Maksim Sokolovskii

June 2026 – Philadelphia took Sokolovskii 27th overall after trading down from 21st with San Jose, a bet on the rarest combination in this class: a 6-8 frame attached to real four-way mobility. His OHL counting line stayed quiet, two goals and eight points in 44 games for London, with no points across five playoff games. The value lives elsewhere. He closes rushes early, angles carriers into the wall, and finishes nearly every check, while his reach and a long stick let him strip pucks most defenders can’t touch. Retrievals and first-pass exits sharpened down the stretch, which earned him the shutdown assignment against Brady Martin’s line in round one.

For fantasy, read him as a banger build. Point totals are unlikely to climb far past the low 20s even at a peak, so any standalone value comes from hits, blocked shots, and penalty minutes (49 this season) in deep multicategory formats. Shaky decision-making under forecheck pressure and a soft point shot cap any power-play role, and the runway is long: he is set to return to London for 2026-27 before enrolling at the University of Maine in 2027-28. The realistic outcome band runs from a sheltered third-pairing shutdown specialist to a minute-eating, penalty-killing top-four defender in the Zadorov mold. Andrew Epps