High-Risk, High-Reward: Which NHL team will bet big on Henry Mews?

Credit: Steven Ellis/Daily Faceoff

The OHL Cup final on April 4, 2022 was supposed to be one of the biggest games of Henry Mews’ career.

It was his first season with the Toronto Jr. Canadiens, with Mews being one of the top prospects for the OHL Draft just a few weeks later. But as both teams took to the ice for the pre-game presentation, Mews wasn’t there. He was watching from the sidelines, nursing an injury.

The Mississauga Senators won the title, led by a record-breaking performance from 2025 NHL Draft stars Michael Misa, William Moore and Malcolm Spence. The Sens were the favorites to win, but many still think Mews could have done much more to give JRC a fighting chance.

“He’s the guy you’d throw out there because you desperately need a goal late in the game,” an OHL scout said at the time. “Mews makes things happen.”

And that’s the thing: Mews makes every team he plays on better. He’s a dynamic, two-way defenseman with some of the best pure offensive skill in this class. And it makes sense: he actually played some forward in minor hockey and skated on the wing at points this past season with the OHL’s Ottawa 67’s. Before getting drafted to the OHL, Mews switched full-time to playing defense, and that’s where he has mostly stuck ever since.

Mews is one of the most polarizing figures in a draft full of high-end defensemen. Scouts seem completely mixed about what type of player he’ll become in the NHL. Nobody doubts his skill – few blueliners are as offensively gifted as he is and with the numbers to back it up. Zayne Parekh is the gold standard in the OHL, but Mews still had 15 goals and 61 points to finish second in team scoring for a group lacking many real difference-makers up front.

The son of former AHLer Harry Mews, Henry has a game built around being a play-driving, right-handed force from the point. His hockey sense is top-notch, and his intelligence with the puck allows him to create the damage he produces. Even in a year where he didn’t explode offensively as many expected, it seemed like he was in more control than ever with the puck, making fewer panic moves than he did as a rookie a year ago.

Mews’ rush game is incredible because he reads offensive zone plays as well as many other forwards in this game. When he pinches, he can often make a high-danger chance happen. Mews isn’t the fastest or strongest player, either, but he can meet you by outthinking opponents by the way he rotates around the ice to find an open lane.

But it’s when the game shifts the other way where he can fall flat.

Some scouts think he looks unsure of himself when dealing with the puck a bit too often, and maybe he even tried to be a bit too easygoing out there instead of going all out and trying to make the big plays he’s known for. Mews also struggles in his own zone a bit too much for my liking, with his positioning and lack of physicality being driving points for many.

“He’s best when he’s playing to his strengths, which is play-driving,” a scout said. “But he’s a defenseman, and he gets beaten too often to be counted on in tight situations in his own zone. You’ve got to be good at defending if you’re going to be an NHL defenseman.”

When everything is clicking for Mews and he can focus on his own game – the double golds with Canada’s Hlinka Gretzky and U-18 World Championship teams this season were perfect examples – he’s excellent. But scouts want him to be more effective when he’s not in control of the game – mostly in his own zone, picking up the man and being strong enough to clear opponents from around the crease. It’s all things that good coaches can work with, but there’s got to be significant improvement before he turns pro, at the very least.

Mews can get away with some high-risk moves in the CHL, but playing against men in the NHL is a whole other animal. He understands the weaknesses in his game, and said he’s working to round out his game to be more effective.

“I’m a player who likes to make plays all over the ice, and sometimes it causes me to make mistakes,” Mews said at the 2024 NHL Draft Combine in Buffalo. “Just have to find my game more defensively, making plays and such. It’s all stuff I can work on.”

Depending on who you’ll talk to, some believe Mews is a late first-rounder; others think he’ll fall to the second or third. The upside is there – he’s not big, but he’s not small and has the offensive tools to make himself extremely valuable, especially on the power play. But being a special teams merchant won’t make you an effective everyday NHLer.

“If he can outgrow the tag of being more of an offensively minded defender, he’ll be fine,” another scout said. “And I’d bank on it happening. He’s just not that close yet.”

Mews is easily one of this class’s most notable high-risk, high-reward defenders. He’s similar to Cam York at the same age – the puck work is top-notch, but the defensive game can be a work in progress. He doesn’t win enough battles to offset situations when he’s not producing, but Mews does have projectable tools and enough raw talent to think he can still make it all work.

Mews looks like a future second-pairing, two-way defenseman in the NHL, and if that’s your team’s second or even third pick in this draft, that would be some outstanding value. He’s been one of the best players on every team he has ever played on, contributing offensively in such a big way. And if that happens again in the pro ranks, it wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest.

High-Risk, High-Reward: Which NHL team will bet big on Henry Mews?

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