30 - JEREMY SWAYMAN - PITTSBURGH PENGUINS - After his abysmal 2024-2025 campaign and his start to last season, people were wondering what had gone wrong for Swayman. The question marks abounded, but down the stretch last season he reminded us that he was one of the league's elite netminders. It appears that his prior season, his only bad one of his entire career, was just an aberration. He finished third in Vezina trophy voting this past year and dragged the Bruins almost single-handedly into the playoffs. I still can’t believe that Sumit moved on from him so easily, but it is to the benefit… now I guess… of Matty boy.
29 - LANE HUTSON - NEW JERSEY DEVILS - I’m not sure who’s been scouting in Montreal over the past few seasons, but they are doing a sensational job unearthing gems like this. I cannot believe the numbers Hudson has been putting up for a small defenseman. His latest NHL contract was hotly debated when he signed it, but now it looks like it’s one of the best in the league. I've unfortunately had to eat crow after telling my Habs-loving cousin-in-law it was garbage at the time. Hudson finished sixth in Norris Trophy voting last year and is the main cog on the top power-play unit, even ahead of Noah Dobson. Just because I’ve mentioned it a few times already, let’s do the math here for fun too. That is a whopping 11 years coming up for full team control for Ken.
28 - BRYCE'S DRAFT LIST (OR MAYBE NOW RUMPY'S OR KEVIN'S) - Rumour has it that Bryce's draft list once sold for a second round pick. I don't know if that's true, and I haven’t seen anything spectacular from his prior draft history to suggest that is warranted, but apparently some GM somewhere did. Having gone through prior drafts just recently, there are definitely some teams that have a great history of success, and judging from Slack chatter, it seems a couple of GMs, like Rumpy and Kev, always select well. So, I might consider paying something for one of their lists if the opportunity ever arose. Because let’s face it, some teams just do better than others in this department, and that can pay huge dividends. For it to cost a second rounder, though, I would want the list to be very visually appealing, be colour-coded, along with being extremely accurate and having plenty of detail.
27 - WYATT JOHNSTON - FLORIDA PANTHERS - It's crazy to think that this guy has played four full seasons... four incredibly good seasons... already in the NHL, and he only just turned 23. He is a power-play beast, and next up on the docket is a 50 goal and 100 point season. I would like to see his faceoffs improve, though, if he were to move any higher on this list. But again, if his specialty is the power-play, we can play guys out of position there, and then he doesn’t have to take all the draws. He was a huge riser between his NHL draft and BRHL draft seasons, which is sometimes a trap (see Locke, Rehkopf, Dumais, etc), but Tyler smartly pounced on him when he could, and it's paid off for him.
26 - NATHAN MACKINNON - COLORADO AVALANCHE - Nate-Dog is probably one of the league's three most dominant players. He is just a winner, plain and simple. I’m not sure how that translates into sim hockey rates, but either way, he is a generational superstar. He is getting nearer the end of his current BRHL contract, with just three years remaining, which lowers his value here somewhat, but when Mack was an RFA, Pat showed he had no interest in losing MacKinnon. So, I’m sure he’s preparing for free agency and ways he can keep McKinnon around when that day comes. He’s already proven that he's fine paying him 15.5 million under the old salary cap structure, so I’m sure he will back up the Brink's truck also for his next payday.
25 - SUMIT'S LOTTO FIRST ROUNDERS - SAN JOSE SHARKS - As of press time, Sumit still has his 2028 lotto first round draft pick dangling on the trade block. And also somehow still owns his 2027 one. I am not privy to the offers he has received, but I’m sure some of them are pretty good given the chronically poor condition of his roster and its bleak outlook. I can attribute a ton of my current prospect depth to acquiring Sumit Lotto 1sts in the past, and although I did not keep them long enough to draft with them directly, I held onto them and only returned those picks when he got desperate and paid a King's Ransom for them back.
24 - JURAJ SLAFKOVSKY - NEW YORK RANGERS - Slaf is the entire package. He is incredibly offensively gifted and is an absolute beast of a power forward. According to Dobber Hockey, oversized and undersized players sometimes take a little longer to develop, and people were wondering about his trajectory after his rookie season, but he has slowly turned into one of the league's top young players and a physical force to be reckoned with. For PJ, he can play both wings and has excellent checking, strength, puck handling, and even solid DF ratings. If PJ doesn’t love his roster, he can give me a shout about moving this guy.
23 - BECKETT SENNECKE - VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS - Boy oh boy, the Ducks are absolutely stacked for the future if they can actually afford to keep everybody around. Do not sleep on Sennecke. He was only a teenager for much of last season, yet was not far off from a point a game. Only the best of the best can produce at that rate at his age. These days, I am wishing that Joe had not talked me into trading down so that he could land him in our draft last summer. He not only has stellar rates already, but is signed to a BRHL friendly contract of 3×$2,500,000. Joe seems to be building something very special with his Golden Knights, so watch out Pacific Division.
22 - JASON ROBERTSON - BOSTON BRUINS - Robertson has now almost gone, 50-50-100, on two separate occasions. Both times he missed by the slimmest of margins in the goal department. But Gregory still has him locked up for at least seven more seasons, so I’m sure it will happen while he is in the BRHL Boston ranks. I’m not sure how much ST and PH come into play, but Jason Robertson has both in spades, so even his peripheral ranks look pretty darn solid. He may have been left off of Team USA, but he's first in Greg's heart and has gotten the last laugh with back-to-back BRHL East titles.
21 - JACK HUGHES - SEATTLE KRAKEN - Speaking of that same Team USA, we get to their hero from the 2026 Olympics right now in Jack Hughes. Hughes is an elite all-world player who has just unfortunately had very bad injury luck over the past few seasons. Thankfully, we apparently do not have injuries turned up particularly high in our sim, or he might be lower on this list. He is a player who can challenge for a scoring title if he plays 82 games. The Great One himself has even said that about him. Hughes is electric to watch and is still very young and only entering the prime of his career. He has that coveted multi-position eligibility, which will help Rex to build his lineup around him this fall the way he sees fit.
BRHL TOP 50 ASSETS RANKING
VEGAS (JOE) - 4
WASHINGTON (LARRY) - 3
BOSTON (GREG) - 2
CALGARY (KEV) - 2
COLUMBUS (JESSE) - 2
JERSEY (KEN) - 2
LOS ANGELES (RUMPY) - 2
NASHVILLE (SHEDS) - 2
RANGERS (PJ) - 2
SAN JOSE (SUMIT) - 2
SEATTLE (REX) - 2
TORONTO (GARRETT) - 2
WINNIPEG (DOC) - 2
ANAHEIM (DEV)
COLORADO (PAT)
DALLAS (JUNYA)
DETROIT (DAN)
FLORIDA (TYLER)
PHILLY (TONY)
PITTSBURGH (MATT)
UTAH (JOEL)