5 Rebels ranked by NHL Central Scouting
Published 10:52 am Tuesday, January 13, 2026
A handful of Red Deer Rebels are on the NHL radar for the 2026 NHL Draft.
Ahead of the 2026 NHL Draft, NHL Central Scouting’s Midterm Rankings were released on Monday and five Rebels were ranked.
Forward Beckett Hamilton was the highest-ranked Rebel at 75th among North American skaters. Hamilton, 17, has 29 points in 37 games this year, with 13 goals and 16 assists. The five-foot-11, 172-pound centre was selected by the Rebels 18th overall in the 2023 WHL Draft.
Newly acquired defenceman Jiri Kamas was ranked 128th overall. The 17-year-old Czech blueliner has nine points in 27 WHL games this season and has played just two games with Red Deer. It is his first WHL season.
Winger Kalder Varga, who has two goals and an assist in four games with the Rebels was ranked 164th by Central Scouting. Varga, 17, was acquired by the Rebels earlier this month from the Kelowna Rockets, who selected the Geneva, Illinois native seventh overall at the 2023 WHL U.S. Priority Draft. He has 14 points in 38 games this season.
Varga won gold with the United States at the 2025 Hlinka Gretzky Cup and played at the 2025 World U17 Hockey Challenge. He also won a national tier one title in 2023-24 with Chicago Mission 15U AAA.
Defenceman Cameron Dillard was ranked 195th by Central Scouting.
Dillard (6’4, 218) is in his first season in the WHL.
He was selected tenth overall by the Everett Silvertips at the 2023 WHL U.S. Priority Draft and was acquired by the Rebels this month. The Flower Mound, Texas, native has three points in 19 games this season with Everett and Red Deer. A product of the Dallas Stars AAA Elite hockey program, Dillard helped his teams to appearances at the 2024 16U National Finals and 2023 14U National Finals.
Cameron Kuzma is the final Rebel ranked at 211 overall.
Kuzma (6’2, 195) is another recent arrival to the Rebels via trade from the Seattle Thunderbirds. The St. Albert native was selected in round three of the 2023 WHL Prospects Draft by the Regina Pats. He has 13 points in 36 games this season, including three assists in four games since joining the Rebels.
The 2026 NHL Draft takes place in Buffalo, New York, with round one on June 26 followed by rounds two through seven on June 27.
Lacombe’s Daxon Rudolph was the second-highest WHL player ranked among North American skaters, at sixth overall. Rudolph, 17, in his second WHL season has 18 goals and 24 points in 38 games.