Red Wings select Kamloops’ J.P. Hurlbert 23rd overall

Updated 9x at 11:00 PM: From Twitter, the Red Wings traded Sebastian Cossa to the Utah Mammoth for the 23rd overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, and they selected J.P. Hurlbert from the Kamloops Blazers with said pick:

From the Hockey News’s Adam Kierszenblat:

Hurlbert exploded onto the scene during his rookie WHL campaign. The 18-year-old finished the year with 97 points in 68 games and was named WHL Rookie of the Year. Ultimately, Hurlbert’s decision to transfer from the USHL to the WHL was a smart move, as he proved why he is one of the top forwards available in the 2026 NHL Draft. 

Overall, Hurlbert is an all-around threat in the offensive zone. He can beat goaltenders from distance and has proven to be an excellent playmaker. Hurlbert’s success is partly due to his ability to read the play, which allows him to get to open ice or find teammates breaking away from their defenders. 

As for the transition game, Hurlbert can attack the blue line in a variety of ways. He can either carry the puck in with speed or hit teammates in stride with accurate passes. Due to being dangerous with the puck, Hurlbert often draws extra defenders to his area, which can open up teammates for scoring chances. 

Hurlbert’s leadership was also on full display this season. Despite coming in as a rookie, he wore an “A” for Kamloops and made a strong connection with the community. In the end, Hurlbert was a leader both on and off the ice, which is why he became a quick fan favourite among Blazers fans. 

Next season, Hurlbert is projected to join the University of Michigan. The Wolverines have assembled a strong team, which Brandon Naurato will coach. Last year, the University of Michigan went 31-8-1 and reached the NCAA Frozen Four. 

Ultimately, Hurlbert should hear his name called in the first round of the 2026 Draft. Most draft lists have him ranked between 17th and 25th. If he does go in the first round, he will become the first Kamloops player drafted in the opening round since Connor Zary in 2020. 

And The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler:

The Detroit Red Wings selected JP Hurlbert at No. 23 in the 2026 NHL Draft.

The Kamloops Blazers’ calculus with their first-round pick in the 2023 WHL US Prospect Draft was this: “I’m not sure if it makes sense to pick somebody that we project to be a third-line guy when (JP) Hurlbert is sitting there.”

That’s the way head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston remembers then-Blazers head scout Robbie Sandland (now an amateur scout with the Pittsburgh Penguins) putting it to him.

Hurlbert, it was widely known, “was a long shot” — a star with the Dallas Stars Elite U14 AAA team who’d just registered 112 goals and 195 points in 75 games and was bound for the Youth Olympics and then, surely, the U.S. NTDP.

But it was the 20th pick in the draft, and so Clouston and Sandland played the risk-reward, knowing they liked the player and having had at least some conversations with his representatives at CAA.

Over the next couple of years, they tried twice to get him into camp. The family, “always really good” about it, got back to them each time with some version of “Thanks for the invitation, but school is starting.”

Then one day, something changed. It was just before the midway point of his U17 season at the program, and Clouston got word from another CAA client and Blazers forward, Nathan Behm, that things may not have been going quite as well for Hurlbert as they’d hoped. From that point on, the Blazers kept in close contact with Hurlbert’s reps, and when his season ended, they reached back out.

Continued

Update:

Per The Athletic’s Max Bultman:

Cossa did not get any NHL action this past season, though, and despite being the Grand Rapids Griffins’ starter for most of the AHL regular season, he served as the backup in the Calder Cup Playoffs behind Michal Postava. Postava had finished the regular season stronger than Cossa, who struggled in March, and never gave the job back after a strong start to the postseason.

That development first raised the possibility of a Cossa trade, with Postava only nine months older than the 2021 first-round pick. Cossa will lose his waiver-exempt status next season and would have needed to be on Detroit’s NHL roster to avoid being exposed to waivers. That will still apply to the Mammoth.

Cossa’s size and pedigree still make him an intriguing young goaltender for the Mammoth. But the Red Wings’ handling of Cossa late this season made it fair to question his place in their future, and with Postava and 2023 second-round pick Trey Augustine also in the system, Detroit could afford to deal from its goaltending pool.

Hurlbert is a highly skilled winger prospect. He was the fourth-leading scorer in the WHL this season, with 97 points and 42 goals, after departing from the U.S. National Team Development program. He brings a much-needed injection of creativity into the Red Wings’ pipeline.

Update #2: From Daily Faceoff’s Scott Maxwell:

The Detroit Red Wings have selected forward J.P. Hurlbert with the No. 23 overall selection of the 2026 NHL Draft.

