Muskegon’s Rudolfs Berzkalns climbs to No. 30 on NHL Central Scouting list

Rudolfs Berzkalns turned a breakout second season in Muskegon into a spot inside NHL Central Scouting’s top 30 North American skaters, a jump that puts the 6-foot-4 Latvian center firmly in the early-round conversation for the 2026 NHL Draft. The Muskegon Lumberjacks forward finished the regular season with 25 points in 48 games, including 13 goals, after posting just eight points as a rookie.

That ranking matters because Berzkalns is not winning attention as a pure offensive specialist. He is a left-shot, 203-pound two-way center, committed to Boston College, who has grown into the kind of player NHL teams still prize when the board tightens, a big pivot who can handle responsibility in all three zones and add offense without needing perfect conditions. Multiple public draft boards had him lower than Central Scouting did, which makes the No. 30 placement a clear signal that NHL evaluators saw more in the Latvian than the consensus projections suggested.

Muskegon played a central role in that climb. Berzkalns’ first USHL season was quiet by comparison, but the second year brought a much sharper offensive line and a longer runway in pressure games during the Lumberjacks’ 16-game Clark Cup playoff run. That stretch gave scouts a closer look at how his size, skating and defensive detail played under postseason weight, and the USHL highlighted him as one of the draft-eligible players who helped boost his stock during that run.

Berzkalns also added one of the signature moments of the international season. At the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship, he scored Latvia’s equalizer against Canada on Dec. 27, 2025, with under two minutes left in regulation. Krisjanis Sarts and Dmitrijs Dilevka picked up the assists on the goal, and Canada answered with a 2-1 overtime win, with Cole Reschny scoring a second-period power-play goal for Canada. Latvia had four players born in 2008 on that roster, including Berzkalns, and the late goal reinforced the same trait that lifted his draft stock in the USHL: he kept finding meaningful ice time and making it count.

For a player born March 3, 2008, in Cēsis, Latvia, the path has moved fast. Muskegon gave Berzkalns the stage, and the 30th-place ranking gives him a realistic shot to hear his name early enough to matter when the 2026 draft opens.