"The biggest wildcard in the draft."

The National Hockey League Draft is just around the corner and at this time of the year most people already have a pretty good idea of what names we are going to be seeing at the top of this year's draft class. Each year however there are always a number of surprises at the draft, even if those surprises often come during the latter rounds of the draft, and this year is lining up to be no exception. In fact one player in particular is now being heralded as perhaps the biggest wildcard we've seen at an NHL Draft in years.

On the most recent episode of the 32 Thoughts podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman shared some insight on Mason West, a towering 17 year old who played hockey for the Fargo Force of the USHL during the 2024-25 season that is drawing attention from a lot of teams around the league.

"He's the biggest wildcard in the draft," admitted Friedman on the 32 thoughts podcast.

So what is it exactly that makes West such a wildcard? Well West appears to have all of the gifts an NHL team would be looking for in a young player, but there seem to be questions about what sport he will be playing in the future. West has already committed to playing another season of high school football which could scare some teams away, but will his potential upside outweigh those concerns?

"Because he could go boom, it really could turn out to be a great pick," said Friedman.

In fact there may be such a belief in West's potential that teams will be concerned about other teams potentially taking a gamble on him first.

"Every time your pick comes up you're gonna be seeing them saying, 'If we don't take him now, is somebody else gonna jump in and do it? Are we gonna lose our opportunity?' So that is gonna be the question, is when is the first team gonna say 'We have to do this now because we won't get another opportunity to do it later,'" asked Friedman.

If West is so gifted then why are there so many concerns about his future? Well it seems to come down to whether or not West is truly committed to being a hockey player full time.

"I think teams are trying to figure out who is really serious about this guy and where do we take this player?" suggested Friedman.

In a hypothetical scenario, a team could use a high-end pick on West only to see his football career flourish next season, a scenario in which they would effectively lose a high-end draft pick for nothing.

"He's determined to play football again another year... right now one of the reasons he's working harder at hockey is because he might not play quarterback at the next level, what if he has a really good high school this year and someone says ok 'We're making him a quarterback'" asked Friedman. "Now do you sit there and say 'Oh geez we just took this pick on him.'"

Despite the concerns it seems there are multiple NHL teams seriously considering selecting West, at least at some point in the draft.

"There's a lot going on here, but just talking to people about the combine I had a few people tell me this is the ultimate wildcard and it's going to be fascinating where he goes," concluded Friedman.

Mason West will certainly be a player worth keeping your eye on at the draft, especially if he ends up selected by your favorite team.