The pick originally belonged to the Utah Mammoth, but the Red Wings acquired the pick in exchange for goaltender Sebastian Cossa.

Hurlbert was projected to be selected around 21st or 22nd overall on average across all of the main draft rankings, going as high as 10th and as low as 41st. He was also ranked 12th among North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting. Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis projected him to be selected around the consensus at 21st overall.

Ellis had this to say about Hurlbert in his most recent draft rankings:

“No CHL rookie was as lethal as Hurlbert, who recorded 42 goals and 97 points with Kamloops. He’s an exceptionally skilled forward who, at one point, was so far ahead in the WHL scoring race that nobody was in the same area code. The University of Michigan commit has a great one-touch shot that he routinely unleashes on the power play. He’s also an exceptionally smart puck-mover who has very little difficulty getting it where it needs to be against players his own age. My two pre-season concerns – his play away from the puck and his lack of high-end speed – remain issues. But overall, he’s a safe bet for the first round.”

Update #3: From the University of Michigan:

University of Michigan ice hockey incoming freshman J.P. Hurlbert team was selected by the Detroit Red Wings with the 23rd overall pick in the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday (June 26).

Named the 2026 Western Hockey League Rookie of the Year, Hurlbert has been committed to Michigan since 2024. He spent the last season with the Kamloops Blazers, serving as alternate captain. A native of Allen, Texas, Hurlbert finished fourth in the WHL in scoring with 97 points (42 goals, 55 assists) in 97 games — leading all rookies in the Canadian Hockey League.

A WHL Western Conference First All-Star Team selection, Hurlbert was also a finalist for the WHL Player of the Year. The right-handed forward finished fourth in the WHL in points and goals while tying for eighth in assists. Of his 42 goals, 32 were scored at even strength, with nine on the power play and one shorthanded. He logged three hat tricks along with six four- point outings throughout the season. Hurlbert was named to the 2025 Team CHL at the 2025 CHL USA Prospects Challenge and was named to the leadership group for Team West at the 2026 WHL Prospects Game.

Hurlbert played for the U.S. National Development Team program in 2024-25 after serving in the Dallas Stars Elite hockey organization.

Update #4: From the Detroit News’s Connor Eargood:

J.P. Hurlbert was still in diapers when his father Jeff, a Detroit transplant living in Dallas, threw the Detroit Red Wings on TV during the height of their 25-year playoff streak. And all the excitement got to the younger Hurlbert. He ran around the family home yelling, chanting:

Hockey! Hockey! Hockey!

“We literally just, I took him to the rink one day, and now we’ve traveled the entire world,” Jeff Hurlbert told The Detroit News. Then he deadpanned: “I’m broke, and there’s a chance he can play in the NHL.”

Since those early days, “hockey, hockey, hockey” ought to have summed up the life of J.P. Hurlbert, a top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft and soon-to-be Michigan hockey player on a team eyeing a national championship. He has been a rink rat for the better part of his life, and now he’ll find out where his professional career may take him in Buffalo’s KeyBank Center, where he’s a candidate to be picked in Friday night’s first round. 

“For me it’s been a lifelong dream,” J.P. Hurlbert told The News. “Every kid wants to be drafted into the NHL, so to be so close now, it’s just counting down the days, really.”

Then it’s onto more special business: Hurlbert will be the fourth generation of his family to attend the University of Michigan, the first to do so as an athlete where he joins a hockey team laden in talent (including projected 2027 No. 1 pick Landon DuPont). 

Update #5: From EliteProspects:

Prospect profile

J.P. Hurlbert was the NTDP U17 team’s top offensive creator. Instead of sticking around the U18 year, however, he headed to the WHL. While the NTDP struggled to fill the net this past season, Hurlbert soared with the Kamloops Blazers, leading all rookies in scoring and finishing fourth league-wide, cementing himself as a likely first-round pick.

Always thinking about the next play, Hurlbert spots plays, adjusts to the lane to receive the puck, and instantly connects with a teammate. He uses lots of delays and changes of pace, opening access to the back layers of the rush. He deceives opponents to prolong passing windows, which he takes full advantage of with precise passes from either side of the blade.

That off-puck, play-building style directly powers Hurlbert’s biggest weapon: His shot. Name a shot, he has it: One-timers, catch-and-release wristers, cross-body shots, and more. All of them are powerful, and he has an expansive wheelhouse, tapping the rare pass he can’t one-time straight into his shooting pocket.

A lot of Hurlbert’s offence comes off flying the zone and camping at the blue line for stretch passes, either getting fast-breaks or dumping the puck for a teammate before getting open for a return pass. That style limits his ability to impact the game defensively and physically, and it’s evidently a translatability concern.

