2025 NHL Draft Prospect Profile: Justin Carbonneau
Upside Hockey's NHL Draft profile series: Aces Edition, Vol. 8
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, for example, we had well over 200 prospect profiles completed. We’re now up to 185 for this draft class!
Draft Thoughts (Aces Edition, Vol. 8):
RW Justin Carbonneau (6'1", 192lbs)
Blainville (QMJHL): 62gp/ 46g/ 43a/ 89pts, +3, 6 PIM
Big winger Justin Carbonneau (ranked # 16 NA Skaters, # 17 by McKenzie, # 14 by Button) was originally drafted by the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies, with the 20th-selection in the 2022 QMJHL Entry Draft, but has played the last two-and-a half seasons with the Blainville-Boisbriand Armada- who finished 8th in the league this season. Their solid regular season was followed by a playoff exit in just 5 games, at the hands of the Sherbrooke Phoenix; over the regular-season, JC was tied for 2nd-overall in goals-scored in the Q, and was 2nd in points, but only managed 3 goals in the post-season.
Photo Courtesy of LHJMQ/QMJHL
He may be older by draft-standards, with a Nov. 25, 2006 birthday, but he is a swift-skating offensive winger, with skill and physicality, who I believe is being underrated. JC is unpredictable, wielding the ability to both make plays, or score goals with aplomb, owning advanced instincts in the offensive zone, with intelligent positioning, and play-driving capabilities.
He plays with overwhelming speed and pace to keep defenders on their heels, and push them back in entries, forcing them to move in order to open space. With soft-touch passing skills, he can make plays in tight-areas, and sees his teammates through traffic with slips, saucers, and banks, to transfer the puck under sticks, over blades, through triangles, and between feet. His feeds are usually perfectly weighted, easy to catch, and right to the recipient's wheelhouse- often giving them some kind of a leg-up on their opponents, or perhaps a head-start.
He understands how to open space for himself and his teammates, and how to exploit it, by drawing pressure and delaying, working give-and-go sequences, and by moving his feet to shift boxes to pry open seams to pass through.
JC uses these splinters of open space to fire off his arsenal of hard, heavy shots, and exerts a deceptive release to freeze goalies. He can score from difficult angles, get a dangerous catch-and-release wrister off while in-motion, and step into a lethal one-timer that's very hard to stop. He gets inside a lot, drives the net with the puck, sets up shop at the net-front, and works his way into high-danger areas around the net for opportunities.
He is constantly moving off-puck to support the play, and to remain a consistent playable option for teammates. JC owns well-honed puck-skills, and he's dynamic in possession, with spotless control at high-speed, and near-infallible protection skills when evading pressure, and moving through traffic. He makes difficult receptions look smooth, catches across his body, knocks down saucers for full control, and can settle down wild passes while skating.
When his quick hands and feet blend, he can solve most problems that come his way, and can often beat defenders one-on-one. An excellent skater, he's explosive in his first few steps, with a long and powerful stride on fluid mechanics, and smooth edges that give him an advantage in small-areas, and in tight-checking situations. He can weave through traffic, win short races to loose pucks, and cruise through complex routes in transition.
With a robust physical game, he throws hits, gets involved in puck-battles, plays through contact, and can continue forward progress with a defender practically draped all over him. He uses his size and strength to leverage his way through hard areas, and leans into defenders to cut to the net. Known as an entry machine, he consistently makes high-value plays to push the puck up-ice, and through the neutral zone, either by using dynamic passes, deft use of give-and-go's, or by rushing the puck through exit and entry on his own.
Though he has greatly improved over the course of the season, JC's big weakness is his defensive awareness and engagement. There are games when he appears more dialed-in than others, but he makes some bad reads at times, and can lose his man in traffic. His positioning has improved, but he can be quick to leave the zone, and sometimes looks lost.
There are some though, who believe that Carbonneau might have the highest ceiling of any player available in the draft, outside of the "big 4". He also has some of the same issues as many other highly-skilled draft-eligibles do, with the propensity to try to do too much on his own, hold on to the puck for too long, and needs work on his play-selection. Look for him in the top-15.
See our 2025 NHL Prospect Profile home page for all of our profiles.
See where JC landed in our most recent draft rankings:
