How 'incredible' Jake O'Brien became one of the 2025 NHL Draft's top prospects

Jake OBrien is the reigning OHL Rookie of the Year.

After leading all OHL rookies with 64 points in 61 games last season at 16, hes chasing 100 points and a top-10 finish in OHL scoring at 17 this season.

Hes got a chance to be a top-10 pick in the 2025 NHL Draft, too.

NHL Central Scouting slotted him eighth among North American skaters on their midterm rankings.

Advertisement And he has ascended to the top of the 2025 class as a center, as one of the youngest top prospects in the draft because of his June 16 birthday, as an alternate captain and without his Brantford Bulldogs running mate, Blackhawks first-rounder Marek Vanacker, for much of the season.

Jay McKee, the Bulldogs head coach, told The Athletic that OBrien has been incredible in his two years in the OHL.

He talks about an elite, elite hockey IQ, about how games just flow and slow down for him, and about how he sees plays developing before they happen.

He talks about his passing ability, his deceptiveness, his unpredictability, how coachable he is, a shot that has improved and his leadership.

But most of all, he talks about his love for the game.

And that part he comes by honestly.

Hockey was always going to find Jake OBrien.

His dad, Dan OBrien, played four seasons at Clarkson University and one in the ECHL.

His mom, Amy Turek, was a captain at Laurier University and reached the pinnacle of the game as a member of the Canadian national womens team from 1999 to 2000.

She also represented Canada at the 2003 and 2004 Inline Hockey World Championships, winning a gold and a silver.

After her playing career, she opened Victory Hockey School, offering summer, holiday and March break hockey programs to girls from an all-female coaching staff.

Her dad played for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and won a Grey Cup.

OBrien grew up in Brooklin, Ont., a suburb northeast of Toronto, and they billeted former NHLer Christian Thomas after he got traded from the London Knights to the Oshawa Generals and Dan reached out to Thomas dad, former NHLer Steve (a childhood friend of his), offering to have him at their place.

The videos of Jake and Christians mini sticks games live on.

Though Amys hockey school didnt accept players until age 6 and was originally just for girls, he spent his summers on the ice at her camps starting at 3.

Eventually, when OBrien grew adamant about hockey, she started a boys division and theyd split the ice with boys on one side and girls on the other.

Advertisement Hed be there all day, every day, all summer long with the older kids on the ice, Amy said.

When he wasnt on the ice with her, he was playing mini sticks, floorball or street hockey at home.

At 2, he could sit and watch a full Generals game.

As long as I can remember, as soon as Jake could walk and talk, he had a hockey stick in his hand.

He would take slapshots with this mini stick and a puck in our living room and thats all he did, Amy said.

By 7 and 8, he was on the streets of Brooklin beating teenagers in games of road hockey, and Dan and Amy started to sense it.

In his first game for the AAA Whitby Wolves, they got blown out by a Toronto team but he dominated and scored the lone goal.

That season, coaches from the GTHL teams would try to find him after their games.

After they eventually moved to Toronto, he later joined the Toronto Jr.

Canadiens.

In spring hockey, minor hockey, and eventually internationally, he always won.

At 14, he won the GTHL title.

At 15, he finished his minor hockey career by registering 17 points in seven games at the 2023 OHL Cup, winning tournament MVP and leading the Jr.

Canadiens to the title.

That performance made him the eighth pick in the 2023 OHL draft.

Ever since Jake was this high, Dan said, lowering his hand to his knee during the intermission of a recent game, you could tell.

I think the whole way along we kind of knew.

...

He has always been that kid who has carried the team.

And Im not just saying that from a dads perspective.

I played college and pro and I coached junior, and from a hockey guy hes always had that mentality and the will.

At 16, OBrien followed in his moms footsteps, representing Canada for the first time at the Under 17 World Hockey Challenge.

Last summer, shortly after his 17th birthday, he won gold with Hockey Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup a unique moment for Amy.

It was always an amazing feeling to wear the jersey, and to see him have the same experiences is really special and to see him standing on the blue line for O Canada with the jersey on is such a memory for me and now I get to experience watching him, Amy said.

Advertisement Soon, shell get to experience watching him get drafted into the NHL in Los Angeles in June.

Its a special time to see the progression and be part of the journey.

To experience it as a parent, I just cant wait to be there for him, Amy said.

Ask OBrien about the people whove had an impact on his young hockey career, and after his parents and his sister Madison (a student at Queens University), he goes to his skills coaches, Dan Sisca and Leland de Langley, and his strength and conditioning coach Matt Nichol.

Sisca coached the 2006 Jr.

Canadiens AAA team and OBrien was always one of his call-ups from the 2007 age group when someone missed a game through injury, illness or suspension.

Because the 2007s always played before the 2006s, Sisca watched OBriens games, too.

The team invited him to their practices as well.

