{"id":196598,"date":"2025-09-17T13:23:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/196598\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T13:23:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T13:23:13","slug":"keaton-verhoeff-finds-a-home-at-north-dakota-while-chasing-nhl-dreams-the-hockey-writers-nhl-entry-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/196598\/","title":{"rendered":"Keaton Verhoeff Finds a Home at North Dakota While Chasing NHL Dreams – The Hockey Writers – NHL Entry Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grand Forks, North Dakota, felt familiar to Keaton Verhoeff<\/a>. The people, the hometown feel, and the hockey heartbeat reminded him of where he grew up, and the University of North Dakota<\/a> quickly became more than just a stop along his path \u2014 it felt like home.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrand Forks reminded me a lot of Alberta, and kind of gave me that hometown feel,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cAnd it just felt right when I was here talking with the coaches and the staff around, and even a couple of guys that are still here. It seemed like a great fit for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 17, Verhoeff has surged into the conversation as a projected top-three pick, earning praise for his size, offensive instincts, and natural leadership. FloHockey scout Chris Peters is among those high on his game, having him ranked number two in his way-too-early 2026 NHL Draft rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Related: How Abram Wiebe Is Making His Mark in the Golden Knights Organization<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cBoy, the first thing that stands out obviously is his size \u2014 the fact that he is a physically developed 17-year-old at this point, really young for his draft class,\u201d Peters said. \u201cIt\u2019s really the mobility, the maturity, the hockey sense that he has with that package is what I think really pushes him to an upper tier.\u201d<\/p>\n

As college hockey continues to evolve<\/a>, more top talents are choosing the NCAA route rather than juniors. Verhoeff is part of that wave, joining fellow Canadian star Gavin McKenna<\/a>, the projected No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, Porter Martone, and many more.<\/p>\n

For Verhoeff, the move wasn\u2019t just about following others \u2014 it was about finding the right place to grow his game, and North Dakota offered that unique path.<\/p>\n

The Move to North Dakota<\/p>\n

Last November, a rule was passed allowing Canadian Hockey League (CHL) players to compete in the NCAA<\/a>, creating a new pathway for top prospects and shifting the dynamic between the two leagues. It allowed a team like North Dakota to take advantage, bringing in a diverse mix of new faces, including Verhoeff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of the opportunity to play against older, faster and physical guys [to] kind of prepare you for the next level,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cYou\u2019re playing older guys, like 25 or 26-year-olds that kind of help you in a couple years to go and play against those 30-year-olds, and if you want to play pro eventually.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut coming to North Dakota, it\u2019s a tough school for hockey and in the league, and I think the opportunities that were provided, the people that are around us, the team we have this year, is the right move for me and the right next step in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Dakota is widely regarded as a blue-blood program in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) and NCAA, producing stars like Zach Parise, Jonathan Toews<\/a>, T.J. Oshie, and many others. Maintaining that level of success requires top-tier facilities and resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir off-ice is a one-of-a-kind building,\u201d Verhoeff said eagerly. \u201cIt\u2019s super, super cool to be able to go into that facility every day and get work done. The coaching staff has been amazing, super welcoming. It\u2019s been a super smooth transition coming from Victoria to North Dakota. It\u2019s everything I could ask for.\u201d<\/p>\n

Being at North Dakota also gives Verhoeff a unique opportunity to further himself off the ice while on the ice with the Friday and Saturday playing schedule, something the Western Hockey League<\/a> (WHL) couldn\u2019t have given him.<\/p>\n

\"KeatonKeaton Verhoeff, Victoria Royals (Kevin Light \/ Victoria Royals)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a little bit more time to train and to be in the gym and to be on the ice,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cIt gives you that opportunity to get better on the ice and stronger off the ice, which is a big thing for me right now, just developing my off-ice game, especially making sure I\u2019m getting stronger in the weight room and being able to improve those aspects of my game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only does the scheduling give the 6-foot-4 defenseman an advantage, but it also gives teams and scouts an advantage, seeing him play against vastly improved competition in the NCAA. However, Peters urges patience.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he starts the season a little bit slow but shows that improvement to being a credible and impactful top-four defenseman by the end of the season, I think most scouts are going to say, \u2018All right, he is who we thought he was,\u2019 Peters said. \u201cIf he struggles and continues to struggle over the course of the season \u2014 which isn\u2019t out of the question because this is a big level jump \u2014 then there obviously will be more questions about different things.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut my assumption, based on what I\u2019ve seen from the player, is that the early season will be difficult \u2014 probably the early conference games will be difficult \u2014 but by mid-season he\u2019ll be a very impactful freshman defenseman.\u201d<\/p>\n

