Linus Funck

September 2026 – Funck is at his best moving the puck, dissecting defenses and getting his teammates into advantageous positions. For a player standing 6-3, almost 200 lbs, he’s too passive and needs to learn how to use his body and leverage better. He plays like a much smaller offensive defenseman but lacks the skating and agility they tend to have. He’s currently a strange archetype that needs to improve his skating and add further offensive tools to double down as an offensive defenseman, or lean into his natural size advantage and get much better in defensive activity and skill. Funck is clay with a disjointed toolkit that looks hard to unite, but if it can come together with better skating and a very solid defensive game, he’ll be a rather unique two-way defenseman with second power-play unit upside. It’ll take many years of development to get to that point, so expect 3+ years at least before he might be looking at a good shot in the NHL. Markus Kalmar

March 2026 – Funck has spent his rookie campaign on London’s 2nd and 3rd pairings, winning most of his matchups with a team-leading plus-19 rating. His 4 goals and 22 points in 65 games isn’t eye-popping but its good enough to justify regular minutes which is good news for the big dman. There aren’t many top-end prospects guaranteed ice time on London’s blueline so he should be tested with bigger minutes next season. There’s a possibility of turning pro for 2026-27 now that he’s 19, but with similar players in the AHL already it seems more likely that he stays a little while longer in junior. Hayden Soboleski

September 2025 – Funck is among the first cuts from Avs training camp, and has been reassigned to London of the OHL. This will be his first season in North America so it will be fascinating to see what the development gurus in London can do with this large defender. He is currently rehabbing an unspecified injury, but he skated in prospects camp and there has been no indication this will prevent him from starting the season on time. Hayden Soboleski

June 2025 – Colorado has selected Funck in the 4th round of the 2025 draft, 118th overall. This is roughly where he was projected to go in the draft. The big 18-year-old rearguard did well in his first full season in the Swedish Junior league, racking up 28 points and 59 PIM in 48 games played. His uptick in offense is certainly welcome from a fantasy perspective, but the lean 6-03 defender has shown a good ability defensively to break up plays with his reach and move the puck forward quickly. He is expected to return to his Junior team again for 2025-26, so its premature to put any fantasy timeline on this long-term project. Hayden Soboleski