Ruck twins bring proven chemistry to 2026 NHL Draft

The Upper Deck 2026 NHL Draft will be held June 26-27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. The first round will be held June 26 (7 p.m. ET on ESPN, ESPN+, Sportsnet, TVA Sports) with rounds 2-7 on June 27 (11 a.m. ET on NHL Network, ESPN+, Sportsnet). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a profile on twins Liam and Markus Ruck of Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League. Full draft coverage can be found here.

There are chemistry lines, there are brother acts, and then there are twins Liam and Markus Ruck with Medicine Hat of the Western Hockey League.

What happens when one twin becomes a 45-goal scorer, the other piles up 87 assists, and both insist they're basically just trying to make the right play?

Apparently, you get the WHL's version of a magic trick.

Liam and Markus Ruck didn't just have good draft-eligible seasons; they took over the league.

Markus, a left-shot center with the playmaker's brain and the older-brother birth certificate by eight minutes, led the WHL in scoring with 108 points (21 goals, 87 assists). Liam, the right-shot right wing and designated finisher, was right behind him with 104 points (45 goals, 59 assists). On most teams, that would be a remarkable one-two punch.

To the twins, it was family business.

And if this all sounds vaguely familiar, that's because the comparisons begin the second anyone hears the words twin brothers and Vancouver fans in the same sentence since the Sedin twins are unavoidable here.

The Rucks grew up in Osoyoos in British Columbia's scenic Okanagan Valley about four and a half hours from Vancouver, and they idolized Henrik and Daniel Sedin. Markus said they wore Sedin shirts around the house as kids. Medicine Hat coach Willie Desjardins also happens to be one of the few people on Earth with firsthand experience coaching elite twin forwards since he coached the Sedins in Vancouver from 2014-17.

"We hear the Sedin comparison a little bit," Markus said. "I don’t know if we deserve to be compared to them right now. Obviously, they're Hall of Famers."

Still, like the Sedins, the Rucks complement each other in obvious ways. Markus is the table-setter. Liam is the guy who clears the table by hammering the puck into the net.

"I think on the ice I'm more of a shoot-first guy, he's more of a pass-first guy, but I think there's a lot more similarities than differences between us," Liam said.

That chemistry isn't some supernatural twin telepathy, at least not according to Markus.

"I think it's just a lot of years spent together," he said. "We kind of know each other's tendencies on the ice."

The Rucks started skating when they were 2 years old on their backyard rink, and that led to the usual sibling competition. They admitted their mini-sticks games left holes in the wall and marks on the ceiling, which suggests either excellent hand-eye coordination or a total abandonment of indoor safety regulations.

"I don’t know how the (holes) in the ceiling got there, but the games got intense for sure," Liam said.

Liam's release, timing and knack for arriving in scoring areas made him the natural finisher. Markus developed into the cerebral distributor, the player who sees space before other players see traffic. Asked what he notices that others don't, said Markus, "I see a lot of open guys. If there's any little seam, I look to try and make that pass.

"I think I'm pretty good with my timing when I'm getting into that in-around-the-net area. Markus is a pretty good playmaker, and he knows when I'm arriving."

When left wing Gavin McKenna left Medicine Hat to play at Penn State University this season, the Rucks stepped into elevated roles.

"Going from a couple minutes a night to around 20, it was a change for sure," Liam said.

The Rucks were excited for the challenge, though the adjustment was real.

"They're some of the smartest hockey players I've seen," said McKenna, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. "When they were out there, they for sure were my two favorites to watch. The way they see the ice, the vision, it's like they got twin telepathy so seeing the plays they make out there and seeing the jump they made from last year to this year, it's pretty special. I've seen them for the last few years now, how hard they work, and in the gym, off the ice."

And if anyone thinks the Rucks are offense-only prospects, Desjardins would like a word.

"They're my two best defensive guys as well," he said. "The guys out first on the penalty kill. They're my guys on the ice, 5 versus 6. They play really good structure, they're smart and they're all about winning."

That two-way edge may be part of what makes each of them such an interesting draft-night puzzle. One twin brings the goals, the other brings the connections, and together they create the kind of built-in chemistry teams spend years trying to manufacture with analytics departments, development camps and hopeful line blender experiments.
 
Liam is No. 20 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters, and Markus is No. 23.
 
"Whichever twin a team takes first, the second one probably becomes more valuable to that team than to anyone else," Desjardins said. "Because the fit is not theoretical. It already exists."
 
That's what makes this draft so fascinating when it comes to the Rucks.

The brothers hope they'll be selected by the same organization. Markus said it would mean so much to their family. Liam called it an honor whether it happens together or separately, though he admitted being split up would be an adjustment. If different NHL teams draft them, it could potentially mark the first time they wouldn't play together since they started hockey.

That's not just a logistical change but a plot twist.

If Liam and Markus are each drafted over the first two rounds, they'd become the third set of twins to be chosen in the first two rounds of an NHL Draft. The Canucks selected Daniel (No. 2) and Henrik (No. 3) Sedin in the 1999 NHL Draft. In the 1982 NHL Draft, the Philadelphia Flyers took Ron Sutter (No. 4) and the Pittsburgh Penguins selected Rich Sutter (No. 10).

At the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo earlier this month, Liam met with 25 teams, Markus with 20, and the most common interview question was some variation of: “Which one of you is better?”

Markus tried not to answer it. Liam refused to take the bait too.

They are mirror twins, opposite-handed in just about everything, and somehow perfectly aligned where it matters most.

If the Sedins were the template, the Rucks are the latest sequel. Not a remake, not yet, and certainly not a Hall of Fame guarantee. Just two smart, driven, and connected prospects who've spent their whole lives finding each other on the ice.

"You can't deny that they are good players," said Central Scouting vice president and director Dan Marr. "I know for a fact that they're good teammates because of the number of players invited to the combine wanting to know if they could room with one of them. I think they're each capable of having (Carolina Hurricanes forward) Seth Jarvis-type careers when they get to the NHL. They'll be good value to their team.

"I'm not going to be surprised if they go higher than where we have them, but I do think they're going to be recognized by the NHL scouting world because they're respected for what they do."