Meet Jack Murtagh: 2025 NHL Draft prospect, lover of scoring goals, ‘gamer’ and ‘freak athlete’

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FRISCO, Tex. — The first word Shayne Stockton uses to describe Jack Murtagh is “gamer.”

In his two seasons coaching Murtagh with the Bishop Kearney Selects’ U14 and U15 teams, Murtagh was the kid he always knew he could turn to when the team needed something.

“In the biggest moments Jack came up big almost every time, whether we needed a goal or whatever,” Stockton said on a recent phone call. “Our schedule was absurd and we played the big dogs every night and Jack just brought it. He had some big, big time goals for us.”

He was also the kid who kept the room light, and made sure everyone was having fun. But it’s the gamer in him that Stockton will always come back to when people call to ask about Murtagh.

He’s not alone, either.

Two years after leaving Bishop Kearney, Greg Moore, Murtagh’s head coach at USA Hockey’s NTDP, talks about him in the same way.

Off the ice, he’s a fun-loving guy who Moore said “has been really awesome getting to know (and) the team really gravitates around his personality.”

But on it, he’s still that gamer and still scoring big goals for a team that needs it. That team is the 2007 age group at the program, a talked-about-amongst-scouts down year for USA Hockey that doesn’t have the typical top-of-the-draft talent that James Hagens represented for its 2006s, and Will Smith, Ryan Leonard and Gabe Perreault represented for its 2005s, and Logan Cooley and Cutter Gauthier represented for its 2004s, and on and on.

In the absence of that, Murtagh has become one of their top players. Earlier this year, when they needed a big goal against the Swedes in the opening game of the fall Five Nations tournament, he scored two in a 3-2 win, including the overtime winner.

At the CHL USA Prospects Challenge in November, he scored two of USA’s three goals across the two games there as well, and was the only player in the event who scored twice for either team.

When NHL Central Scouting released its final ranking for the 2025 NHL Draft class in early April, he ranked 30th among North American skaters. Entering U18 worlds in Texas, he’d registered 20 goals and 46 points in 47 games. His seven power-play goals and 138 shots on goal both led the team as well, despite missing 10 of their games due to an early-season injury.

After picking up an assist on the empty-netter in USA’s tournament-opening 4-2 win over Czechia, he scored the first goal of the game against Switzerland on Thursday just 1:13 in, set up the 3-0 goal with a drive of speed into the offensive zone, and then hit linemate Cole McKinney backdoor for a third point of the game and fourth point through two games.

“Jack is a pure goal scorer with a love and passion for scoring goals. It has been interesting as of late to watch Ovechkin do his thing and become the all-time leading goal scorer. And I’m not trying to connect dots and project that he’s going to be an Alexander Ovechkin but just in terms of the psychology of the passion of scoring goals, he has that in his nature,” Moore said.

THE SHOT 📸 >> the shot 🏒#USHL #FallClassic #Hockey #USAHockey #USNTDP pic.twitter.com/lNNvlVIf9Z

— FloHockey (@FloHockey) September 22, 2024

Murtagh said that love for scoring goals started as far back as he can remember in games of basement knee hockey with his brother Michael, who plays at UConn and is three years older than him.

“I love to celebrate. I love to score,” he said with a smile. “I think it’s just the excitement. It’s a good urge to have and I just love doing it.”

According to Moore and NTDP strength and conditioning coach Joe Meloni, he’s got the natural ability and athletic gifts to be a college goal scorer (he’s committed to Boston University for next season) and then a scoring winger in the NHL, too.

NHL Central Scouting have his official listing at 6-foot-0.75 and 200 pounds and Meloni describes him as “a big boy” and “just a freak athlete” who is one of their team leaders in all of their testing metrics in the gym, GVN, at the program.

“He’s one of those kids that was just born that way,” Meloni said. “He’s really solid. He has a lot of natural talent with his physical capabilities. He’s fast and he’s powerful.”

Murtagh said he has enjoyed the gym since he really started getting into it back in his Bishop Kearney days.

“We’re in the gym every day with the NTDP and you’ve got to enjoy it to love,” Murtagh said. “And I’m the kind of kid that just wants to work harder and get 1 percent better every single day.”

On the ice, though Meloni said there are times when they think he can be more resilient through contact and really impose his physical will more, Moore said his strength “allows him to win 50/50 puck battles, outmuscle guys, (have a) quick explosive couple strides to win pucks or get to the touch first, (and) allows him in open ice to separate himself from defenders and take advantage of ice in front of him.”

It also gives that shot of his more pop than his peers.

“He has a powerful shot. He can really sling it. That’s legs, that’s core, that’s upper body. He puts his entire body into his shot,” Moore said. “He’s a powerful skater. He can separate himself in wide ice, he can get to the net. There’s a lot there.”

He’s more than just his strength, skating and shot, too, according to Moore.

“I think he thinks off of the puck really well offensively,” Moore said. “He can play give-and-go hockey, which I don’t think a lot of people recognize in his game. It’s subtle but it’s there and it’s a really important piece to project as a strong NHL prospect.”

There’s still room for growth in his game as well, and Murtagh is excited to get to work on it with his skills coach Peter MacArthur (who’s also the head coach of the ECHL’s Adirondack Thunder) in their offseason skates in Glens Falls, N.Y.

“Much like all of these guys at this age, it’s consistency and details and habits and the defensive side of the puck,” Moore said of his areas of focus. “When he’s on and he’s choosing to do those things, he’s a really impactful player for us, but like a lot of kids this age, it’s finding the consistency in all of those team habits.”

Both Moore and Meloni point out that despite his physical maturity, he’s also one of the younger players in the draft, with an Aug. 22, 2007, birthday that was just three weeks shy of being eligible for the 2026 draft.

Given his age and the lost time at the start of his draft year, Murtagh is proud of his season and happy with the way his game is trending.

“I think I’ve had a pretty solid year and I still have a lot more to give at this tournament and prove,” he said. “I’m a north-south winger who likes to shoot the puck and create offence and have a workhorse mentality.”

Stockton expects him to continue to prove it up levels, too.

“He can switch the game at any point in time with his ability, his strong skating, his really good shot, or his breakaway speed,” Stockton said.

“It’s not a shock to see his success at the NTDP and there’s more success to come.”

Photos: Rena Laverty / USA Hockey’s NTDP

This news was originally published on this post .

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