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Blackhawks select Vaclav Nestrasil No. 25 overall with Leafs’ original 1st-round pick

Originally posted on TheLeafsnation | By Arun Srinivasan | Last updated Jun 27, 2025 11:14 PM ET

During an eventful first round of the 2025 NHL Draft, the Chicago Blackhawks selected winger Vaclav Nestrasil from the Muskegon Lumberjacks of the USHL with the 25th overall pick. Nestrasil recorded 19 goals and 42 goals for Muskegon in 61 regular season games.

This selection originally belonged to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Toronto traded the pick in a trade for Jake McCabe ahead of the 2023 trade deadline.

Here’s what Daily Faceoff prospects expert Steven Ellis wrote about Nestrasil:

Nestrašil is set to head to UMass a year early in 2025-26. He was excellent in the USHL, but you have to dig beyond the scoresheet to see just how dangerous he can be. The Czech forward is 6-foot-5, skates well and is exceptionally skilled with the puck. He’s tall, but he’s not physically strong. Once he adds some muscle to his game, he could become quite the power forward. At this point, I could see him going in the first round, too.

Ellis ranked Nestrasil as the 36th-best prospect in the class. Nestrasil should provide the Blackhawks with a physical power forward that is somewhat atypical from the players in their current prospect pool.

25. Chicago Blackhawks pick Václav Nestrašil.

He was excellent in the USHL, but you have to dig beyond the scoresheet to see just how dangerous he can be. The Czech forward is 6-foot-5, skates well and is exceptionally skilled with the puck.

Wait until he adds some muscle.…

— Steven Ellis (@SEllisHockey) June 28, 2025

It was a busy evening for the Blackhawks. Chicago selected Anton Frondell with the third overall pick earlier in the night. Here’s what Ellis wrote about Frondell:

Frondell had quite the campaign. He finished with one of the most productive seasons by a U-18 player in Allsvenskan history – the second-tier Swedish league – despite missing time with injuries. Frondell has experience down the middle and on the wing, which makes him intriguing. Frondell has a fantastic shot release and he’s getting even better at attacking pucks, too. I wish he’d dominate shifts more consistently, but he’s still one of the best players every time he hits the ice. I’m not too worried about that moving forward, though – he had to make up for lost time by prioritizing scoring lanes. There’s a reason his teammates and peers consider him to be one of the most difficult players to play against, too: he’s got that dog in him. Frondell is as good of a power forward as you’ll find in this class, and he has so many translatable skills.

Toronto is projected to make its first selection with the No. 64 overall pick on Saturday.

This article first appeared on TheLeafsnation and was syndicated with permission.

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