Another week, another milestone. Last week, we officially reached the NHL offseason after a long Stanley Cup Playoffs without the New Jersey Devils. And now this week, we have officially reached Draft Week! Yes, the 2026 NHL Entry Draft begins this Friday with the first round. Saturday will see the conclusion of the draft with rounds two through seven all taking place that day. Will the Devils keep the pick? Will they trade up or down? Or will they trade it away entirely? All we can do is wait and
see.
In the meantime, in the event the Devils do keep the pick, we have yet another profile on an intriguing prospect that they can consider in this year’s draft. Liam Ruck is a promising forward hailing from Western Canada. What has he accomplished in his junior career? What sort of game does he play? What does a realistic future look like for him? We’ll go over all of that today.
Let’s begin:
Who Is Liam Ruck?
Liam Ruck was born on February 21, 2008, in Osoyoos, British Columbia. According to his profile on Elite Prospects, Ruck is a righthanded shooting winger who stands at 6’0” and weighs 176 pounds. Liam actually has a twin brother, Markus, who also projects as a potential first round prospect in this draft. So the bloodline appears to be strong in this family.
Ruck began the significant part of his youth hockey journey at the Okanagan Hockey Academy, a high school near his hometown that doubles as a training ground of sorts for promising young hockey players. In 2021-22 at the U15 level, Ruck played 29 games, posting 13 goals and 34 total points. The next season, 2022-23, he was once again eligible for the U15 level, and this time he bent the league to his will. In 27 total contests, Ruck scored 53 goals. Yes, you read that right. Ruck came one goal shy of averaging – averaging! – two goals per game. For good measure, he added 37 assists to get his point total to 90.
The next year saw Ruck take a big leap up to the U18 level. In 22 games playing for Okanagan, he registered 25 goals and 53 points. After proving that the competition he was facing at Okanagan was no match for him, he made the jump to major junior hockey and the Western Hockey League. Drafted by the Medicine Hat Tigers, Ruck got a cup of coffee with them in 2023-24, recording a goal and an assist in three games.
2024-25 was his first full season in the WHL. In 61 games with the Tigers, Ruck posted 25 goals and 16 assists for 41 total points. Medicine Hat went on a fairly deep playoff run that season, and Ruck helped the cause by scoring six goals and 10 total points in 18 playoff games.
This past season, Ruck once again delivered top-of-the-league production. In 68 contests, he scored 45 goals and added 59 helpers. His 104 total points was good for second in the entire league. Who was the only player in the WHL that collected more points than him? That would be his brother (and teammate/linemate) Markus, who finished with 108 points (21 goals, 87 assists). Liam added eight goals and four assists in 14 playoff games for Medicine Hat, a far cry from his regular season production, but still solid in a playoff environment.
Where Is Ruck Ranked?
- #10 by TSN (Button)
- #16 by Daily Faceoff
- #20 by NHL Central Scouting (North American skaters)
- #20 by Sportsnet (Bukala)
- #24 by FloHockey
- #29 by The Athletic (Wheeler)
- #32 by Sportsnet (Constantino)
- #39 by Smaht Scouting
- #43 by McKeen’s Hockey
As you can see, the scouts generally have Ruck slotted somewhere in the second half of the first round. There are some outliers, such as Button on the high end and McKeen’s Hockey on the low end. But most people seem to think Ruck will hear his name called on Friday rather than Saturday.
What Others Have To Say About Ruck
In May, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic did a profile on the Ruck twins. It’s a good piece overall, packed with a lot of good info on both Liam and Markus. I don’t want to use a lot of quotes from that piece though, since it basically spends half it’s time on Markus, which is fine, but for our purposes is irrelevant since Markus isn’t being profiled today. Instead, we’ll go with Wheeler’s blurb on Liam from his final top 100 big board from earlier this month. Wheeler has Liam ranked 26th overall (and if you’re curious, he has Markus at 33rd). Here’s Wheeler on Liam:
He plays the more direct, scoring game to his brother’s pass-first style. He’s viewed as the better NHL prospect and has helped keep the Tigers a contender a year after they won a WHL title and graduated much of their core. He’s a right-shot winger who has good touch, a quick release, likes to go short side and can pick his spots in the net — with an eagerness to try as a volume shooter. His skating is below average, but I’d also say it’s the slightly better of the two and that his motor helps him compensate, though it does raise questions about his projectability up levels at his size for some. He finds ways to take pucks to scoring areas, but can also work and score closer to the boards. He keeps his feet moving off the puck and plays with energy on both offense and defense (including the PK), relying on his effort and instincts to consistently make things happen or get open for them. He’s a go-to defensive player and penalty killer for the Tigers on top of his high-end production as well. And while Markus is viewed as the better playmaker, I think that has underrated Liam’s playmaking a little by comparison as well (he sees the ice well, too). He’ll have to prove it as a sub-6-foot winger, but he has a chance to be a productive and effective middle-six winger who plays with tempo and effort.
