Jp Hurlbert’s draft year changed fast once he left the U.S. NTDP for the Kamloops Blazers. By the time the season ended, he had become one of the WHL’s most dangerous scorers and a first-round NHL Draft pick.
That rise is why Hurlbert is drawing attention now. He went from a player viewed as a potential second-round pick to the 23rd selection in the 2026 NHL Draft by the Detroit Red Wings, after finishing with 42 goals and 97 points in 68 games for Kamloops. He also finished second in the league with 294 shots on goal, a volume that matched the way he attacked every shift.
The payoff for Kamloops started early. The Blazers used their first-round pick in the 2023 WHL US Prospect Draft on Hurlbert, and Shaun Clouston remembered Robbie Sandland pushing the idea that the club should not pass on him for a player they projected as a third-line type. Hurlbert had been seen as a long shot because, before the draft, he had already posted 112 goals and 195 points in 75 games for the Dallas Stars Elite U14 AAA team. The numbers were strong, but not enough to make the path simple.
The Blazers tried twice to get Hurlbert into camp before he finally accepted an invitation, and the reason for the delay was ordinary enough: school was starting. A few months later, he decided the national program was not the right fit and left for Kamloops for his draft year. Clouston said his staff helped give him confidence right away, and Hurlbert answered almost immediately by scoring a hat trick in his WHL debut.
From there, the season only got louder. By the end of November, he had 44 points in 25 games and was sitting atop WHL scoring. He was also named an alternate captain for the Kamloops Blazers and Team CHL, a sign of how quickly he had moved from prospect to centerpiece. Hurlbert said he left the national program for Kamloops for the opportunity that came with it, and later called the CHL’s opening for college-bound players “a great thing for hockey” and “the best of both worlds.”
That is the larger lesson of his year. Hurlbert started it as a player who needed a leap of faith from a club in Kamloops and ended it as NHL Central Scouting’s 12th-ranked North American skater. The next step is no longer about whether he belongs in the conversation. It is about how far the WHL route can carry a player once the early bet is right.
