The 2025 NHL Draft will be held in June at a site to be determined. NHL.com will take a closer look at some of the draft-eligible players to watch. This week, a profile of goalie Joshua Ravensbergen with Prince George of the Western Hockey League.
Joshua Ravensbergen is perseverance personified.
The 18-year-old goalie with Prince George of the Western Hockey League wasn't among 214 picks (24 goalies) in the 2021 WHL bantam draft but could be the first player at his position off the board in the 2025 NHL Draft.
"For sure it was something that motivated me and helped me get to this point," Ravensbergen said. "It kind of opened my eyes to how hard you have to work in the summers. Before my draft year, I kind of took summers off. But I was really [upset] that I wasn't selected; I really wanted to play in the WHL. So, I skated as much as possible, worked out a lot more, too. I was on the ice two, sometimes three times a day. It might have been a little too much looking back at it, but it definitely helped me turn the corner."
What Ravensbergen is today is No. 1 on NHL Central Scouting's midterm ranking of North American goalies eligible for the 2025 draft. He possesses the size (6-foot-5, 190 pounds) and the confidence to maybe one day become a starting goalie in the NHL.
"In his draft season, he wasn't carrying the frame that he is now; he was maybe 6-foot or so," Prince George goalie coach Taylor Dakers said. "That draft year also was the COVID year and the way hockey in British Columbia was laid out, you had two different paths for those elite kids to follow. One is through the hockey paid academies where schools get together and play showcases. During COVID and as far as travel to watch players, that was a priority for a majority of scouts.
"Josh played in more of a typical minor hockey system in North Vancouver for what we call Under-18 or major midget, which is more of a traveling team that plays other teams in the Lower Mainland in Vancouver. Scouts are probably choosing to go to the academies before they choose to watch a U-18 game. You draft what you know and if they didn't feel comfortable with Josh because they only saw him one time, then so be it."
Fortunately for Prince George, former goalie coach Sean Murray made sure Ravensbergen was on their radar as a free agent acquisition.
"[Murray] was the one that vouched for him to our head scout and said, 'Hey, this is the kid that you got to put on the list,'" Dakers said. "We got to look at him in training camp and we all knew at that time that he definitely had a future."