2025 Draft Profile: Logan Hensler

By the time the draft rolls around to Montreal’s picks at 16 and 17, there will be a temptation to take some big swings on toolsy players.  But there are also safe and dependable players to take in that range.  Logan Hensler falls in the latter category but will merit serious consideration if he’s still on the board when the Canadiens are picking.

Bio

Defenceman
Shoots: Right
DOB: October 14, 2006
Height: 6’2.5″
Weight: 198 pounds

Rankings

Elite Prospects: 17
Future Considerations: 27
Daily Faceoff: 17
The Hockey News (Ferrari): 21
The Hockey News (Kennedy): 16
TSN (Bob McKenzie): 11
TSN (Craig Button): 26
NHL Central Scouting (N. American): 12
Sportsnet (Cosentino): 16
Sportsnet (Bukala): 27
Recruit Scouting: 11
Draft Prospects Hockey: 22
Smaht Scouting: 22
McKeen’s Hockey: 25

Statistics

Scouting Report

What a difference a year can make.  Heading into the season, Hensler was viewed as one of the better defencemen in this draft, landing squarely in the top ten in some rankings, including ours.  Coming off a year that saw him playing a notable offensive role, expectations were quite high as he went to Wisconsin as a true freshman.

With the Badgers, he wasn’t quite as impactful as hoped.  Instead of being an aggressive player who looked to attack offensively, he played a much safer game and looked a little overmatched at times as well.  He also didn’t play as big of a role as expected at the World Juniors.  That led to a pretty sharp fall rankings-wise.

Hensler is a very strong skater which is especially appealing in today’s faster-paced game.  He can make the smart, safe pass to kickstart the offence and jump into the rush even if he didn’t do that a ton this year.  That mobility helps him get back defensively and, frankly, gives him the high floor of being a pretty safe bottom-pairing defender at a minimum in the NHL.

The question here is how much runway Hensler has to build on his tools.  He had the offensive skill set to be impactful with the National Team Development Program last season against his age group but against older competition in college, that was more sporadic.  Was that because he reached his ceiling quickly or more a byproduct of playing against older and more experienced competition and erring on the side of caution more often?

The same question exists defensively.  Hensler was often hemmed in the defensive zone and there wasn’t a lot of flash when he was able to clear the puck; it was more safer (or vanilla) types of plays.  Is that a red flag for his defending abilities or, again, was it just part of the growing pains of a freshman college defender?

How scouts answer those questions will dictate where Hensler lands on a draft board.  He showed enough at the NTDP level last year against same-age competition that there’s a legitimate top-four ceiling with potentially a little higher upside if everything comes together.  If scouts think he can get back to that, they’ll have him rated a little outside the top ten.  But there will be some who might want to dial back the expectations based on some of the growing pains he had at Wisconsin.  In that case, he’s more likely to be rated near the back of the first round.

Either way, there’s a safe NHL profile for Hensler.  Good size, strong skating, and being right-handed is a combination that can play at the top level for a long time.  How much further he can go beyond that is one of those ‘eye of the beholder’ situations (or in this case, ‘eye of the evaluator’) and it feels like teams will have a wide range of rankings for him.

Timeline

With Hensler already having one college year under his belt, the best-case scenario probably could have seen him turning pro in late March/early April next year.  That is likely off the table now, however, given the quieter start to his NCAA career.

However, turning pro late in the 2026-27 season still feels like a very realistic scenario.  That would allow him to burn a year of his contract early (just like Lane Hutson and Jordan Harris did with the Canadiens in recent years).  That would still be fairly quick for a defenceman but Hensler’s high floor makes it a realistic option with a reasonable chance of success.