Buffalo — The OHL’s leading scorer heard some great news on Friday night.
Nikita Klepov, a left wing who played last season for the Saginaw Spirit, went 15th overall to the Anaheim Ducks at the 2026 NHL Draft. He is the second Michigan State player off the board, following defenseman Chase Reid to the Seattle Kraken at No. 7 overall. Future Spartan Ethan Belchetz then went No. 17 to the Utah Mammoth.
Klepov and his fellow Michigan State draftees are part of a star-studded freshman class including first-round hopeful Jack Hextall (Youngstown Phantoms), San Jose 2025 first round pick goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen and Chicago 2025 first round pick center Mason West. They join rising sophomores Ryker Lee (Nashville) and Cayden Lindstrom (Columbus) plus transfer forward Cullen Potter (Calgary) on the 2026-27 Michigan State roster. That group of nine could break rival Michigan’s record of seven first-round draftees on one NCAA hockey roster.
No one in the OHL scored more than Klepov, whose 97 points in 67 regular season games for the Saginaw Spirit made him the OHL Rookie of the Year and a first-team honoree. That knack for scoring is his premier trait, though he cares more about playing an attack-first style.
“Points don’t really matter for me. I just want to play the way I play,” Klepov said.
At Michigan State, Klepov hopes to round out his game. In order to play the way he wants, he has to have the puck first. Under Adam Nightingale at Michigan State, he hopes to take steps in the defensive end.
“It’s always good to be in good competition, and that’s what college hockey is about,” Klepov said Wednesday. “I think you’re going to develop if you’re going to play against harder and stronger guys. That’s what I’m going to do.”
Adam Nightingale has a knack for developing scorers into complete players. Isaac Howard, who won the Hobey Baker Award in 2025 as a junior, transferred to Michigan State as a prospect questioned for the holes in his defensive game. Not only did Howard score a lot of goals for Michigan State (26 his junior year to lead the Spartans), but he also became a much better defensive player, even a penalty killer by that junior season. Klepov already drew comparisons to Howard from some NHL draft analysts.
Klepov grew up in Russia but also has American citizenship — he was born just outside Miami, Fla., when his parents visited the United States in 2008. He played junior hockey in Russian in 2022-23 before coming over to the United States to play in Pennsylvania, then spent the bulk of 2024-25 with the USHL’s Sioux City Musketeers for whom he scored 31 points in 59 games.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Future Spartan Nikita Klepov taken No. 15 by Ducks
Reporting by Connor Earegood, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
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By Connor Earegood, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
