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2025 NHL Draft prospect Roger McQueen is a big-bodied centre but carries some risks
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Photo credit: Brandon Wheat Kings – Jeremy Champagne
Ryan Pike
Jun 24, 2025, 08:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 23, 2025, 23:21 EDT
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Brandon Wheat Kings centre Roger McQueen played just 20 games this season between the regular season and playoffs, as he missed four and a half months with a fractured back. Despite all this, he’s still one of the most sought-after players in the 2025 NHL Draft class, which should tell you a bit about how impressive McQueen has been when his back has been in good working order.
Let’s learn a bit about McQueen and what makes NHL teams so excited about his game.

Scouting report

McQueen was born in October 2006, which makes him one of the older first-time draft eligible players in the 2025 class. He’s from Saskatoon and is a right shot centre listed at 6’5″ and 192 pounds.
He played in Saskatoon minor hockey and was a first-round pick in the 2021 WHL Prospects Draft. He became a full-time WHL player with the Wheat Kings in 2022-23. This past season was his third season with the Wheaties, but his injury – described by NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman as a “a fracture in the L4/L5 vertebrae in his back” – kept him out of the Brandon lineup from mid-October until early March.
Over at Dobber Prospects, Luke Sweeney wrote this report back in January:
The towering Roger McQueen is one of the top draft-eligible players in the WHL this season. His combination of puck handling, shooting and reach (along with solid skating for his size) could potentially make him an impact top six forward. However, due to his inconsistent production, poor physical game, and so-so off-puck play, there’s considerable risk attached to Roger McQueen. Injured early in the season, McQueen has also only played eight games to-date, on track to return in February. The size and offensive package are tantalizing, but McQueen’s late ’06 birthday, inconsistency, and health all raise question marks.
As part of his May draft rankings at Daily Faceoff, Steven Ellis offered this rundown of McQueen’s game:
McQueen might be the riskiest pick given that he played just 20 games between the regular season and the playoffs. But he was productive, physical, and brought so much to the table that very few else possess in this draft. McQueen has a big 6-foot-5 frame and plays with the skill of a 5-foot-11 speedster. He can shoot, pass and intimidate all in one shift. A back injury is a tough one to overcome fully, but his pure talent is undeniable. Few players have the pure upside that McQueen does.
When McQueen’s been healthy, he’s been awesome, and he’s amassed a pretty decent sample size at the WHL level. But his injury this year, and small sample size post-injury, makes it challenging to attempt to estimate his growth trajectory. In other words: there’s some risk involved with taking him.

The numbers

McQueen played 17 regular season games for Brandon this season, posting 10 goals and 20 points.
Last season, he played 53 regular season games for the Wheaties and put up 21 goals and 51 points.
It’s kind of hard to get a sense of McQueen’s statistical progression. As a late birthday, he’s played in the WHL for three seasons, and usually late birthdays are “safer” picks because you have three seasons of high-end sample to judge from, compared to often less from younger players. But due to his injury, he’s played fewer WHL regular season games than all but a few high-end prospects – the same number of games as Cole Reschny and Blake Fiddler, and more than Cameron Schmidt.

Availability and fit

Generally-speaking, public rankings have McQueen around the top 10 pretty consistently. But he’s sort of all over the place, ranging from as high as fifth (Craig Button and Elite Prospects) to 12th (Daily Faceoff and McKeen’s).
Should the Flames select someone like McQueen? Oh man… maybe? It depends on your risk tolerance, really. If I’m the Flames, I don’t feel like they have the centre depth in their prospect base to roll the dice on someone like McQueen – if he ended up as a draft bust, what else do they have up the middle? I definitely wouldn’t trade up to get him. If he slid to 18th overall, and we don’t think he will, it would be weighed against the upside (and risk) of the other players available. It would be tough to say no to someone with his size and potential, but he’s harder to project as a prospect than others in this class.
McQueen’s potentially really good. Maybe. But the Flames have very little up the middle, so if we were them, we’d be a bit risk averse in the first round.
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