Verhoeff pushed to ‘next level’ by move to University of North Dakota

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 University of North Dakota defenseman Keaton Verhoeff. NHL.com's full draft coverage can be found here.

Keaton Verhoeff got exactly what he was hoping for when he made the jump to NCAA hockey.

It was about a year ago that the 17-year-old defenseman chose to leave Victoria of the Western Hockey League for the University of North Dakota.

This season was the first time Canadian Hockey League players were eligible to play college hockey, and Verhoeff was one of the few willing to take the chance of spending his NHL draft season playing against older, more physically developed competition.

It was a big risk, but one he believes paid off.

"It was tough, it was hard, but it's what I wanted to do," Verhoeff said. "It's what I wanted to be competing against. Those guys really pushed me, both in practice and in games, so it was a good learning experience for me, and really kind of pushed me to that next level, I think."

Verhoeff was fifth among NCAA freshman defensemen with 20 points (six goals, 14 assists) in 36 games and helped North Dakota reach the Frozen Four. In a 2-1 loss to Wisconsin in the national semifinals, he had a game-high five shots on goal.

The 6-foot-4, 215-pound right-handed shot is No. 4 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters.

"I really wanted to focus on getting better in my defensive zone, and becoming a more well-rounded defenseman, that 200-foot player," Verhoeff said. "I think I took that step this year."

The growth in strength and ability to physically handle older competition was something North Dakota coach Dane Jackson saw grow in Verhoeff throughout the season.

"He is a highly competitive guy, he doesn't shy away from any of those confrontations," Jackson said. "We thought he really did a good job. I do tell a story, near the end of the year we had a bad loss and we had some really hard man-to-man battles, kind of right in the center circle with our whole team looking on and cheering guys along. And it was pretty darn physical and tough. He would go against our captain (Bennett Zmolek), who is a big guy as well (6-3, 196).

"I said to our staff afterwards, I don't think there's many 17-year-old kids in the world that could have battled like he did in those kind of hard confrontations, and it was pretty impressive how he would handle himself well in those scenarios."

Jackson also was impressed with the way Verhoeff grew his offensive game, namely his decision making with the puck.

"The big area of growth, I think, for Keaton was his puck management and puck decisions throughout the year," he said. "I thought early on ... he has been a physically gifted player that quite often he was trying to beat guys individually, hold on to pucks a little bit more. I felt like his game really matured when he was moving pucks quickly and efficiently and then joining. Still created offense for us, but with a lot less risk, as the season went along."

It was a growth process on and off the ice for Verhoeff, who went from playing 63 regular-season and 11 playoff games for Victoria to 36 games this season, mostly on Fridays and Saturdays.

"The NCAA season starts a little bit later than the CHL, so you're getting a little antsy," he said. "You're kind of waiting for those games to start. But as the year goes on, you kind of get used to it. Getting that extra time in the gym, getting that extra time on recovery and different health things as well, making sure you're eating well, has been super beneficial to me this year. To have that time ... I mean, on the road, you're eating as well as you can in the CHL. You're trying to maintain weight and you're trying to maintain muscle mass, but I think it's just a little bit of that added bonus that you have at North Dakota."

Extra gym time and extra practice time are a staple of college hockey. But with only two games per week, the intensity of those practices was something he also had to become accustomed to.

"I think one of the things that we noticed with the CHL guys was, even just after our first week of practice, we played so many competitive games, small-area games, and a lot of physical confrontation-type box-out drills and stuff," Jackson said. "The guys, after week one, they came to us and said hey, is this is this normal? Is this a regular practice week? They were ready for the games, obviously, but I think the intensity and severity, the length of practice, it was an adjustment for them."

He adjusted well enough that he earned a spot with Canada at the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship. Despite not playing the first two games, he had four assists in 11:10 of ice time in five games, including one assist in 12:08 of ice time in a 6-3 win against Finland in the bronze-medal game.

That gave him some confidence that carried through the rest of the season, and helped him play a significant role in North Dakota reaching the Frozen Four for the first time since 2016.

"His size and skill jump off the page right away obviously," Central Scouting's Pat Cullen said. "I saw him early and then in the second half. He likes to get involved offensively but he definitely made progress with his decision making, when to push the offense or make the simple, conservative play, which showed a lot of growth and maturity."

Verhoeff finished his season with four assists in five games as Canada's captain at the 2026 IIHF World Under-18 Championship. The team finished in sixth place, but Verhoeff made an impression on coach Drew Bannister.

"I think he's going to be a shutdown guy that's hard to play against," Bannister said. "He's got a very good physical aspect to his game. Outstanding human being. Quality person, quality leadership skills. I could see him being a captain of a team down the road."

Scouts have compared Verhoeff's game to Aaron Ekblad of the Florida Panthers, but Jackson said Jake Sanderson of the Ottawa Senators could provide the right road map to the NHL.

Sanderson spent two seasons at North Dakota after the Senators chose him with the No. 5 pick of the 2020 NHL Draft. After leaving school, he stepped right into Ottawa's lineup at the start of the 2022-23 season.

"The defense position is so hard and so much more nuanced in your reads and the experience you have," Jackson said. "I see in young defensemen, play a little bit longer at lower levels is, I think, usually a benefit because it is such a hard position to play at the NHL. I think Keaton is aware of that, and I think he is cognizant that playing another year would probably lessen the learning curve that he would have when he makes that jump to the NHL."