He was plus-59 as a 16-year-old. Nobody in the entire WHL was better. Here’s why Landon DuPont is already the most talked-about defenseman in junior hockey.
Most 16-year-olds in major junior are hanging on. Trying to keep up. Trying not to get buried.
Landon DuPont spent last season leading the Western Hockey League in plus-minus, quarterbacking a championship power play, and putting up 73 points from the blue line. Then he won the first Ed Chynoweth Cup in Everett Silvertips history and took his team to a Memorial Cup final.
He is not eligible for the NHL Draft until 2027. He is already ranked first overall.
FACTS
| Full name | Landon DuPont |
| Age | 17 |
| Born | May 28, 2009 — Calgary, Alberta 🇨🇦 |
| Nationality | Canada |
| Position | Defenseman |
| Shoots | Right |
| Height | 183 cm / 6’0″ |
| Weight | 86 kg / 190 lbs |
| Current team | University of Michigan, NCAA |
| Former team | Everett Silvertips, WHL (2024–2026) |
| Draft | 2027 NHL Entry Draft — ranked #1 by Daily Faceoff |
WHO IS LANDON DUPONT?
He grew up in Calgary, in a house where the NHL was never an abstraction.
His father, Micki DuPont, played 23 NHL games across four seasons with the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues, plus a long professional career in the minors and in Europe. Landon grew up around rinks, around pros, around the honest version of what it takes.
It showed early. At Edge School in Calgary, playing prep hockey as a 14-year-old, DuPont put up 19 goals and 62 points in 30 games — a league record for points by a defenseman in a single season. He wasn’t just the best defenseman on the ice. He was frequently the best player, full stop.
That is the kind of production that forces a league to make a decision.
In April 2024, the WHL granted DuPont exceptional player status, clearing him to play major junior a full year early at age 15. It has happened exactly twice in league history. The other player was Connor Bedard.
DuPont was the first defenseman ever to get it in the WHL.
The Everett Silvertips took him first overall in the 2024 WHL Draft. He had eleven points in his first seven games.
HOW DOES HE PLAY?
Start with the skating, because everything else runs through it.
DuPont is a genuinely elite skater — smooth in transition, comfortable escaping pressure, and able to activate into the rush without stranding his partner. At 6’0″ and 190 pounds he is not a physical monster, and he doesn’t try to be. He defends with his feet, his stick and his reads.
What separates him from other high-scoring junior defensemen is that the offense doesn’t come at a cost. That plus-59 rating is not a fluke of playing on a good team — it was the best mark in the entire WHL, and he posted it as the youngest impact player on the roster. He drives play in both directions.
STATS IN CONTEXT
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | PTS | PIM |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-25 | Everett Silvertips | WHL | 64 | 17 | 43 | 60 | 26 |
| 2025-26 | Everett Silvertips | WHL | 63 | 18 | 55 | 73 | 52 |
| WHL total | 127 | 35 | 98 | 133 | 78 |
Playoffs: 10 GP — 5 G — 10 A — 15 PTS (2025) · 18 GP — 5 G — 18 A — 23 PTS (2026)
The raw totals are impressive. The context is what makes them serious.
DuPont was a Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy finalist as WHL Defenseman of the Year in 2025-26 — as a 16-year-old, against a field of players two and three years older. Medicine Hat’s Bryce Pickford won the award with 83 points, and Tigers teammate Jonas Woo led all WHL defensemen with 86. DuPont’s 73 put him in that same conversation while being the youngest name on the entire finalist list.
And his 23 points in 18 playoff games — during a run that ended with the franchise’s first league title — is the number that scouts tend to circle. Junior playoff hockey is heavier, tighter and meaner than the regular season. He got better.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
In June 2026, DuPont announced on Instagram that he was leaving the WHL for the University of Michigan.
That move would have been impossible two years ago. The NCAA’s rule change opening the door to major junior players has rewired the development path for elite prospects, and DuPont is one of the highest-profile names to walk through it. He will spend his draft season in Ann Arbor, playing a shorter schedule against older college competition, with NHL scouts in the stands every night.
It is a real test. College hockey is slower to score in and harder to dominate as a teenager, and his point totals will almost certainly drop. That is expected — and how he handles it will shape the 2027 conversation more than anything he did in Everett.
The 2027 NHL Draft is in June. Right now, Landon DuPont’s name sits at the top of the board.
Ask again in nine months.
FAQ
Landon DuPont was born on May 28, 2009, making him 17 years old.
He is from Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
He stands 183 cm tall, or 6’0″ in feet and inches.
DuPont is eligible for the 2027 NHL Entry Draft, where he is currently ranked first overall by Daily Faceoff.
His father is Micki DuPont, a former professional defenseman who played 23 NHL games with the Calgary Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins and St. Louis Blues.
In April 2024 the WHL granted DuPont exceptional player status, allowing him to play major junior a year early at age 15. He was the second player in WHL history to receive it, after Connor Bedard, and the first defenseman.
