Kayden Lemire

September 2026 –  Kayden Lemire is a big power forward the Minnesota Wild traded up to select 112th overall, moving two later picks to Columbus to grab him. At 6-foot-4 he plays a heavy, hard-nosed game, and he posted nine goals and 29 points in 68 games for the Prince George Cougars in his draft year.

The appeal is the size and the compete. He hunts pucks, establishes net-front position in traffic, operates well below the dots and behind the net, and plays physically, reverse-hitting and seeking contact on retrievals. It is a projectable, heavy-game profile that the Wild valued enough to move up for. The offensive tools are still developing, and the scoring rate is modest, so how much skill grows alongside the frame is the question. He returns to Prince George for 2026-27.

For fantasy he is a deep-league monitor, a middle-six power-forward projection whose value depends on the production catching up to the physical game, so track whether his scoring climbs in a bigger role this season before any add. Andrew Epps