Next, let’s go to Sportsnet’s Sam Constantino, who interestingly has Liam and Markus tied for 32nd on his big board. This is the problem we run into when profiling Ruck, as many scouts in the public sphere find themselves unable to talk about Liam without talking about Markus, and visa versa. In any case, here’s what Constantino had to say about Liam (and his brother):
As twins who have spent less than a week away from one another their entire lives, I truly believe these brothers need to be drafted together to maximize their talents. That will be a tall order as a lot of things have to fall right for this to happen.
There will be a number of teams who believe a split will benefit both players. They did greatly benefit from the departures of Gavin McKenna and Cayden Lindstrom from Medicine Hat, and took full advantage of the minutes-void left in the lineup.
Liam is the right-shot shooter who improved from 25 goals and 41 points to 45 goals and 104 points this season. Markus is the left-shot playmaker who went from eight goals and 21 assists to an astounding 21 goals and 87 assists for 108 points, good enough to lead the WHL.
Both players will need a couple of years to mature physically. Their dad, Derek, also played in the WHL and he stands 6-foot-3 and weighs over 200 pounds.
Finally, here’s Tom Watson from Smaht Scouting on Ruck:
I think Ruck has elite offensive tools that not too many other players in this draft class can boast. Watch him play and concentrate on what he’s doing when he doesn’t have the puck in the offensive zone. You’ll see a keen awareness of where players are and incredible anticipation as well. He’s always working into great positions and when the puck is on his stick he has the skill to deliver quick one touch passes, often catching defenders off-guard and finding his teammates in dangerous areas to shoot. When the plays aren’t quite there, he’s got the skill to use his stick and his body position to hold onto the puck and open things up, allowing other players to move around and get open. And although, it’s unquestionable how well he sees the ice, he alarmingly skilled at not telegraphing his next pass, threading pucks through a couple of defenders at a time and seemingly creating plays out of thin air.
It’s truly uncanny how well he can do these things and he requires you to pay close attention or else miss the sleight of hand to his game. He’ll play the puck up to the point before taking a quick loop out the zone and then next thing you know he’s on the back door for an easy tap-in. Or while the puck is being played along the boards or in the corner, he’s shifting ever so slightly to be able to spring on the puck when it’s broken loose.
He is a truly talented offensive player and I think he’d be much higher on our board if it weren’t for a few concerns he’ll have to improve on going forward.
His skating lacks an explosiveness and he’s not really a burner at full speed. He does have decent agility and edges but it would just be helpful if he could really get going on the rush. His skating shouldn’t hurt his game too much as he’s most effective under the radar, but he’s not the most physical player, so more speed might raise his floor.
And his physical game could be bolstered. He doesn’t bounce off guys and I don’t think he has to become a bruiser to succeed at the next level, but some grit and greasiness might help him catch the attention of NHL teams as he will surely face games in his pro career where his skill alone can’t carry him.
An intriguing player for sure, who I wouldn’t be shocked to see squeezing into the late first round.
Scouting The Tape
As always, the Youtube channel Prospect Shifts comes to the rescue. The first video we’ll include here is a shift-by-shift tape of Liam Ruck in his January 27 game against Saskatoon:
Next, here’s a full season highlight reel of Ruck’s work in the WHL this season:
My Opinion And Final Thoughts
There is a lot to like about Liam Ruck’s game. Everywhere he’s gone over the course of his young hockey life, he’s produced. The WHL tends to be more high-scoring than the other CHL leagues, but even taking that into account, 104 points in 68 games is special stuff. His goal-scoring ability, terrific hockey IQ, strong defensive chops, and tenacity are all serious marks in his favor.
The two major things that seem to hold him back is his average to slightly below average skating, and his lack of size. According to Wheeler’s profile on the Ruck twins, they’ve worked hard with a skating coach to improve their ability in that area. And while there seems to be some improvement there, it’s not enough improvement to turn their relative weakness into a strength. The lack of size is pretty straightforward, as scouts appear to have questions about whether Ruck can fill out enough to make it physically in the NHL.
Actually, there’s one more unique aspect that might be holding Ruck back from ranking higher on some big boards: questions about how he’ll fare away from his brother. Liam and Markus set the WHL on fire this season as the two leading scorers in the entire league. They will almost certainly be drafted separately, which has led some to wonder (notably Constantino in the quote we used above) about whether the Ruck twins will see their production seriously decline without one another. It’s hard to know the answer to that, but it remains a concern.
In any case, while I’m intrigued by Liam’s skillset and I think his player-type is what New Jersey needs, I would pass on him at the Devils’ current slot at 12th overall. I think New Jersey can find players with higher ceilings and/or less risk than Ruck at that spot. Now, if the Devils trade down into the 20’s, or if Ruck is still on the board when New Jersey is back on the clock in the second round, then I would be all for adding him to the prospect pipeline. But as things stand now, I say that while it’s close, I lean towards no at 12th overall.
What do you think of Liam Ruck? Would you want New Jersey to take him at 12th overall? If not, what is the range you’d prefer to take him at? As always, thanks for reading!
