Lee was a dominant force for the Madison Capitols of the United States Hockey League (USHL) during his draft eligible season. He scored 31 goals and registered 68 points in 58 games as he surged to the USHL Rookie of the Year award. The teenager needs more consistency as he transitions to Michigan State in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for the 2025-26 season.

Selected 26th overall, Ryker Lee is now a member of the Nashville Predators.

Ryker Lee has been a late riser this spring, rising out of nowhere into people’s first rounds. The ‘06 forward catapulted himself from the prep ranks into the USHL and was awarded the league’s “Rookie of the Year” award after posting 68 points in just 58 games. Lee is a prospect that just recently hit a growth spurt, shooting up into a new frame. Because of this, his skating has looked really awkward for most of the year, struggling to push the pace. Lee’s puck skills are smooth and he boasts an excellent release, creating his own offence pretty much at will in the USHL. However, there have been times where I’ve felt he’s cheated for offense and not shown full commitment to dominating on both ends of the rink. Because of the growth spurt, skating, and 200 foot game concerns, Lee comes with question marks, but there’s no doubt he’s one of the topupside options in the late 1st and early 2nd rounds. Lee is a Michigan State commit.

In his D-1 season (being 5-10, ~160lbs), Lee was fun, but not highly regarded. Fortunately, Lee hit a growth spurt right before his USHL freshman season and has taken the league by storm. He’s tied for 5th in points and in 3rd in points-per-game.

Final Rankings – Ryker Lee is one of the most tantalizing yet perplexing prospects in the USHL. He boasts elite puck-handling ability, exceptional vision, and a quick release that makes him a constant offensive threat; on his best nights, he’s the most skilled player on the ice.

However, his inconsistency stems from well-below-average skating. With poor straight-line speed, balance, and edgework, this hinders Lee’s defensive engagement, forechecking effectiveness, and overall shift-to-shift impact. However, the root of his skating issues may lie in a recent growth spurt that disrupted his mechanics, and it is also worth mentioning that Lee finished in first at the combine in the vertical jump. This is significant because the vertical jump is widely regarded as an excellent measure of an athlete’s lower-body power, which directly correlates with their potential to generate explosive speed—two things critical to building speed.

If you buy into the notion that Lee’s skating is correctable, he has the kind of high end skill, creativity, and raw athletic tools to develop into a top 6 forward at the next level, but his ceiling hinges entirely on addressing this critical flaw.—

Few players in the draft can match up to Lee’s highlight reel. He constantly exposes defenders with a myriad of solutions: spin passes, feints, tape-to-tape saucer passes, there seems to be no limit to what Lee can imagine.

However, the growth spurt did not come without its drawbacks. Lee’s skating mechanics have taken a hit, losing him considerable speed and making his effectiveness as a play-driving winger fluctuant. This weakness has improved as the season’s gone on, but part of the appeal with Lee will always centre around if he’s able to fully recapture that motor of his. If everything breaks right, Lee can become one of the bigger steals this draft has to offer, but the ‘if’ might be significant enough to see him drop.