Morozov trained in MMA, excelled academically ahead of 2026 Draft

The 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 26-27 at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. The first round will be June 26 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS) and rounds 2-7 on June 27 (11 a.m. ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at Miami University (Ohio) forward Ilia Morozov. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.

Ilia Morozov was working out in the gym late in the school year when his coach at Miami University, Anthony Noreen, was touring a recruit.

"One of the comments Ilia made was, oh, I'm on lesson 30-something of Duolingo, learning French," Noreen said. "He's like, yeah, I want to learn another language. I don't really like Spanish that much, so I figured I'll start learning French."

Because learning English well enough to graduate high school in two years and start college at age 16, while also being a top-level hockey player, hasn't been enough of a challenge for Morozov.

"He's just one of these kids that no matter what he does, he sinks himself into it and he excels at it," Noreen said. "He's in finance. And if you do any research at all on Miami University, our business program, Farmer's School of Business, is world renowned. It's one of the best business schools in the country, it's one of the best business schools in the world, and finance is our hardest and most demanding major. 

"So now not only is he accelerated and coming in and getting to campus as a 16-year-old, in class as a 17-year-old, but he's in finance, which is the hardest and most demanding major at our university."

And he also stood out as Miami's top center. The 17-year-old had 20 points (eight goals, 12 assists) in 36 games as the second-youngest player in NCAA men's hockey. He also helped Miami finish 18-16-2 after it went 3-28-3 last season, the first time the school had a winning record since going 25-14-1 in 2014-15.

Morozov is No. 10 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters.

"I think it went pretty good," Morozov said. "I think we did a pretty good turnaround in Miami, and it personally went pretty good. Good numbers, a lot of ice time. Coaches trusted me."

Morozov gave them good reason to trust him.

\\"\\He is as responsible in his own end as he is offensively," Central Scouting's Pat Cullen said. "He can create offense, he can shoot it. His size, he plays very physical. He's your definition of a two-way centerman. ... He's a guy they can use as a shutdown center if they need. Really responsible in his own end of the rink. He doesn't cheat, he plays an honest game. Sometimes kids at that age are cheating to create offense. You never see that for him. I think he'll grow offensively a little more."

And that trust has grown for several seasons since Noreen first saw Morozov at age 15 in 2023, playing in a futures tournament hosted by Tri-City of the United States Hockey League, where Noreen was coaching.

"I think in the last all-star game, his team won 6-0 and he had five goals and an assist and was clearly the best player on the ice, and obviously someone that we just started building a relationship with," he said.

Morozov was playing for the Windy City Storm 15 AAA team based in Palatine, Illinois, about 30 miles northwest of Chicago.

Leaving his native Russia (Moscow) for North America was a choice made by Morozov and his family for him to advance his hockey career.

"My parents didn't really like the situation that was going on in Russia, and we saw a good path playing in North America," he said. "If you want to play in this country for 20 years, you've got to speak English, so it's a good thing to learn the language once you're young and also to get an American education."

The education came quick off the ice. Morozov moved in with a billet family and tested well enough to enter high school in the 10th grade. He then completed his 11th and 12th grade studies in one year.

"I think Russian high school is way harder than America, not going to lie," Morozov said. "I already knew lots of stuff, and it just got a little repetitive. It wasn't hard for me, honestly, because I've gone through that before in Russia."

Morozov adapted just as quickly on the ice and signed a tender to play for Noreen with Tri-City in 2024-25 but never got the chance to play for him. Noreen was hired to coach Miami on April 1, 2024.

Noreen watched Morozov get 22 points (11 goals, 11 assists) in 59 games for Tri-City and made him his first significant recruit at Miami. Morozov loved the look of the campus and his relationship with Noreen made the decision an easy one. What really sold him was the program's willingness to allow him to move onto campus as a 16-year-old and play a significant role at 17.

"Probably no other team was ready to have me on their team being 17 years old, so that was probably the only one option," he said.

It also helped that Morozov is 6-foot-3, 205 pounds, making the adjustment to playing against older, more physically developed competition a bit easier.

"The pace didn't feel much faster," he said. "The thing I felt that everyone is bigger, stronger than in USHL. To adjust to that took a little bit, but I think I'm big enough and strong enough to play there."

Morozov is used to battling in close spaces; he began training in mixed martial arts as a 3-year-old.

"When I was 3 years old, before playing hockey I was doing MMA," he said. "My parents just put me in there. My dad said, like, you've got to know how to fight."

Morozov wasn't exactly a cage fighter before he started kindergarten, with his MMA classes focused on learning basic tumbling and coordination, but he did enjoy the experience. Last summer, he did a bit more extensive MMA work before starting college.

"I still know the coach who was coaching me when I was 3 years old," Morozov said. "I asked my parents if I can do it for the offseason, just for fun, just to stay in shape a little bit, and I was doing that for two months."

This summer he'll work out at renowned trainer Ben Prentiss' facility in Stamford, Connecticut, and return to Miami in the fall to continue working toward his finance degree and the NHL.

"He's going to get way stronger, he's going to be way better conditioned than he already is," Noreen said. "I think he's just scratching the surface. Obviously we all feel the next part is being able to take more of that 200-foot game, which is what everybody loves ... and create more offense. Use his physicality to get inside with the puck, use his physicality to get inside and find second and third opportunities at the net, use his size and strength to protect pucks down low and extend offensive possession. And then also use it to get more pucks back so he can play more offense."