With the 216th pick of the 2026 NHL Draft, the Boston Bruins made their final selection of the weekend: Cullen McCrate, a right-shot defenseman from Adrian, Michigan, and a client of Import Sports Management.
The call came in the seventh round, at KeyBank Center in Buffalo on the final weekend of June. Draft-eligible as a 19-year-old re-entry, McCrate arrived with exactly what NHL teams look for in the late rounds: a 6-foot-2, 210-pound frame, a right-handed shot at the position every organization covets, and the best season of his junior career just behind him.
Asked what Bruins fans can expect from his game, McCrate told Black N' Gold Hockey: "I'd describe my game as a hard-working, two-way defenseman who plays a reliable game in all three zones and can contribute offensively when the opportunity is there."
The pick landed well in Boston. SB Nation's Stanley Cup of Chowder welcomed him with a nod to the upside: "It's all the more reason for him to surprise us later on, right?"
Three Seasons in the USHL
McCrate broke into the league with the Dubuque Fighting Saints, debuting with three games in 2023-24 before stepping into a full-time role that fall. In the summer of 2024 he was named to the U.S. Under-18 Select Team for the Hlinka Gretzky Cup, his first Team USA honor.
He opened 2024-25 in Dubuque, was traded to the Fargo Force in December, and the recognition came quickly: NHL Central Scouting named him to its Preliminary Watch List in January 2025, and in February he was selected for the Chipotle All-American Game, the showcase for top draft-eligible USHL prospects. Through his first 50 USHL games he had two goals, five points, and a -7 rating: a defense-first profile with the offense still to come.
It came in 2025-26. In 61 games for Fargo he finished with 10 goals, 20 assists, and 30 points, elite production for a defenseman in the USHL, where scouts trust what they see because the league does not hand out easy nights. He turned that -7 into a +19, kept producing in the playoffs with a goal and three assists in nine games, and earned the verdict Elite Prospects gave him in Black N' Gold Hockey's profile of the pick: a "depth defenceman turned high-end top-pair defender" with the "trajectory teams value."
That trajectory is what gets a name called on day two of a draft, and it happened in the league where it counts most; our guide to US junior hockey pathways explains why the USHL carries so much weight with scouts.
