Happy Saturday. Hey, something is supposed to start tomorrow, right?
We continue today with our Top 25 Under 25 as we get closer to the cream of the crop. Last weekend, we looked at the first five who made the top 25, and these prospects are largely in the “maybe, they can make it” sort of category. Today, we look at the next five, some of whom you may actually expect to crack an NHL roster and stick around at some point, though this group in particular skews rather young. First up:
20. Chase Cheslock
(D) — Last Rank: 33 — Age: 20 — 2024-25 Team: University of St. Thomas (CCHA/NCAA)
A fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Entry Draft, Chase Cheslock has turned into a steady defensive presence in college hockey for St. Thomas. At 6’3” and 205 pounds, Cheslock, a right-handed defenseman, had rather importantly taken a step forward on both ends of the ice in 2024-25. When he left the Omaha Lancers, who had made Cheslock captain after just 15 games (he would go on to play 15 games as a team captain), Cheslock struggled to find the scoresheet with 3 points and a -3 rating in 19 games for St. Thomas in 2023-24. In 2024-25, that improved to 14 points and a +16 rating in 38 games. Impressively for his age and role, Cheslock does not get penalized much, with just 28 penalty minutes in 57 NCAA games.
Cheslock had good underlying tracking metrics when he was with the Omaha Lancers in the USHL, and it seems that he has been able to improve his game in college. As a bigger right-handed defenseman, Cheslock has a bit of instant value, playing a position that can be difficult for teams to find quality players to fill. According to his player page on St. Thomas’s website, Cheslock also racked up some honors this year for being a high academic achiever, with including an award as an AHCA All-American Scholar. On the ice, he is also noted for being relied upon in big moments, as St. Thomas notes he played a season-high 25:30 in their CCHA championship game.
19. Conrad Fondrk (C) — Last Rank: N/A — Age: 18 — 2024-25 Team: US National U18 Team (40 Games), USNTDP Juniors (15 games)
Conrad Fondrk was the first pick taken by the New Jersey Devils in the 2025 NHL Draft, taken in the second round at 50th overall. I was not initially impressed by the pick, but there are some reasons to hope that he may fare better as he gets older. With the National Development Program, Mitchell Brown tracked Fondrk as having solid transition ability and a lot of offensive push, but he received one of the lowest scores for his defensive play. If Fondrk can improve his defensive involvement without taking away from his offensive instincts, he may still be an intriguing center option down the line.
For the time being, his development is in the hands of Jay Pandolfo at Boston University, where Fondrk will also be playing with Mikhail Yegorov this season. That Boston University team is not playing around, so Fondrk will have to earn his ice time. By the count on Elite Prospects, Pandolfo has five pure centers who have been drafted by an NHL team, as well as one center-wing combo. Playing under Pandolfo should still impart a great deal of defensive responsibility and tough play onto Fondrk, so I have a great deal of hope there.
18. Topias Vilen — Last Rank: 16 — Age: 22 — 2024-25 Team: Utica Comets
Topias Vilen has been around already. He grew into a solid professional defenseman at just 18 years old in the Finnish Liiga for the Lahti Pelicans before flashing offensive promise on the first year of his ELC with the Devils, in 2022-23, when he was loaned back to the Pelicans. In that second Finnish professional season, at just 19 years old, Vilen had nine goals and eight assists in 41 games. The stage was set for Vilen to come to North America and push towards the NHL.
Vilen started in the ECHL with the Adirondack Thunder in his age-20 season. This turned out to be foolish, as he scored three goals and seven assists in six games before being called up to Utica. In 112 games with the Comets since then, Vilen has three goals and 50 assists. So it seems that the AHL has slowed Vilen down a bit, offensively, though he still has fared well enough defensively. Listed now at 6’1” and 195 pounds, Vilen has been working on getting stronger to handle AHL and NHL offenses, and he hopes to make an impression in the pre-season, beginning tomorrow. As the oldest player in this section, he may see NHL action in the nearest future.
