With the 2026 NHL draft now in the rearview, the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect pool is looking significantly stronger. In the 2026 NHL draft, the Leafs held 10 selections, with six of them coming in the top three rounds. Where the Leafs certainly had quantity, their scouting department was also looking for quality with the first overall pick in Gavin McKenna.
Let’s take a look at the first selection the Leafs made in the third round in the form of Edmonton Oil Kings defender Ethan MacKenzie. The 2006-born defender re-entered the NHL draft for the third time in his career and was selected 69th overall in the third round as the newest member of the Toronto Maple Leafs prospect pool.
Talk about third time being the charm.ƒ
Who is Ethan MacKenzie?
| Position | Handedness | Height | Weight | 2025–26 TOI |
| LD | Left Handed | 6’1 | 187lbs | 23:30 |
The West Kelowna, British Columbia product grew up playing in the Rink Kelowna program, appearing for their U15, U16, and U18 teams. From there, the left-shot defender was drafted to the Edmonton Oil Kings in the 4th round of the 2021 WHL draft. The 6’1 defender would then go on to make his debut for that organization in the 2022–23 season.
After a breakout season this year, the young defender jumped onto NHL draft boards across the league. This momentum was further spurred by an appearance for Team Canada at this past year’s U20 WJC, where MacKenzie proved just how reliable a defender he could be in all three zones.
Across a four-year career in the WHL, MacKenzie would suit up for 189 games, while posting 108 points in that span.
MacKenzie’s on-ice production
MacKenzie’s point production and offensive growth have been a bit of a late bloomer in his skill set, as he was primarily known as a worker with the skating and physicality to go along with it.
This past season with the Oil Kings, the defender has taken an undeniable step forward, leading both their power play and penalty kill and being one of the best performers on their blueline 5-on-5, being almost a point per game with 58 across 59 outings. MacKenzie’s offensive activations were particularly noticeable in transitional play, where he routinely led the charge.
| Year | Draft Relative | League | Team | GP | Goals | Assists | Points | Playoff GP | Playoff Points |
| 2022–23 | D-1 | WHL | Edmonton Oil Kings | 50 | 1 | 11 | 12 | – | – |
| 2023–24 | DY | WHL | Edmonton Oil Kings | 26 | 1 | 5 | 6 | – | – |
| 2024–25 | DY+1 | WHL | Edmonton Oil Kings | 54 | 5 | 27 | 34 | 7 | 3 |
| 2025–26 | DY+2 | WHL | Edmonton Oil Kings | 59 | 22 | 36 | 58 | 7 | 3 |
| 2025–26 | DY+2 | U20 WJC | Canada | 7 | 1 | 4 | 5 | – | – |
The third-round draftee is leaving the Edmonton Oil Kings a season early to play for the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Hawks. MacKenzie joins a plethora of players departing the CHL early, like fellow 2026 draftee and Flames prospect Carson Carels, who MacKenzie will now share a blueline with.
MacKenzie’s strengths
MacKenzie has the skill set of a two-way transitional defender with strong mobility, advanced hockey sense, and tough physicality. MacKenzie does a good job of blending deception into every element of his game, like opening lanes up and generating scoring chances, or pass fakes, and clean with upside.
Defensively, the left-shot defender is consistent with relentless stick work, effective board play, and play anticipation. Offensively, MacKenzie stands out for his motor, creation, and diverse scoring chance generation.
For the 2025–26 campaign, MacKenzie was in the Oil Kings’ top pairing, where he averaged 23:30 of TOI per night. Additionally, the West Kelowna product led the power play primarily as a half-wall shooting threat with 3:38 of TOI, and was a consistent asset on the penalty kill, where he played 3:09 per game.
Skating
MacKenzie’s skating projects above NHL average by almost every metric, be it fundamentals, mechanics, and mobility.
From the fundamentals aspect, MacKenzie’s stride is clean, with good depth, clear balance, and obvious stability. The defender’s posture also demonstrates good fundamentals with quality ankle/lower body flexion and open hips that allow for clean, effective stride recovery and gliding in every situation.
These fundamentals make him hard to knock off the puck, and show clear transitional upside to both the NCAA and professional levels.
Mechanically, MacKenzie employs good speed through quality power generation, stride extension, and consistent crossover implementation. This allows the B.C product to have a more rapid rate of acceleration, which he takes absolute advantage of every single shift, as he is a pace controller, manipulator, and changer on a moment’s notice.
Lastly, MacKenzie is just generally shifty, which allows advanced agility and mobility in every single situation. This agility is evident through his pivots in defence, quality edgework, and ability to cut anytime that he desires.
In short, MacKenzie has a strong skating base that allows for good mobility that he can use to adapt to any situation he needs to.
Hockey sense
MacKenzie is a generally smart defender due to his offensive instincts, playmaking vision, and shutdown qualities.
Manipulation, timing, and opportunism explain MacKenzie’s ability to jump up into plays with ease. The left-shot defender has stellar offensive instincts and awareness best exemplified by his high-end 1.56 scoring chances per game. The WHL product has a high positional/spatial awareness element that blends seamlessly with his skating, which means he is rarely out of position.
MacKenzie’s transition and zone playmaking is purely through his hockey IQ, high activation rate, and deception. MacKenzie is undoubtedly a breakout asset as his vision, option awareness, and fakes/look offs make him a routinely effective distributor with pace.