There’s little doubt that Hurlbert will have to change his approach to find scoring success in the NHL, but he’s also shown a lot of the solutions already, as highlighted in a late-season game report by Head of Scouting Mitchell Brown:

“Goals Nos. 40, 41, and 42 for Hurlbert, along with the best defensive outing I’ve seen from him. Frequently involved in the backcheck and inside his own zone. Pushed opponents wide, timed stick lifts, and freed pucks. The best sequence was an all-out sprint to time sticklift, preventing a goal, before coming back up the rink and setting up a cross-slot chance.”

With an improved approach, along with improved skating and physical skills, Hurlbert could become a second-line, PP1 scorer.

Update #6:

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Update #7: From CJFC Kamloops’ Victor Kaisar:

J.P. Hurlbert is going to Hockeytown.

The outgoing Kamloops Blazers forward was picked by the Detroit Red Wings 23rd overall in the first round of the 2026 NHL draft at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. The Red Wings acquired the pick from the Utah Mammoth in exchange for goaltender Sebastian Cossa.

“I was a Red Wings fan [growing up],” Hurlbert said on the Sportsnet broadcast shortly after he was drafted. “My grandpa, my whole family is from Detroit. It’s just so special to be able to put on this jersey. I’m so excited.”

The 18-year-old Hurlbert led all WHL rookies with 42 goals and 97 points. He finished fourth in the overall scoring race, and became just the third Blazer to win the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s rookie of the year.

Hurlbert’s exploits in Kamloops were also recognized by the Canadian Hockey League as he was named to both the Third All-Star Team as well as the All-Rookie Team.

The native of Allen, Texas is the first Blazer taken in the first round of the NHL Draft since Connor Zary in 2020. It also makes it 15 consecutive years where at least one Kamloops Blazer has been drafted into the NHL, the longest such streak in the WHL.

And, from the Dallas News’s Lia Assimakopoulos

Allen’s own J.P. Hurlbert is heading to the NHL.

The 18-year-old forward was selected 23rd overall by the Detroit Red Wings in the first round the 2026 NHL draft in Buffalo Friday, becoming the first native Texan chosen in the first round since the Predators drafted Seth Jones fourth overall in 2013. Detroit traded goalie Sebastian Cossa to Utah for the 23rd pick to select Hurlbert.

Hurlbert, who was born and raised in Allen, spent last season in the Western Hockey League with the Kamloops Blazers — owned by Dallas Stars owner Tom Gaglardi. The forward was named the league’s rookie of the year after scoring 42 goals and recording 55 assists in 68 games.

His family has deep ties to Michigan. His parents met there, and Hurlbert became interested in hockey by watching Red Wings games with his dad as a child. Hurlbert is expected to begin his college hockey career in the fall at the University of Michigan where he will be a fourth-generation Wolverine.

Before leaving for the WHL, he was a member of the Dallas Stars Elite travel hockey club, training primarily at the Children’s Health StarsCenter in Valley Ranch. Hurlbert didn’t leave Texas for a bigger opportunity until he was 16 when he joined the U.S. National Development Team Program in Michigan.

Update #8: From Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:

Hurlbert recorded a hat-trick in his first WHL game. The six-foot, 190-pound right-shot left winger scored 42 goals and collected 97 points as a rookie this season with the WHL Kamloops Blazers.

The scouting report on Hurlbert is that he is a cerebral player. He displays the ability to find seams and read where the puck is going to go next.

He was earning selection to the CHL All-Rookie Team and the CHL Third All-Star Team. Hurlbert led all WHL rookies and tied for the CHL rookie scoring lead with 97 points. His 42 goals ranked tied for fourth among WHL skaters.

Hurlbert became just the third rookie in Blazers history to score 40 goals in a season, joining Scottie Upshall and Rudolfs Balcers. He was also a WHL Western Conference First All-Star Team selection. Hurlbert became just the third player in Blazers history to win the Jim Piggott Memorial Trophy as WHL Rookie of the Year, joining Upshall and Ron Shudra.

It was 12 years ago that the Red Wings selected another Michigan-bound forward in the first round of the draft. That was Dylan Larkin, the current Detroit captain, who has requested that the Red Wings trade him.

While Yzerman was able to pull off a deal, a Larkin trade wasn’t among the multitude of moves taking place on the first night of the draft.

Update #9:

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George Malik

My name is George Malik, and I'm the Malik Report's editor/blogger/poster. I have been blogging about the Red Wings since 2006, and have worked with MLive and Kukla's Korner. Thank you for reading!

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