Devils' 2026 First-Round Draft Profile: Tynan Lawrence

Evaluating what Tynan Lawrence brings to the table as a potential target with the 12th overall pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.

May 23, 2026

Thank you, as always, for reading the Devils’ Advocates Substack! If you enjoy the quasi-daily content, please consider subscribing and sharing with your friends, family, and any Devils fan you know. It is completely free of charge and helps out quite a bit!

Consider checking out the Devils’ Advocates Podcast, which features weekly episodes chock-full of in-depth content and exciting guest appearances. They’ll be available on this Substack, but you can also listen on your favorite platforms at the following links:

Spotify | Apple Podcasts

With the 2026 NHL Entry Draft just over a month away, and the Devils in possession of five picks, I’ll be going through a ton of prospects over the next several weeks in order to prepare readers for appealing targets in every round. At the end, I’ll be doing a full mock draft (with reasoning) so that you’ll be able to decipher my preferred targets. Enjoy!

All 2026 NHL Entry Draft Profiles:

Once upon a time, Tynan Lawrence was a consensus top-three pick in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. In early 2025-26, he was lighting up the USHL, with 10 goals and 17 total points in his first 13 games with the Muskegon Lumberjacks. He matriculated to Boston University mid-way through the season, logging his first NCAA game in January of 2026 as the second-youngest player in all of college hockey. Playing against much tougher competition on a strange BU team did no favors for his production (two goals and seven total points in 18 games) or his draft outlook, with scouts and pundits hard focusing on his point output over the process in their rankings. As such, Lawrence has slid down most draft rankings at this point and looks like he may be available come the Devils’ selection at 12th overall.

I’m here to say that I am completely unbothered by Lawrence’s production in the NCAA. He’s an excellent player with a plethora of translatable skills, and I think the probability of him dropping is silly — realistically, he is a top-eight talent in the draft at worst, and the Devils would be lucky to acquire his services if he is indeed available come 12. Let’s chat about why:

By the Numbers

Rankings: #14 by EliteProspects | #21 by Craig Button | #3 by Scouching | #11 by Scott Wheeler | #4 by SMAHT Scouting | #12 by McKeen’s Hockey | #8 by Yours Truly

Size: 6’0, 185 Pounds

Production: 2 Goals & 5 Assists (7 Total Points) in 18 NCAA Games with Boston University

Lawrence possesses the fifth-highest star probability of any player in the 2026 draft class, trailing only Gavin McKenna (99%), Carson Carels (76%), Ivar Stenberg (68%), and Ryan Lin (64%) and the fifth-highest NHLer probability as well. Having draft-year production comparables of Nathan MacKinnon and Mathew Barzal should never be considered a bad thing, especially with strong underlying numbers to boot.

Lawrence’s offensive underlyings with Boston University were pretty uncharacteristic from what we saw from him in the USHL, but the habits remained the same and thus I am not worried about the underlyings. Defensively, he has always been a net positive at every level he has played, and his aptitude at transitional hockey should never be understated, particularly as it pertains to zone entries.

Evaluating Lawrence’s Tools

Skating

Lawrence is a superb skater, with excellent top speed, acceleration, and agility. He’s more of a downhill, in-your-face skater than an east-west player, and he doesn’t shy away from challenging defensemen with his straight line speed and power on the puck. He gets going in but a few strides, and is fully capable of just blazing past a defenseman. As such, he’s a huge proponent of having the puck on his stick while entering the zone.

Admittedly, Lawrence’s agility and edgework is simply average. I wouldn’t classify him as a finesse skater, with a slight level of clunkiness to his turns, but that doesn’t matter a whole lot to me considering that his game isn’t really predicated on finesse.

Shooting

Lawrence possesses an above-average shot, with a particular strength to his wrister. His release isn’t super deceptive, but he has enough speed, power, and accuracy to just snipe it right through traffic and the goaltender anyway. He’s also able to get his shot off in a hurry, regardless of how deceptive the release itself is.

I do like Lawrence’s one-timer as well, even if I think his wrist shot is better. It’s powerful, accurate, and he keeps his stick low to the ice so as not to project the shot as much.

Hockey Sense & Playmaking

I’ve seen some reports questioning his hockey sense, and I have to admit that I just don’t get it. I’ve found that Lawrence is an excellent playmaker with strong vision and a great sense of timing with his passes. He draws defenders to his location before finding the wide-open man every single time.

Lawrence’s sense of timing extends beyond just passing in the conventional sense — he identifies open lanes to skate through contingent on defensive positioning and orientation before receiving the puck perfectly in stride. From there, he can make space for himself or for his teammates. Watch below as Lawrence identifies the perfect lane to take after noticing that there was a hole in the defense by virtue of a blueliner falling out of position:

Much of Lawrence’s playmaking comes from opportunism, feasting on loose pucks in the offensive zone before finding a quick-strike chance.

Share Devils' Advocates

In the above clip, you can see Lawrence (#11 in red) playmake through physicality and his motor, not accepting that he didn’t have the puck on his stick and making a play because of it.

Puck Skills

I think Lawrence has a wider bag of tricks than he lets on, but he certainly prefers to keep it simple unless absolutely necessary. Simple cutbacks, simple side-to-side dekes, simple toe drags, and simple yet subtle timing fake-outs are certainly in his shift-to-shift repertoire, which he uses to be a threat in transition, on the cycle, and while making a play for himself or his teammates. I appreciate the understanding that flashy isn’t always better. Below, you can see how he is just as effective at getting the job done with a simple deke:

Defensive Play

Lawrence is one of the most defensively developed players in the entire 2026 NHL Entry Draft, playing well above his years in his own zone. His positioning is almost always perfect, he knows when to apply pressure and when to feign it, and his defensive stick is immaculate. He cuts off passing lanes perfectly and has the acceleration chops to break the puck out of the zone immediately following an interception. His tireless work ethic lends itself well to defensive success.

Physicality

I think Lawrence is a physical player, not in the sense of throwing open-ice hits, but in his strength on the puck and ability to shrug off pressure with ease. Regardless of if a defenseman is draped over him or not, Lawrence has an innate ability to get where he wants to be. It doesn’t matter how heavy the coverage or if there are multiple defenders around him. It holds true on the forecheck, in the defensive zone when he is off-puck, or if he’s simply getting tailed on an odd-man rush:

In board battles, Lawrence is a dawg. His motor is relentless at all times, and he simply doesn’t accept “no” for an answer as it pertains to getting the puck on his stick when tied up. This applies to both sides of the ice and neutral zone as well — if there’s a board battle to win, Lawrence wins it.

It’s just so predictable that Lawrence has a monster season in 2026-27 with BU. Being above average in all regards of the game will make him a valuable all-situations asset for them, and already having a half-season of experience against that level of competition will only serve him well. I’ll be utterly shocked if he doesn’t play at a point-per-game-plus level in the NCAA next season, and I’ll be equally as shocked if he wasn’t a strong do-it-all second-line caliber player in a few years time. At worst, he’ll be a high-end third-line pivot who can drive play at 5v5, play first line PK minutes and second unit PP minutes, and contribute defensively to boot. At 12th overall, he would be a luxury.

NHL Timeline: 2027-28
NHL Stylistic Comparables: Dylan Larkin, Adam Fantilli, Sebastian Aho

These clips were taken from several outlets — the international tournament clips are from the IIHF and the collegiate clips were taken from ESPN+.

Discussion about this post

Ready for more?