Viggo Björck says Sidney Crosby has always been his model, after he finished fitness testing at LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo on Saturday. The Stockholm native is now firmly in the top-10 conversation ahead of the NHL Draft, while other draft risers and right-
BUFFALO, N.Y. — One of the first questions prospects hear at the NHL Scouting Combine lands like a test of honesty: “Who do you model your game after?”
For most young players, it’s not the answer that’s hard. It’s the risk. Nobody wants to say they’re trying to be the next established star in the sport’s biggest league.
Viggo Björck didn’t hesitate.
“I’ve always looked up to Sidney Crosby,” Björck said after he finished the fitness testing at LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo on Saturday. “It’s hard to [hold] anyone to his standard.”
The 2026 draft conversation around Björck has shifted quickly in recent months, and his own wording made the point clear: he wasn’t trying to announce an arrival—only a reference point.
When a reporter told him Victor Eklund, the 2025 New York Islanders first-rounder who won world junior championship gold alongside Björck with Sweden in January, had compared Björck to Macklin Celebrini, Björck laughed. Then he shook his head.
“I don’t think I’m like Celebrini,” Björck said while still shaking his head. “He’s one of a kind.”
Björck would know the difference. He faced both Celebrini and Crosby at the 2026 World Championship in May, roughly six weeks after his 18th birthday. That tournament run—paired with a strong World Junior Championship as a draft-eligible player and an impressive season with Djurgårdens in Sweden’s top league—has helped push him into the spotlight.
He was long viewed as a good prospect. Now he’s inside the top-10 discussion, with Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala slotting the centre at No. 4 in his final pre-draft ranking.
What Björck admires most about Crosby is the part that doesn’t always show up in highlight reels.
“Of course, he’s super skilled, but I [like] his two-way game as well,” Björck said, adding that he was thrilled to get a stick from the Canadian legend at the worlds. “Good on both sides of the puck.”
It’s also the kind of compliment that matters for the player who might cause hesitation on paper. Björck is listed at five-foot-nine and 177 pounds. For some teams, that can’t be ignored. Still, he spoke through it like a belief, not a compromise.
“Maybe [I’m] not the tallest guy, but I feel like I’m a compact individual,” Björck said. “I try to use my body [as an advantage with] a low centre of gravity.”
His perspective fits the recent success of smaller, faster skaters as well. Björck’s size profile often invites comparisons to Logan Stankoven, the right-shot pivot listed at five-foot-eight and 173 pounds, who has thrived in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
For Adam Andersson, the question of whether Björck can handle the next level isn’t new.
Andersson—a big Swedish forward who has played with and against Björck since they were both about 11 years old—spoke with the confidence of someone who’s tracked development up close.
“He’s always been very skilled, always had his hockey IQ,” Andersson said. “Very humble guy. Has a good work ethic and will be a star in the NHL. Always 100 per cent work ethic on the ice.”
Björck’s rise has been steady, but Chase Reid’s jump at the combine looks almost sudden in comparison. From a big-picture view, Reid has made the most significant leap of anyone in the 2026 class.
At the start of the 2024-25 season. Reid—a 2007-born American defenceman—was toiling in the North American Hockey League after a stinging cut from the Waterloo Warriors of the United States Hockey League. Today. he’s being discussed as a possible top target: it’s conceivable he could be selected as high as No. 2 by the San Jose Sharks after a dazzling season-and-a-half with the OHL’s Soo Greyhounds.
Reid said the jump is an honour, but he didn’t treat it like a solo accomplishment.
“It’s definitely a huge honour [to be highly rated]. but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the coaches and teammates who helped me along the way. ” Reid said at the combine. “I think I’ve overcome a lot of adversity in my career. I think coaches can throw me out in any situation. I think my skating separates me in a tremendous way to be able to play big roles in big minutes.”.
Like Björck, Reid was direct when asked who he models his game after.
“Zach Werenski,” Reid said of the Columbus Blue Jackets defender and 2026 Norris Trophy recipient. “We have a lot in common, both able to run a power play, both being able to take control of a game and be go-to guys on the ice.”
Reid’s profile also intersects with a broader draft trend teams have been circling: the value of right-shot defenders. While Werenski is a lefty, Reid brings the right-shot profile at nearly six-foot-three and 195 pounds.
That matters because there could be a run of righty defencemen going in the top 10, with Reid, Keaton Verhoeff and Daxon Rudolph all in the mix.
There’s historical support for the idea. Two years ago. three righties went in the top 10 when Artyom Levshunov was chosen second by Chicago. Ottawa grabbed Carter Yakemchuk seventh and Calgary selected Zayne Parekh ninth. Before that. the last time three right-shot blue-liners went 2-3-4-5 inside the top 10 was 2008. when Drew Doughty. Zach Bogosian. Alex Pietrangelo and Luke Schenn were chosen in that order.
Rudolph also acknowledged the handedness factor in meetings with teams.
Rudolph—nearly six-foot-three and a tick over 200 pounds—said, “I think it’s definitely a bonus,” referring to being a righty.
All three right-shot names—Rudolph. Reid and Verhoeff—share the kind of defensive push that teams chase. but their development paths have slight differences. Rudolph and Reid both played major junior last season and are jumping the NCAA next year. Verhoeff. the biggest of the three at nearly six-foot-four and 212 pounds. already has an NCAA campaign under his belt with North Dakota.
Verhoeff’s emphasis shifted in the second half of the season, and he framed it as becoming more complete rather than merely more productive.
“It’s a different game,” he said. “You expect it to be tough — like I thought it was going to be tough — [but] it takes another jump. Just the way games close up and the way guys find sticks and take passing lanes away. it’s a different style of hockey. Every single guy there is developed, can skate, can hit. Obviously details get tighter as the levels go up.
“My game developed a lot different in the second half. I became a more well-rounded. more mature defenceman who can help a team win 1-0 games; not just be a guy who is going to go put up a bunch of points. but be someone who can be relied on by his teammates and coaches to take that step and be someone out there in the important moments of games.”.
Put it together—Björck’s two-way blueprint drawn from Crosby, Reid’s Werenski-style play powered by skating and right-handedness, and the growing sense that teams may line up for right-shot defenders—and the combine atmosphere in Buffalo feels like more than a checkpoint.
It feels like a preview of how quickly attention can swing from “good prospect” to a name teams circle in their top choices.
NHL Scouting Combine Viggo Björck Sidney Crosby Chase Reid Zach Werenski Keaton Verhoeff Daxon Rudolph Macklin Celebrini Victor Eklund NHL Draft Buffalo LECOM Harborcenter right-shot defensemen