Aitcheson rising in prospect rankings ahead of 2025 NHL Draft

The 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 27-28 at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The first round will be held June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), with rounds 2-7 on June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at Barrie defenseman Kashawn Aitcheson. Full draft coverage can be found here.

Kashawn Aitcheson feels like he was destined to be a hockey player.

"Ever since I've been able to talk, I've always asked for skates," the defenseman for Barrie of the Ontario Hockey League said. "And then I got skates for Christmas one year, I got them put on by my grandparents, and then I looked down at them and I was like, 'Grandpa, I need ice.'

"I think ever since that, they knew where my path was going."

The path that began at Ted Reeve Community Arena in the Scarborough section of Toronto could next take him to becoming a first-round pick at the 2025 NHL Draft.

The 6-foot-1, 199-pound left-handed shot was third among OHL defensemen this season with 26 goals and seventh with 59 points in 64 regular-season games. He tied for fifth in playoff scoring by a defenseman with 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 16 games.

Aitcheson also thrives in a physical game, with 88 penalty minutes that ranked second with Barrie during the regular season.

"I say I'm a strong two-way defenseman that likes to shut other team's top lines down and create offense when the opportunity arises," he said. "I feel like being physical and being hard on guys kind of comes with it. You take a couple roughings and coincidentals, but I think it's obviously not crossing that line by taking the extra shot or punching the guy in the face or doing the stupid slash kind of thing. I think that's what helps me out being that agitator."

Learning to meter that agitating style while staying on the ice remains a learning process for the 18-year-old, but he does seem to be on his way to finding that proper balance between playing physical and playing smart; his penalty minute total was down from 126 in 64 games last season.

Aitcheson said he tries to pattern his game after Charlie McAvoy of the Boston Bruins. Marty Williamson, Barrie's general manager who also coached the team through the 2024-25 season, said Jacob Trouba of the Anaheim Ducks also would be a good comparison.

"He hasn't taken any bad penalties or anything," Williamson said. "You wouldn't call him dirty. You'd call him hard-nosed, and that's the way I look at Jacob Trouba when I evaluate his game. I think he's a hard-nosed defenseman who's hard to play against, has great leadership qualities. Kashawn checks a lot of those boxes, that's for sure."

Aitcheson has earned enough trust to be a go-to player for Barrie in all situations.

"For me it's kind of the verbal battles that I need him to stay out of, because he gets in verbal battles with fourth-line guys on the bench and then they're asking him to fight," Williamson said. "When we play 'Kash,' we match him up against the top lines on the other team, and that's what he's got to play hard against and not get caught up with ... at our level, weaker players and stuff like that.

"He's got to stay focused on how important he is to our hockey team in shutting down some of the top players in the league, because he can do it skating-wise, smarts-wise, and also play them physical, which is a nice element. Sometimes your best skating defenseman has to go against these guys. But when you've got guys like Kash that also play them very physical, you really make the team have their heads up on the other side. Nobody wants to play against Kash."

Aitcheson said that aspect remains a work in progress for him.

"We definitely butt heads a little bit at that, because I'm just such a vocal guy," he said. "[Williamson] definitely got that out of my game. It made a lot of sense. I'm just spending energy and time on unnecessary [things] when I could be focusing on the game.

"I think I'll definitely be on the ice a little cocky, definitely things I would say on the ice that I wouldn't say off the ice. I try to bring that swagger, bring that jam. I think the game can be missing it sometimes, and I just want to be that energy that gets my team going."

Aitcheson began to stand out among NHL scouts with his blend of offensive touch and physicality during the CHL/Top Prospects Challenge in November, scoring a goal and impressing Canadian Hockey League coach Kris Mallette, who never had met Aitcheson.

"I don't know much about him but I like him a lot," said Mallette, who got to see much more of Aitcheson when he was hired as coach of Erie in the OHL on Feb. 11. "I think his movement within the game, in regard to puck handling, his edge work, it's very impressive. The physicality is very impressive. And then the ability, from what I've been told and I've actually watched, he's not afraid to mix it up."

That play carried throughout the season, and he is No. 9 in NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters, up from No. 15 in the midterm rankings in January.

"When he plays his game, he's a very solid, two-way, complete defenseman," Central Scouting director Dan Marr said. "There's really no holes to his game. He's got the green light [offensively] because he's a smart player, plays a mature game. He picks his spots smartly. He'll pinch in at the right time to get those offensive chances to bury it, and he's got a decent shot. ... Everyone looks and they're surprised that he's got 26 goals, because you don't look at him as a typical offensive-style [defenseman]. You're not going to compare him to Quinn Hughes, you're not going to compare him to guys that can just skate and rush the puck up the ice. So that's a credit to him and his makeup.

"On the physical side of things you need to have your head up, whether it's in open ice or in the corners, because he's going to shut you down and you're going to feel it if he takes you out. And he is a mature player. I think he makes controlled decisions and he's disciplined enough to have that factor on a team to where he adds that element that every team covets. He just does it in such an unassuming way that you don't appreciate the offensive tools that he does bring."