17. Ben Kevan (RW) — Last Rank: N/A — Age: 18 — 2024-25 Teams: Des Moines Buccaneers (USHL — 51 games), US National U18 Team (13 games)
Though not as highly-touted a prospect going into the draft as Conrad Fondrk, Ben Kevan has shown a goal-scoring ability, with 37 goals and 63 assists in 110 USHL games, and he is likely to get plenty of playing time right off the bat in 2025-26, as he is committed to Arizona State University, where he is one of five skaters to be drafted to an NHL team. I was higher on Kevan when he was drafted in part due to the far better underlying tracking on top of his solid production. He had high-end transition volume and results, and he gets a ton of shots on goal.
If there is one thing I am always looking for from forwards, it’s the drive to get as many good shots on goal as possible. Kevan is not regarded as a poor passer by any means, but he is a shoot-first winger. With a high volume of tracked defensive plays as well, I do not worry so much about whether Kevan can make it at the next level. Kevan has plenty of speed and an attack mentality, as you might see in his highlights, so I think he would add a needed element to the wing if he ends up making the Devils in a few years.
16. Matyas Melovsky (C) — Last Rank: 29 — Age: 21 — 2024-25 Team: Baie-Comeau Drakkar
Personally, if there is one guy I would go back and rank higher, it would be Matyas Melovsky. I was impressed by the bits I saw of him in the prospect challenge, as my worry with him was whether his success in the QMJHL was due to him being one of the older players in that league. Melovsky turned 21 in May, just after finishing a season where he had 26 goals and 57 assists for Baie-Comeau, with a +40 rating (his second QMJHL season with such a rating or better). Of course, with the Czech U20 team at World Juniors in 2023-24, Melovsky also had 11 points (second on the team) for the bronze medalists.
But seeing Melovsky recently has me wondering. He seems to have the gift of above-average speed, and he has some size at 6’1” and 190 pounds. As a right-handed center, he could make life a lot easier for Sheldon Keefe if he went to camp and showed to be an equivalent or better option than Juho Lammikko, Luke Glendening, or Kevin Rooney, who are trying to make the Devils as fourth-line or press box centers. While Glendening is certainly the best faceoff man there, and Lammikko and Rooney are the biggest players, Melovsky is the only one who has expected offensive upside.
Melovsky would be a rare find as an overaged draft selection, as he was already 20 when taken in the 2024 NHL Draft in his third and final year of eligibility. But the Devils have had some success with overaged picks before, most notably Yegor Sharangovich, who nearly broke into the league as a center before transitioning to being a goal-scoring winger. Personally, I just wish that Melovsky was able to play in a better league than the QMJHL last season. I would feel much more comfortable about putting him in that camp battle if he was, say, coming off a season in the Czech Extraliga or the AHL, if he weren’t frustratingly still juniors-eligible.
Most likely, Melovsky will go an try to have a good first professional season for the Utica Comets, and there would be nothing wrong with that. In fact, a good start to the season might even make him a call-up option, and I would expect him to remain strong in our Top 25 rankings with a solid-or-better AHL season. Right now, I would expect him to be the second or third-line center behind Thomas Bordeleau, Angus Crookshank, and/or Ryan Schmelzer, though some of these guys may make the NHL or play wing at times in Utica. I think it would be nice for Melovsky’s development to play with a skilled guy like Bordeleau on his left, maybe with another up-and-comer like Cam Squires on his right. If Melovsky can take a situation like that and rack up assists with some of his expected strong physical play, he will set himself up for an NHL career in the not-too-distant future.
The Rankings
Please see the rankings from today’s listing below.
Today, the community came closest to nailing this section, with four of the five identified in this 16-20 range. And, like last week, I will say a bit about how some prospects are doing: you should be encouraged about the developments going on in our team’s prospect pool. You will see more from James on Tuesday, but players up and down the rankings are having solid or great starts to their seasons, and I am personally feeling better and better about this mid-range of prospects. Everyone knew we had a good top-end, but this area seemed a bit murky to me over the summer. Now, it seems less so.
For these five, though, we have to wait a bit longer to see them play. Three are in college, and two will be in Utica or New Jersey to start the season, so they have yet to play sanctioned games. But, being a part of our Top 25, we will be keeping a close eye on them in the weeks and months to come.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these five? Do you think any are too high or too low? Do you think Topias Vilen or Matyas Melovsky will play any games for the Devils this season? Which of the three college kids do you think will have the best transition to professional hockey down the line? Leave your thoughts in the comments below, and thanks for reading.
Pre-season tomorrow.