His pace manipulation in quick-thinking instances alone opens up significantly more opportunities for both him and his teammates. These opportunities and space openings are certainly capitalized on as MacKenzie averages 32 passes per game with an even more impressive 92% accuracy.
MacKenzie’s effectiveness as a breakout and activation specialist is best displayed through his six successful breakout attempts per game and 5.7 zone entries per game. This effectiveness in transitional play really demonstrates how MacKenzie is an ideal mix of smarts, skating, and strong balance/physical stability.
Offensively and defensively, MacKenzie displays quality play reads and play anticipation. This anticipation is particularly prominent in his defensive efforts, where, through smart positioning and anticipation, he can kill opponent plays before they even start.
This play anticipation alone is best numerically represented in MacKenzie’s nine takeaways per game and 0.57 scoring chances saved.
MacKenzie has both elements as a creator and a passer, and despite not projecting as a pro-level scorer, he will certainly put his teammates in the best places to succeed through his motor, instincts, and play reading.
Physicality
Despite having a scrawnier 6’1 frame, MacKenzie is a tough defender to play against as he shows no hesitation in the dirtier areas of the ice and possesses the grittier elements to his game.
Physically, MacKenzie displays high-frequency physical engagement, consistent physical pressure, and absolute selflessness in his game.
From just a sheer numbers perspective, MacKenzie has the grit, with 14 puck battles per game (a 56% win percentage), 1.37 hits per game, and 1.43 shot blocks; there’s no doubt the 2006-born defender never backs down. All the while engaging in these physical battles, the WHLer does a good job of establishing good body positioning, physical leverage, and heavy pressure.
Could MacKenzie add more muscle to his frame? Sure. Every junior-aged player could. What MacKenzie does well is just how relentless he is, be it isolations to the outside in gap control, heavy stick usage, and cycle breaks in established zone play.
The defender is also absolutely selfless with dives to block shots/passes and showing high-end grit when it comes to one of his many well-timed offensive zone pinches. His aggressiveness and highly physical work rate are certainly nothing to scoff at.
MacKenzie does all of this while absorbing contact too, as he’s on the receiving end of 1.32 hits against, but rarely does it interrupt his puck protection or momentum.
Overall, the Oil Kings defender is a healthy blend of soft skills and plenty of hard skills.
MacKenzie’s Areas of Improvement
The main areas of MacKenzie’s shortcomings include more puck skills refinement, consistency around pressure, and shooting. Also expect MacKenzie to continue elevating the skills he already has as he makes the transition to the NCAA and professional levels smoother.
Puck Skills
MacKenzie is not quite the cleanest puck handler, as his handling, hand-eye, and poise under pressure. Although the West Kelowna product’s play reading is good, his scan rate does not always stay consistent. This means that MacKenzie is prone to bad giveaways, passes straight into pressure, and rushed decision-making.
Although MacKenzie has the confidence with the puck, it does not always mean he can capitalize on common puck bobbles or rough passing routes.
These rush elements in his decision-making hint at further areas of poise as real problem areas as the player ages up, as MacKenzie generates a substantial 5.2 giveaways per game, and a large reason why is that he’s so active in engaging with offensive plays at points he does not fully plan what he is going to do with the puck.
The defender’s handling mechanics also make him prone to rougher passes that, while complete, can put his teammates into bad situations.
Shooting
In the past three seasons, shooting has been one of the most improved elements of MacKenzie’s game, and he does have a genuine NHL-level shot, but it needs better selection. MacKenzie was a prime half-wall shooting threat every single power play the Oil Kings had this past season, and that partially explains his 5.4 shots per game, but doesn’t excuse his 49% accuracy on those shots.
The defender’s shiftiness, release point, and weight transfer have all improved these past couple of seasons, but MacKenzie needs to add even more muscle mass to further his shot power (and amplify his physical game as well). Despite his shot frequency and high-danger scoring chances, MacKenzie’s expected goal rate is 0.2, which could improve even more as he ages up.
Refinement both with the puck, shooting, and overall is the key to MacKenzie elevating his game to the NHL level in the near future.
MacKenzie’s Next Steps
MacKenzie is expected to play with the University of North Dakota next year, and he should be able to earn a fair amount of ice time in North Dakota’s top-four. Leaf fans should not expect the third-rounder to be out of school early, as his advanced age means he needs all the extra developmental time he can get in the NCAA.
So expect MacKenzie to play out his full four-year NCAA career before jumping to the Marlies or Leafs full time.
Projection with the Leafs
MacKenzie is a dangerous two-way transitional defender with advanced mobility, hockey sense, and physical elements all underlined by a relentless motor. As a second-year draft re-entry, it’s evident his advanced age will harm his overall projection to the NHL level as compared to a 17/18 year old with the same skill set.
With further refinement to his decision-making, puck handling, and more consistent growth in his skill set generally, there is a possibility that MacKenzie could see NHL time in the near future after a full NCAA career. Leafs fans should not be too eager to see MacKenzie, as he likely won’t be competing for an NHL roster spot for another 4–5 years.
NHL ETA: 4–5 years
NHL Projection: Top-six/third pairing defender
How do you feel about Ethan MacKenzie? Let us know in the comments below.
