With every NHL Draft, there is history made. The 2025 NHL Draft just might be a landmark for one of college hockey’s most unique programs. Could this be the first draft we see an Arizona State Sun Devil selected in the first round?
Arizona State turned their previously club hockey team into a D1 program in the 2015-16 season. They didn’t join a conference until 2024, when they would join the National Collegiate Hockey Conference with the likes of college hockey heavyweights like University of Denver and University of North Dakota.
In their short history, the Sun Devils have had five winning seasons and one NCAA tournament appearance. In the 2018-2019 season, they would lose in the regional semi-final to Qunnipiac.
Arizona State keeps a list of its players drafted into major professional sports. Not surprisingly, ice hockey is the shortest list out of the four major sports. Joey Daccord became the first Sun Devil to get drafted when the Ottawa Senators took him in the seventh round of the 2015 NHL draft. Currently, the highest drafted player to come out of ASU is Josh Doan, son of Arizona Coyotes legend Shane Doan.
Doan was drafted in the second round of the 2021 draft. Before the franchise relocated (the NHL still considers the Utah team an “expansion” and not relocated franchise) Doan was able to play a few games wearing the same sweater his father did with the Coyotes. He played those home games at Mullet Arena which, while famous for being the Coyotes' temporary small-capacity home, is also the Sun Devils' home arena.
Now, Cullen Potter will most likely take the mantle of “highest drafted Sun Devil” later this month. Potter finished his freshman season at ASU with 13 goals and nine assists for 22 points in 35 games. ESPN lists his “NHL projection” of being a top six forward with a floor of being a bottom six checking winger.
That ESPN article had him as the third-ranked NCAA player in the draft. NHL.com has him ranked as the number 22 draft prospect in an article that has him as the fourth-highest ranked draft prospect in the NCAA. A Yahoo Sports mock draft (with mock trades) has him being taken with the 20th overall pick.
Proving that they can produce a pipeline of players to the NHL should be vindication for the still young Arizona State hockey program. With CHL players being allowed to come to the NCAA next season that another tool the Sun Devils can use. WHL player Braxton Whitehead already verbally committed to play at Arizona State next season. Whitehead specifically mentioned Arizona’s nice weather as something to be excited about, another recruiting advantage the state that lacks snow and ice has to sway young players who want to keep the cold inside the rink.