The jump to the NCAA has significant implications for not only scouts but for Verhoeff himself, who is looking to cement himself as a top-three pick in the 2026 NHL Draft<\/a>. Or even a step further, challenging McKenna for the first overall selection.<\/p>\n

2026 NHL Draft<\/p>\n

The 2026 NHL Draft is still nearly a year away, but Verhoeff has been hearing about it and fielding questions about his status for almost two years, ever since scouts first began taking notice of his game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re always going to hear it,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cYou\u2019re always going to see stuff online. Just taking it day by day, focusing on all the little things that you can control. Hopefully, if I come into every game with the mindset of going in and trying to do what I can to help the team win, at the end of the year, scouts will see that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 NHL Draft is headlined by McKenna, who many have already compared to San Jose Shark Macklin Celebrini and Chicago Blackhawk Connor Bedard<\/a>. He made a similar move as Verhoeff, making the jump to the NCAA with the Penn State Nittany Lions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a competitive guy, and I know there\u2019s lots of competition in the draft, and I think for me it\u2019s just looking at that guy ahead of me and looking at the guys in front of me to chase them down,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cHopefully I can go high in the draft and have a good season and beat those guys out this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Already, the Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, Canada, native has seen a ton of success in the WHL, where he played last season with the Victoria Royals<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That success has also sparked comparisons to other top prospects, much like McKenna. One name frequently mentioned alongside Verhoeff is Matthew Schaefer, the New York Islanders\u2019 2025 first-overall pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cVerhoeff has number-one defenseman potential,\u201d Peters said. \u201cOn our podcast, I mentioned that if you were to give me a one-on-one, Verhoeff versus Schaefer, I would probably pick Verhoeff in this instance, just to compare him to the last number-one pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like most players, hearing his name called on draft night would be a dream for Verhoeff, especially to hear it called early into the night. The 17-year-old defenseman has seen cousins and teammates get their name called, but is patiently waiting for his next summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to have it be my turn this year,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cIt\u2019s something you look forward to your whole life, and to be able to have it this year is a blessing and a privilege I don\u2019t take lightly. I\u2019m super grateful for it, but I think for me it\u2019s just going to be that first step \u2014 the first step of a long career, hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verhoeff & Fighting Hawks Have Sky-High Expectations<\/p>\n

Expectations couldn\u2019t be higher for Verhoeff and the rest of the staff in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The coaching staff has two new hires, including head coach Dane Jackson<\/a> and assistant coach Matt Smaby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made a very important staff addition this summer by adding Matt Smaby, who played in the NHL and has worked with some defensemen,\u201d Peters said. \u201cHe was the junior coach for Sam Rinzel, who just had a tremendous season in Minnesota last year, then jumped right into the NHL and had success with the Blackhawks right off the bat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smaby, a former defenseman, played seven seasons between the NHL and American Hockey League (AHL) and captained the Fighting Hawks during the 2005\u201306 season. He spent three years of his collegiate career at North Dakota before moving on to play in the NHL with the Tampa Bay Lightning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would imagine that Smaby was watching guys like Jake Sanderson and saying, \u2018Look at what he did while he was there,\u201d Peters said. \u201cHow do I do that?\u2019 I would imagine that was probably one of the real selling points \u2014 if they could get him to the next level to such a degree, why can\u2019t they do that for me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KeatonKeaton Verhoeff, Victoria Royals (Kevin Light \/ Victoria Royals)<\/p>\n

With Smaby\u2019s experience in the NHL and within the University of North Dakota, Jackson also provides expertise and a coach to lean on for Verhoeff.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been cool to be able to work with him, taking his knowledge,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cHe\u2019s got so many little details and aspects of the game that I haven\u2019t learned yet. It\u2019s cool to be able to go talk with him and be on the ice, then to kind of learn some of these next steps to help take my game to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Verhoeff has the toolkit to become a mainstay at North Dakota for seasons to come. He also has the potential to become the highest-drafted Fighting Hawk in school history and is ready for a championship-caliber season in the NCAA.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey plan to develop our team to be able to have that championship season that we\u2019re all hoping for,\u201d Verhoeff said. \u201cI think the guys we have in our room and the coaching staff we have leading us, it\u2019s going to be a good year.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grand Forks, North Dakota, felt familiar to Keaton Verhoeff. The people, the hometown feel, and the hockey heartbeat…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[462],"tags":[14711,5,2529,4,465,466,2295],"class_list":{"0":"post-196598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-draft","8":"tag-2026-nhl-entry-draft","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-keaton-verhoeff","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-draft","13":"tag-nhl-entry-draft","14":"tag-north-dakota"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115219857752447071","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=196598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/196598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=196598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=196598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=196598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}