McQueen finding middle ground between skill, physicality ahead of 2025 NHL Draft

The 2025 Upper Deck NHL Draft will be held June 27-28 at L.A. Live's Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. The first round will be held June 27 (7 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), with rounds 2-7 on June 28 (Noon ET; NHLN, ESPN+, SN, SN1). NHL.com is counting down to the draft with in-depth profiles on top prospects, podcasts and other features. Today, a look at center Roger McQueen of Brandon in the Western Hockey League. Full draft coverage can be found here.

Roger McQueen believes he possesses a middle ground style of game between skillfulness and toughness.

"I'd like to find the medium between both," McQueen told NHL.com. "I'd like to be able to obviously have skill on both ends of the ice but also be pretty physical and annoying to play against as an opposing centerman."

When at his best and healthy, that's exactly what the right-shot center (6-foot-5, 198 pounds) is capable of. Unfortunately for McQueen, his 2025 NHL Draft-eligible season was unlike any other after being limited to 17 games because of a fracture in his lower back.

"It was a real tough situation to miss a significant amount of time, but he handled it extremely well," Brandon coach Marty Murray said. "I thought he still brought good vibes to the locker room. I'm sure it's not easy coming to the rink every day knowing you can't be on the ice and in the trenches with the guys. He handled it the best he could."

McQueen played the first eight games of the season and then was out for almost five months before returning March 4.

"It was not the best timing for the injury," McQueen said. "At the same time, I got to be with my family a bit more and help out the younger guys on the team who had lots of questions.

"I think the biggest thing was just learning how to be a pro and how to manage your body. I learned lessons and how to stay positive through the ups and downs of the year."

McQueen gave himself a clean bill of health at the 2025 NHL Scouting Combine, during which he participated in all the testing. He was among the top 25 finishers in one of the tests, finishing eighth in the horizontal jump at 112.8 inches. He also had a 20.7-inch vertical jump, did nine pull-ups and completed the pro agility 20-yard shuttle run in 4.50 seconds starting to his left and 4.49 seconds starting to his right.

"I've been pain free for a while now," McQueen said. "I probably haven't felt better in the last three years."

McQueen said his back issue actually began while playing for Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in August 2023. At one point, it was misdiagnosed as a bulging disk.

He played through pain during the 2023-24 season but still had 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists) in 53 games, and was able to play at the 2024 IIHF World Under-18 Championship. When McQueen still was having issues this season, he visited spine surgeon Dr. Jay Toor in Winnipeg, who diagnosed the spinal fracture between his L4 and L5 vertebrae and got him onto a proper healing regimen.

"I think the biggest thing was just staying positive with myself," McQueen said. "Keeping in a routine and going to the gym, even if the rehab was just rest. Just a routine to keep everything going and especially to stay in the loop when back into the swing of things."

Despite missed time, McQueen is No. 8 on NHL Central Scouting's final ranking of North American skaters.

"Everybody wants a big center, a guy that can match up against other teams, a guy who can play all situations, whether it be on the power play, penalty kill, match up 5 on 5," Central Scouting senior Western scout John Williams said. "When he came into the league, his skating I thought was a little wonky, but here's a 16-year-old kid that's 6-5 when he comes into the league, and his skating has improved significantly. I think he's a guy that for any NHL team checks a lot of boxes."

McQueen sustained another injury during the WHL playoffs that limited him to three games. He said it was a muscle issue related to the back fracture that healed after two weeks of rest.

"What I want to see from Roger next season is an ability to kind of take the game over shift to shift," Murray said. "I think that with a lot of young players, you want to find that consistency in their game shift to shift. I think playing in his own end, dialing that in and knowing the better you are in your end, the less time you have to spend in there. That's something we try to drive home to our guys. I know he's hungry to go head to head against the best players and prove he can get the job done."

McQueen is dedicated to adding strength and muscle this summer.

"I'm still growing into my body quite a bit ... I've grown up like a tree," he said. "So the biggest thing is growing into my body and that comes with strength. Explosiveness is a big thing for me, working on power in my lower body."

Though McQueen has been compared to Buffalo Sabres forward Tage Thompson, he also has studied the tendencies of a retired NHL power forward.

"I think Tage is obviously a fair comparison; his skill, size and talent is unmatched," McQueen said. "I think the comparison that I go to is kind of like a Ryan Getzlaf with more of a physical kind of game. Getzlaf has raw skill where he can kind of do whatever he wants."

Murray can see his star center becoming more of a physical presence down the road.

"I had no problem with his compete or willingness to get involved," Murray said. "I think as he grows, he might have a little bit of a power-forward edge. But he's probably a combination between power forward and a skilled forward right now."