2026 Draft Mixtape 11: Carson Carels

Warning: I am an absolute mark for this kind of defenseman and had a lot of fun putting this mixtape together.

Let’s start with a hot take right out of the gate: I think Carson Carels is the 2nd best defenseman in this entire draft class. When I look at his skating, physicality, ability to distribute the puck, and ability to create offense via turnovers, I think he has a wide range of skills he can execute at a high level, adding to the offense’s output while being brutally punishing on the defensive side, and giving him depth as a player that some of his draft counterparts cannot boast.

I want to start with the skating, because Carels has some of the most fluid hips you will see in this entire class. His core motion is great; he has a good power plant in his core, he explodes off his stride, and his first step nets him a huge boost off a dead stop. But it’s his Mohawk Stride that wins me over completely. You’ll see him execute this in the very first clip of the mix I post below and several other times after that.

A Mohawk Stride, for those not familiar with the term, is a phrase used for when a player opens their hips while skating forward, sort of twisting themselves as they move. This happens laterally across the blue line, where a player will open his hips while keeping his torso facing the net. By keeping his hips open, he can seamlessly transition to a forward stride, a hard cut, a deceptive pass, or even a shot attempt without projecting his next move to a defender or goaltender.

Carels is a big hitter and uses his body to stop zone entries when a player has his head down, or to force a bad pass with physical pressure. I do think Carels can get lost in the sauce here a bit when a game gets off the rails. He will get out of position to hit-seek and sometimes needs to rein that in a little. Overall, he is a brutal checker who uses his body to separate man from puck. Again, he does need to check himself at times, but this is primarily a zone-entry defense mechanism.

Carels is a great puck distributor, and his passing is one of my favorite aspects of his game. He can laser a puck from deep in his own zone to the tape of a striding teammate, or he can create scoring chances in the offensive zone by making deceptive, no-look passes through a sea of sticks and lets. I also really like Carel’s shot-pass. I included several instances of it in the mix. He does a great job of taking power off his shot to put low, deflectable pucks towards the net directly at a teammate.

Carels has the skating and the IQ to be deployable in any situation. He can kill penalties, be a triggerman on the power-play, and with all the open ice available to him in 3-on-3 and 4-on-4 situations, you want him out there as much as possible in those scenarios.

Overall, Carels is strong defensively, capable of game-changing rushes with the puck, and controls the neutral zone with an aggressive, predatory gap. I think his path to the NHL is going to be extremely short for whoever nabs him on draft day. This is one of my favorite players to cover over the last several years. Enjoy the mix! Let me know what you think in the comments.