Mammoth take Desnoyers with No. 4 selection
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The Utah Mammoth selected center Caleb Desnoyers with the fourth pick in the 2025 NHL Draft on Friday.
Desnoyers was taken first overall in the 2023 QMJHL Draft, and he's lived up to the expectations of that pick. He's the best prospect to come out of that league since Alexis Lafreniere, and he's the first QMJHLer to go top 10 in the NHL draft since Lafreniere went first to the New York Rangers in 2020.
As the youngest player on the team, Desnoyers led the Moncton Wildcats to a QMJHL championship and the semifinal of the Memorial Cup. He paced the Wildcats with 35 goals, 84 points, and a plus-51 rating in 56 games, then elevated his game during the postseason with nine goals and 30 points in 19 contests.
Desnoyers won the Guy Lafleur Trophy as the league's playoff MVP with his outstanding performance. Since 2000, only three players have claimed the award in their draft year: Sidney Crosby (2005), Jonathan Huberdeau (2011), and Jonathan Drouin (2013). Each went on to be selected in the top three of the NHL draft.
To top off an incredible campaign, Desnoyers was named Moncton's captain for the 2025-26 season at the team's championship celebration.
Internationally, Desnoyers at 16 years old won gold with Team Canada at the Under-18s in 2024. He followed it months later with gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, where he was an alternate captain.
What they're saying
"Desnoyers is a good-sized center with room to add muscle, and scouts love him as a projectable top-six center who plays a smart, detailed, well-rounded, two-way game with good skill, smarts, and poise," The Athletic's Scott Wheeler wrote.
"He's a cerebral player with excellent playmaking ability," wrote ESPN's Rachel Doerrie. "It isn't that he's flashy and will get you out of your seat, it is that he's consistently effective and makes intelligent plays with the puck. In other words, he's reliable."
"(Desnoyers) checks every box for what you want in an NHL center," wrote The Athletic's Corey Pronman. "He's tall and fast and makes a lot happen with and without the puck."