The 2026 NHL entry draft is over eight months away, but the process of ranking the prospects involved has officially begun, and three members of the Brandon Wheat Kings find themselves on early season radars.
Giorgos Pantelas, Cameron Allard, and Jimmy Egan all earned ratings on NHL Central Scouting’s first list of the new season. Pantelas earned a B rating, while Allard and Egan were given W ratings. This time of year, Central Scouting does not give a numerical ranking but will do so later in the year.
Pantelas, the Wheat Kings’ second first-round pick in 2023 (19th overall) is currently the team’s leader in points by a defenseman with 10 points in nine games. In addition, scouts have noted Pantelas’s heavy, physical style and skating ability. The 6-foot-2 210 pound right-shot defenseman represented Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup this past summer, winning a bronze medal.
Allard, originally an eighth round pick of the Wheat Kings in 2023, is in his first full season with the team (though he was called up for and played 13 games last season). So far, in eight games, the 6-foot-3 right-handed defenseman has amassed four points. All his points have come at even strenght.
Egan, selected by the Wheat Kings in the second round of the 2023 United States Priority Selection, has played in all nine games for the team so far this season. The 6-foot-1 forward, who tore up the 16U AAA ranks last season with Sioux Falls, has been an active penalty killer for Brandon despite his youth.
Fellow 2008-born players Jaxon Jacobson (who leads the Wheat Kings in scoring with 14 points in nine games) and Nigel Boehm are late birthdays, born after the cutoff of September 15, and are therefore eligible for the 2027 NHL draft.
