With the 60th overall selection in the 2026 NHL Draft, the Maple Leafs selected 6’2, 181-pound left-shot defenseman Alexander Bilecki of the Kitchener Rangers.

This selection originally belonged to the Buffalo Sabres and later the Ottawa Senators (as part of the Dylan Cozens trade) before ending up with LA as part of the Warren Foegele trade at this past deadline. As part of the conditional pick acquired in the Scott Laughton trade between Toronto and LA at the deadline, it transferred to the Leafs once the Kings qualified for the 2026 playoffs.

Bilceki, a Mississauga native, recently won both an OHL Championship and the Memorial Cup, so he certainly comes with a winning pedigree.

Bilecki was the 41st-ranked prospect in the Elite Prospects Draft Guide, with a “shades of” comparable to Vince Dunn, with skating as his standout skill. He played lower in the lineup on a loaded Kitchener team that featured 2025 first-round defenseman Cameron Reid. This was anything but an off-the-board selection, as Scott Wheeler of The Athletic had the Leafs taking McKenna and Bilecki with their first two picks in his final mock draft.

It’s hard to find any reason to complain about this pick. Bilecki’s offensive production certainly doesn’t jump off the page, as he put up just 29 points in 66 games this season, but it’s easy to believe that the skating and playmaking combination will translate to points once he gets older and earns more minutes. His playoff production was more impressive with 11 points in 18 games, and he even added three points in four games in the Memorial Cup.

Bilecki is commonly described as an offense-first defenseman who frequently jumps up into the play. We’ll see how Bilecki develops defensively, but the size and skating combination give him a strong foundation to build on. This isn’t some 5’9 defender who can’t move, and while he certainly needs to get stronger, this is typical for every teenager.

Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects, whose draft coverage I always follow closely, had Bilecki as his top-ranked player available when the Leafs made their selection.

Based on the clips I’ve seen, there’s a lot to like. I’ll happily take just about any 6’2 defenseman with his skating and skill at pick 60, and the Leafs will take their time to help develop him defensively. Acquiring Laughton from the Flyers ended up as a major mistake given the price, but to their credit, flipping him to the Kings appears to have landed them a nice return for a few months of a fourth-line center.

He will likely require at least a couple of years before he’s competing for an NHL role, but if his development goes according to plan, the left-shot Bilecki could have some intriguing partners to play with in the future in Darren Raddysh and Ben Danford.

Alexander Bilecki’s pre-draft rankings:

  • Ranked #41 by ELITEPROSPECTS.COM
  • Ranked #35 by MCKEEN’S HOCKEY
  • Ranked #44 by FLOHOCKEY/CHRIS PETERS
  • Ranked #61 by DAILY FACEOFF
  • Ranked #49 by NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING (NA Skaters)
  • Ranked #92 by SPORTSNET/BUKALA
  • Ranked #50 by SMAHT SCOUTING
  • Ranked #81 by DOBBERPROSPECTS
  • Ranked #69 by HPR/MALLOY

Alexander Bilecki Scouting Report

via The Hockey Prospect Blackbook (BUY NOW)

Bilecki had a solid season with the Rangers, and his game improved steadily as the year progressed. He finished with 29 points in 66 regular-season games and added 11 points in 18 games during Kitchener’s OHL championship run.

A puck-moving defenseman, his ability to distribute and transition the puck is his standout quality. He’s confident and composed with the puck on his stick, and while he doesn’t project as a power-play quarterback at the NHL level, he showed good creativity. His real value lies in his transition game — he makes a crisp first pass out of his own zone, can make creative passing plays, is a quick thinker with the puck, and is also capable of skating it himself to create better options.

His skating is above average. He’s quick to retrieve pucks and capable of skating himself out of trouble. There is some excess upper-body movement that, if corrected, could make his stride even more efficient. The combination of his puck-moving ability and skating is what makes Bilecki a potential top-three-round pick in this draft.

On the other side of the puck, he is not a physical defenseman. He can be too passive defending the rush and could use better stick positioning. However, he competes harder defending the cycle down low and around his own net. Overall, physicality is not part of his game. He’s somewhere between 6’1″ and 6’2″ and is still physically raw, with room to add strength. A shutdown role at the NHL level is not a projection we’d make for him.

He fits a similar mold to Ben Macbeath out of the WHL and Vsevolod Matveyev from Russia — defensemen who move pucks well and possess decent-to-good skating but lack a secondary dimension to their game. They don’t bring much physicality, don’t project as shutdown defenders, and aren’t likely to quarterback a first-unit NHL power play. With fewer and fewer defensemen of this type carving out NHL careers, that limits how high we’re willing to rank him. That said, we appreciate how much he improved over the course of the season, and it’s also worth noting that he benefited from strong coaching in Kitchener. Good coaching matters for young prospects, and it can play a meaningful role in helping them raise their stock.

Assistant GM Judd Brackett on Alexander Bilecki

Brackett: You want winners. That is part of building culture and the room you want. It is not just the winning, too; it’s the role he played on the team. He played top-four minutes and had the chance to win the Memorial Cup. He will continue to build off the success that team had. His role will continue to expand with Kitchener. We are really excited about that.

Alexander Bilecki Video

Alexander Bilecki Stats

SeasonTeamLgeGPGAPtsPIM
2024-25Kitchener RangersOHL453111429
2025-26Kitchener Rangers OHL669202943

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