Calgary Flames prospect Trevor Hoskin committed to Merrimack out of the transfer portal on Tuesday.
Hoskin just completed his freshman season at Niagara where he was tied for the team lead with 39 points (12g-27a) in 36 games. Hoskin was drafted by the Flames in the fourth round (No. 106 overall) in the 2024 NHL Draft.
Hoskin was one of the top offensive players in the portal. He ranked in the 92nd percentile last season in offensive categories and had multiple D-I offers. Merrimack was a finalist alongside another Hockey East school and two NCHC schools.
Hoskin’s CHIP rating (an all-inclusive statistic developed by CHN) was 31.1 last season, which would have made him the top-ranked forward on Merrimack’s roster and No. 3 overall on the roster only behind Seamus Powell (54.0) and Zach Bookman (37.1).
CHIP accounts for a player’s strength of schedule in developing its rating.
Hoskin was named the AHA Rookie of the Year this season. He’ll become the second drafted player on Merrimack’s roster for the 2025-26 season alongside Michael Emerson (Carolina). Merrimack has never had a Flames prospect on its roster, but Darrel Scoville signed with the Flames as an undrafted free agent in 1998.
The Hockey News featured Hoskin last season after he was selected by the Flames.
Hoskin was a prototypical late-bloomer. When he was 15 years old he was from his U16 AAA team because the team was “looking for size.” He was 5-foot-7 and 125 pounds at the time.
In his last season of juniors in the OJHL he was 6-foot-1, 175 pounds, and caught the attention of NHL scouts.
“To be honest, I went to watch him the first time and it was like ‘OK, I’m going to watch a 19-year-old play Tier-II hockey’ so I wasn’t expecting a whole lot,” said Flames scout Terry Doran told The Hockey News. “But I saw enough where I thought I had to watch him again. And I just kept going. Every time I watched him he was the best player on the ice. You’re probably looking for reasons not to go to bat for him because of his age, but I thought his game wasn’t going to change no matter who he was playing.
“He eats, breathes and sleeps hockey,” Doran said. “He wants to be a player badly. He skates extremely well, he’s quick, he’s got good vision with the puck, he’s unselfish with the puck and he’s a leader. He’s tenacious and he plays with a lot of drive and purpose. He can play in all situations. I can’t recall the last time I saw a player get as many breakaways as this kid by killing penalties and using his acceleration to pounce on pucks.”
Analytically, Hoskin ranks as one of the best transition and offensive players in the portal. He ranked in the 94th percentile in transition categories and 97th percentile in offensive categories.
His combined transition+offense scores are the best among all players (200+) currently in the portal.
