smaller players who can make it work, like the Detroit Red Wings’ Alex DeBrincat, the Dallas Stars‘ Logan Stankoven, or the Montreal Canadiens‘ Cole Caufield.

“He’s not overly strong, but it hasn’t slowed him down yet,” one scout said at the Hlinka Gretzky in Edmonton earlier this summer. “He didn’t get pushed around to the point of concern, and he managed to beat some quality players in the Czech pro league with his speed and puckhandling.”

Benák had just two assists with Plzen last year, but asking a 16-year-old to play against men was still a lot. He’s playing in the USHL with Youngstown this year, where he has hovered around the point-per-game mark for a team that has primarily played in one-goal affairs this year.

It’s a new challenge for the projected first-round pick, but Benák was excited about moving to America.

“I (was not) prepared for the (Czech) pro league, and I think I made the right decision going to Youngstown,” Benák said. “I will get to meet new people, coaching staff, and teammates. It’s a new opportunity for me.”

Benák’s self-awareness – knowing that the pro game at his age wasn’t the right move – means something to scouts. He’s prioritizing playing time, and he’s getting plenty of it on the smaller ice in the USHL. Benák is still learning how to use the tighter space to his advantage, but his speed has kept him relevant early on. He’s currently fifth in scoring among all draft-eligible prospects and just two points behind Ryker Lee, Gavin Cornforth, and Ethan Wyttenbach for first. It’s still early, but Benák doesn’t look out of place.

Benák has a few options on the table for his Draft+1 year. He could return to Czechia and play against men again. He could also stick in the States and go the college route. Heck, even the CHL is an option. As for the Hlinka, he hadn’t thought too much about it. That’ll be an interesting storyline to follow later on – but more importantly, scouts just want him to do whatever it takes to become stronger and more effective away from the puck to help mitigate size concerns.

That’s a topic for another day. For now, Benák needs to keep producing and adapting to every situation.

The discussion of Benák’s slight frame won’t disappear until he becomes an effective NHLer. There’s just no way around it. But every time Benák appears in a showcase event, he just seems to excel. Nothing seems to keep him down. As long as Benák keeps developing like he is, he might be fine – but just like every smaller player, he’s got to put in the extra effort to quell the concerns scouts have.

Do yourself a favor: keep a close eye on Adam Benák this season.

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2025 NHL Draft’s Adam Benak might be small, but his skill level isn’t

Article presented by Fountain Tire

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