Eventually, Sisca started working with him through the on-ice development work he does with his CAD Sports Group, with OBrien coming by after school and in the summers for skates.

At an early age, Sisca was always struck by how focused and determined to get better OBrien was every time he was on the ice.

In atom and peewee, before any of the players had hit puberty, OBrien was that special player who made everybody around him better.

He always had the skating and the IQ, too.

There was a time, though, into the bantam years, when his teammates and opponents all grew, he stopped dominating quite as much and people wondered, Whens he going to hit puberty and get that man strength? He didnt start growing until minor midget, and he and that Jr.

Canadiens team didnt really take off until after Christmas.

But once he grew (hes now almost 6-foot-2 and a lean 172 pounds), he pushed them to that OHL Cup win, according to Sisca.

Throughout, Sisca credited Amy and Dan for never being overbearing hockey parents.

They have been through it already so they werent overly concerned about everything, they were like All right, let it take its path when he grows and gets bigger, he said.

He has all of the tools, its obviously going to come.

And when you have all of the tools and then you actually hit that growth spurt, then it gets to where it is.

Advertisement And where it is today, Sisca insists, is that everything that he does (stands out).

At their summer skates, people stop at the glass to watch him do drills because of how skilled he is.

His edge work is elite.

His shots elite.

His stickhandling ability in complicated drills and taking pucks off the wall, Sisca said.

No matter who he is skating with, whether hes skating with NHL players now or other OHL players, his skill set in a skills session is like a wow factor.

de Langley has seen the same things in their skates, too.

He saw OBrien play a few times with the Jr.

Canadiens but last summer was their first full offseason skating together: two to three times a week for four months.

Watching him in U16 play, de Langley saw the ability but also the demeanor and attitude to excel at the next level.

Now he has seen the practice habits and maturity firsthand as well.

I was like, Oh, OK, s, this guys focus is laser sharp, laser sharp.

And in summer training a lot of guys can take it easy, but hes always looking to get better and hes a sponge where hes able to do things and learn from mistakes in practices, and he can just keep building off of it.

Thats why hes a leader on his team.

Thats why he was a leader at the (OHL) prospects game.

And thats why I truly believe hes going to have a long career and potentially be a future captain one day, de Langley said.

So Im not surprised at all by the season hes been having.

Nothing seems to overwhelm or faze him.

On the ice, OBrien is a cut above in de Langleys small-area games and decision-making drills.

He has this knack for time and space, de Langley said.

Hes very smooth.

Hes effortless.

His two-way game right now is exceptional.

The sky really is the limit for him.

Hes really going to be able to produce offensively but its his two-way game and that defensive aspect thats really going to help him excel.

I know a lot of people compare him to a Ryan OReilly or an even more high-end Phillip Danault where you can just trust these guys in all situations.

Theres still so much room for him to grow into his body from a physical maturity standpoint, too, and thats only going to help him.

Over the last two years, OBrien has worked on that physical piece with Nichol both through the Bulldogs and in the offseason.

Hes muscular and strong and fit, but he does have a very slight frame and hes quite aware of that so its always been something thats on his radar, Nichol said.

Everyones got their areas of focus and its been one and will probably continue to be one for him.

Advertisement Nichols also quick to point out, though, that its not bodybuilding, its hockey, and that he shouldnt just add weight for the sake of adding weight.

And while weightlifting is still a big part of the work Nichol and OBrien do together, so is other athletic training.

And when they do things outside of the gym, the body control and spatial awareness that people talk about in hockey terms also stand out in other settings and sports.

Some people just have a little bit more (athleticism) to start off with than others and hes definitely got that, Nichol said.

Nichol has also seen him come out of his shell.

As proud of him as I am for his statistics on the ice, I think the thing that Im even more proud to see is that he has taken on a leadership role with his team, Nichol said.

(OBrien) has always been a wonderful kid and extremely coachable and hardworking and polite and respectful, and I never like to label people as shy because I dont know if Im qualified for that, but he was definitely a quieter kid.

And he has really come into that and his play has always spoke for itself and his leadership by example has always been there but he has also taken on a more vocal leadership role within the team and you can see that in the gym as well, encouraging others and hes got some guys that hes bringing along and pushing and thats cool to see.

The focus that Sisca, de Langley and Nichol all talk about is something Amy said he has had since he was little.

Though he never saw her play, she said he has always been a lot like her in that way.

Hes the same way with everything that he does, whether its hockey or staying out all day muskie fishing to try to catch that 50-incher.

Hes really routine-oriented.

And he has always had really good habits.

Like at a young age he had really good habits as far as eating properly, and working hard, and being the hardest worker on the ice, and setting goals and striving to achieve those goals, so I never had to bug him to try to work extra on his shot or anything else.

He was always doing the extra stuff, Amy said, smiling.

Anything he does he jumps in with two feet.

He just wants to be great at anything he does.

(Top photo: Brandon Taylor / OHL Images).

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.