Former Waterloo defenseman Landon Nycz drafted by St. Louis Blues
Landon Nycz’s rise from Waterloo to St. Louis came into focus when the Blues took the former Black Hawks defenseman in the fourth round of the 2026 NHL Draft at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. The pick capped a route that started with a USHL debut before his 16th birthday, continued through a bigger junior role in Waterloo, and then jumped again when he became a fixture for the University of Massachusetts.
Nycz, born Oct. 4, 2007, in Detroit, was too young to enter the draft with most of his 2007-born peers last summer, which pushed his NHL turn into this class. The delay did not slow him down. It gave him time to add weight to his game in Waterloo and prove he could handle tougher minutes as one of the youngest defensemen on the roster. In 52 games during the 2023-24 season, he produced a goal and 12 assists as a rookie. He came back the next year with a larger role, posting five goals and 13 assists in only 34 games before finishing his junior career with Sioux City.
That USHL track is the part Waterloo can point to when it talks about defenseman development. Nycz did not arrive as a finished product. He arrived early, played through mistakes, and kept earning more responsibility. NHL Central Scouting backed up the progression by ranking him 55th among North American skaters in its final 2026 list, a strong mark for a player whose draft stock was built on steady growth rather than a single showcase season.
The college step only strengthened the case. Nycz appeared in 35 of 36 games as a freshman at UMass, scoring the game-winning goal in his second collegiate appearance in a 4-1 win over Northern Michigan. He finished the season with three points while settling into the Minutemen lineup in Amherst, Massachusetts. UMass lists him as an exploratory student in social and behavioral sciences, and says he came through the Oakland Jr. Grizzlies 15U, Compuware 14U AAA and Victory Honda 13U AAA programs before junior hockey.
Waterloo’s draft-day context made the selection even more notable. Nycz became the third former Hawk in five years to be drafted after his first NCAA season, joining Patrick Geary and David Gucciardi, and all three are defensemen. The Blues also have a long history with Waterloo alumni, from Zach Sanford’s Stanley Cup role to earlier draft ties with Phil Osaer and Mark Lanigan. Before Nycz and Nick Bogas were picked on Saturday, St. Louis had not drafted a Black Hawk since 1999. Bogas went 139th overall in the fifth round, giving Waterloo two more names in a pipeline that keeps sending defensemen toward the next level.