2025 NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Cullen Potter
Upside Hockey's NHL Draft profile series: American Edition Volume 1
Upside Hockey’s prolific prospect profiler Trevor Curtis’s 2025 NHL draft eligible prospect profiles are all featured on our dedicated page for this with all featured prospects indexed in our table of contents alphabetically by last name. For the 2024 NHL Draft, we had well over 200 prospect profiles completed.
American Edition Volume 1
LW Cullen Potter (5'9", 168lbs)
Arizona State (NCAA): 18gp/ 6g/ 4a/ 10pts, -1, 6 PIM.
In any scouting report on Cullen Potter that you may come across, you will undoubtedly identify 5 key words: Speed, Speed, Speed, Speed, and Transition. The diminutive winger is an electrifying speedster who can flat-out fly, and is one of the best skaters in the 2025 draft class. He's light, with a low center of gravity, which might be why he's so agile and displays such effortless edgework- he can stop or change speeds on a dime. In open ice, he can easily separate from pursuing defenders, and control the pace of the game. His hands are fast enough to keep up with his feet and his quickness, when combined with his skillful puck-handling, make him instrumental in Arizona State's transition, which seems to have become an area of specialty of his at the tender age of 17 (he turns 18 on January 10th). Cullen can achieve exits and entries via carry or pass, exhibiting uncommon poise and confidence with the puck that belies his age, along with pinpoint accuracy and timing in his neutral zone distribution. Though he can back defenses up, or engage his opponents with deft 1-on-1 moves, he also has a patient delay game to draw pressure, or hit the trailer with a pass.
Potter may be small, but he's not afraid to cut inside or drive through traffic, and he has several tricks up his sleeve to get to the net- including dekes, fakes, and dazzling footwork. He displays soft hands around the net, and also has an above-average shot with some power, including a slick catch-and-release wrister that can catch goalies off guard. His numbers this season in his freshman year are quite impressive, especially given his age and size limitations, but he's still trying to figure out how to work within the dimensions of the offensive zone against men, with less time and space to operate. Right now, he shows that he has sound ideas, but the execution isn't quite going to plan, with a lot of his passes being blocked or flubbed- he's keeping things fairly simple, which has led to some unfounded questions about his hockey sense. When he gets properly acclimated though, his vision and smarts will shine through in his playmaking ability- and when he learns to distribute as well in the offensive zone as he does in transition, he'll be a top playmaker. ASU Coach Greg Powers said, "I think from a raw ability and skill set, he's the best player that's ever played here, and it's probably not even close." Potter's compete, motor, and work-ethic are high in every area of the ice, and he can be deployed in any situation, and both sides of special teams. He works hard in the defensive zone, and uses his speed to close time and space- once the puck touches his stick, it's going the other way in a hurry.
Size will always be a limiting factor for Potter, as he can be knocked off the puck and is at a disadvantage when it comes to winning physical battles, which hurts his overall projection. He's still trying to figure out how to be effective on the forecheck, and he's much less potent on the cycle than he is off the rush. In 2023-24, Potter put up 17 goals and 46 points in 54 games in the NTDP, excellent numbers for a player in their D-minus-1 year, showing why Central Scouting gave him an "A" rating in their preliminary rankings. My bet is that he's picked in the second round, especially with how smaller players are falling in recent drafts, and that he makes a fine top-6 player in the NHL someday.
To see our latest Rankings:
Upside Hockey's 2025 NHL Draft Rankings: December Edition