Cullen Potter bet on himself.
After a run with the USNTDP, the Hortonville, Wisc., product bucked the norm and turned his sights on the college hockey landscape. At just 17 years old, he took the ice for Arizona State University this past season, an undersized winger looking to make his name against bigger, more physical, more seasoned competition.
Fast-forward a year, and the teenager has earned a shot at the big leagues, the Calgary Flames calling his name with the final pick in Round 1 of the 2025 NHL Draft.
Of course, watch one shift of his and there’s no mistaking the aspect of Potter’s skill set that allowed him to roll the dice on making an impact at the college level — and prompted Craig Conroy and Co. to roll the dice on him Friday.
“The one thing that will jump off the page with this guy, that one dynamic element that you talk about, is his skating ability. Absolutely elite,” Sportsnet’s Sam Cosentino said during Friday night’s broadcast. “This guy can really burn.”
It’s not just the all-out speed that separates Potter, though, it’s what he’s shown of his ability to use that speed alongside the rest of his offensive game — which netted him 13 goals and 22 points in 35 games as a freshman for ASU.
“It’s really key, when you’re an undersized guy, that you’ve got to read and react, find open space,” said Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala, formerly the director of amateur scouting for the Florida Panthers. “This is what he does best. A little bit of deception. He’s slippery.”
For his part, Potter’s keenly aware of where his strengths lie. Asked Friday night about what Calgary fans can expect when he eventually dons the flaming ‘C,’ the teenager answered with the unapologetic confidence one would need to embark on the type of college hockey journey he undertook this season:
“I think I bring a lot of speed, and I’m an electric player,” Potter said, matter-of-fact. “So I’m super excited to get started with them.”
Here’s a closer look at what the Flames faithful can expect from Potter:
Team: Arizona State University
Position: Centre
Shoots: Left
Hometown: Hortonville, Wisconsin
Age: 18 (Jan 10, 2007)
Height: Five-foot-10
Weight: 171 pounds
What the scouts are saying:
While Potter’s size may have had teams wary on Draft day, all told the Flames may have been gifted something special by the clubs who let him fall to No. 32. In Jason Bukala’s mock draft ahead of Friday’s event, the longtime scout had Potter going off the board as high as No. 23. Overall, Bukala ranked the centreman as the 24th-best prospect in this draft class.
“Potter is the kind of prospect who could end up providing (an NHL club) with an influx of offence in the future,” Bukala wrote. “He’s a powerful skater in open ice, and a significant threat wheeling off the half-wall, directing pucks on net on the power play.”
Bukala credited Potter’s explosiveness off the rush as the key to his offensive effectiveness and projects him finding success as a middle-six forward at the big-league level.
“He’s not tall, but he’s very strong for his stature. In my opinion, he leans shooter more than distributor, but he sees the ice and is definitely a playmaker,” Bukala wrote. “Cullen averaged 20 minutes of ice time at the college level. Nearly all of his shifts came at even strength and on the power play. His transition pace pushes opponents back off their blue line and leads to clean zone entries and potential scoring chances.”
Cosentino ranked Potter similarly, tabbing him as the 25th-best prospect in his class. The expectation, which proved correct, was that Potter’s name would be called late in Round 1, in an area where teams are looking for one major standout element to a player’s skill set — “Potter’s skating is that element,” Cosentino wrote.
“He floats around the ice backing off defenders, but also shows the ability to change pace by edging laterally quickly,” he continued. “Combined with his handles, he does project to have at least secondary offence once he arrives in the NHL.”
In his own mock draft, Cosentino projected Potter to fall to the last few picks of Round 1, when Philadelphia was expected to be selecting, because of the similarity between the centreman and a certain Flyers great.
“GM Daniel Briere sees a lot of himself in Potter, whose dynamic skating ability jumps off the page in every viewing,” Cosentino wrote. “He carved his own path by going to a lesser-known school as a younger college player, and made a mark.”
For The Athletic’s Corey Pronman, the importance of that decision to set off on a unique college route can’t be overstated.
“It was a risky decision,” Pronman wrote in his 2025 mock draft. “But the early dividends have been positive. He looked very good for Arizona State and helped them in a meaningful way as a 17-year-old. Potter’s skating is elite. His edge work plus foot speed are both clearly NHL-level.
“He will be able to generate a lot of controlled entries in the NHL due to his feet and a very high skill level. Potter is more of a one-on-one and shooter type of forward than a playmaker, even though he can make plays.”
Potter following in the footsteps of an on-ice legend
That the young centreman believed in his own potential so strongly should perhaps be no surprise, because on-ice greatness runs in his veins.
His mother, Jenny Potter, is one of the most decorated players in the history of American women’s hockey, having claimed an Olympic gold medal, four World Championship golds, and 14 medals in total. The U.S. Hockey Hall of Famer remains the country’s all-time leading scorer and holds the national records for most all-time assists, most Olympic medals won, most Olympic appearances, most points in a single international tournament, and is tied for the records for most goals in one game and most points in one game.
“Growing up with her, it’s been great just to have my parents in my life — obviously they know so much about hockey,” Potter said Friday, after being selected by the Flames. “I couldn’t be happier with how they helped me grow up.”
Given his mother’s decade-and-a-half with the U.S. national team, much of that growing up came with an incredible education on the game, the lessons coming from Olympic arenas and World Championship locker rooms. As soon as he could talk, a young Potter was already analyzing games — like back in 2010, at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, when he found himself confused by his mother being held off the scoresheet.
“She had not been consistent, and Jenny Potter’s three-year-old son, Cullen, called her on it,” Karen Crouse wrote in a 2010 New York Times piece. “‘You didn’t score, Mommy,’ he said. ‘Why?’ … In the Americans’ first two games, Potter became the first Olympic player to register back-to-back three-goal games. In their third, a 6-0 victory against Finland, she was shut out on 12 shots, and her son wanted an explanation.
“How much can a three-year-old absorb about sharing the puck, or the final score being more important than individual statistics?”
To be fair, by that point, the younger Potter was already a vet, two years on the sheet under his belt.
“He started skating at age one,” Jenny said of her son, during an interview with PHNX Sports’ Craig Morgan last year. “You know those Timberland boots? My dad took that boot and just made little skates for Cullen. He’d walk around the house with them on, so he would get used to what it felt like. And then when you got him out on the ice, he loved it.
“When it was winter, no matter how cold it was, it was hard to pull him inside. He just wouldn’t come inside, so I was like, ‘Nope, you’re coming inside because you’re gonna get frostbite and you’re not gonna like that.’”
A decade later, that affinity for carving up the sheet seems to have paid off for her son, the younger Potter establishing himself as perhaps the best skater in his draft class and earning a shot at the big leagues as a result.
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