Justin Graf's USHL breakout boosts Nashville draft stock

Nashville made Justin Graf the 118th pick in the fourth round, betting that a prep-school scorer who carried Cedar Rapids to a 55-point USHL season had already answered the biggest question in his draft profile. He finished the 2025-26 season with 23 goals, 32 assists and a plus-8 rating in 52 games, production that gave the Predators a reason to buy into the upside they saw in him at KeyBank Center in Buffalo.

The turning point came when Graf left prep hockey for the USHL last season. The jump forced him into a faster, heavier game, and he said his main summer focus was learning to play quicker, add strength and handle the league’s pace. That adjustment showed up almost immediately in Cedar Rapids, where Graf settled in fast enough to become a central piece of the RoughRiders’ offense rather than a prospect easing his way in.

His scoring runs tracked the progress. In mid-November, Graf and Jason Musa were tied for the team lead with 14 points apiece. By late December, he had 14 points in his previous nine games, a stretch that underscored how his game held up as the season wore on. When Cedar Rapids surged toward the finish, Graf remained the top offensive driver: the RoughRiders closed the regular season fourth in the Eastern Conference at 32-16-3-6 and went 9-0-0-1 in their last 10, with Graf leading the club in goals, assists and points.

That kind of production mattered because it came in a league built to test whether talent translates. The United States Hockey League had 44 players selected in the 2026 NHL Draft, and Graf’s name joined a pipeline that continues to push late-rising prospects into the NHL conversation. The Predators drafted eight players total, and Graf’s profile fit the kind of mid-round swing clubs often make on players whose best hockey appears to be ahead of them.

Graf’s path also carried a family note. His brother Collin was not with him when the pick came, but the two connected by phone soon after. Graf said the call was special, and he said Collin was happy for him and liked that Nashville ended up with him.

Before the draft, USA Hockey had listed Graf on its 2025 World Junior A Challenge roster page and identified him as committed to Merrimack College. Elite Prospects later recorded a transfer to Harvard University from Cedar Rapids on Dec. 31, 2025. However his college path settles, the USHL season gave Nashville the kind of evidence front offices trust: a player stepped up a level, handled it, and left with numbers that looked stronger against better competition.