The recruiting grind never stops, and Northeastern Hockey Blog broke the news Wednesday that the Huskies received a commitment from Liam Kilfoil, an ’07 left-shot center currently playing for the Halifax Mooseheads on the Quebec Maritime Junior Hockey League. He was an assistant captain and the team’s leading scorer in the 2024-25 season. He attended 2025 NHL Training Camp with the Detroit Red Wings after impressing at their Prospects Camp.
Kilfoil stands 5-foot-11, 180+ pounds, and hails from Quispamsis, New Brunswick, Canada. He is about to start his third season with Halifax, after leading the team in scoring last year with a 21-25-46 line in 62 games, playing nearly all of last season as a 17 year old. He had an eleven-game point streak early in the season and finished the year on a seven-game point streak. He scored five points in the Mooseheads’ incredible upset of top-seeded Drummondville as a 16 seed. Prior to Halifax, he played for Salisbury School, a prestigious prep school in Connecticut that has produced elite Northeastern talent including both Hryckowian brothers as well as recruit Connor Davis, as well as the Buffalo Regals 16U AAA team. Before Salisbury, he played at Mount St. Charles in Rhode Island, another elite hockey factory, where he put up a staggering 154 points in 75 games at the 14U level.
He has represented Canada on the international stage three times already, including twice in 2024-25 as part of the gold medal team at the U18 World Junior Championships and the gold medal team at the U18 Hlinka-Gretzky Cup. He also was part of Canada Red at the U17 World Hockey Challenge in 2023-24. He was drafted in the second round of the QMJHL Entry Draft by Halifax, only falling due to concerns of playing college hockey before the new rules allowed CHL players to be eligible. Prior to choosing Halifax, he was a USHL tender with the Dubuque Fighting Saints. He shockingly went undrafted in the 2025 NHL Draft despite being ranked in the top 90 amongst North American skaters by NHL Central Scouting.
Kilfoil is an elite talent, long considered one of the high-end forwards in his age group. Modeling his game after Sidney Crosby and Nico Hischier, he was rated as a 4-star player by both Neutral Zone Scouting and PuckPreps, and was previously ranked as a top 25 player in the entire 2007 class by PuckPreps. From Neutral Zone’s extensive report: “Kilfoil consistently played a major role for Halifax, averaging a significant 21:13 TOI per game, including heavy responsibilities on special teams—3:24 per game on the power play and 2:02 on the penalty kill. He led Halifax offensively with 21 goals and 46 points in 62 games, highlighting his offensive reliability on a struggling team.” The report goes on to highlight his puck awareness and defensive instincts, citing his high rate of takeaways (4.1/game) and his ability to consistently generates scoring chances (1.73/game) and converts them efficiently (16%).
The New England Hockey Journal followed Kilfoil extensively when he was at Salisbury, with Jeff Cox (now assistant GM of the USHL’s Youngstown Phantoms) saying: “The lefty is a smart, two-way center with a boatload of upside…He’s a playmaker who can take over a game…Kilfoil is a smart and cerebral 200-foot center. His hockey sense and skating are elite attributes that make him one of the more complete players I’ve seen in this birth year.” Another evaluator called Kilfoil “a multi-tool player who has proved to be equally effective and dangerous in all three zones…defensibly responsible. A coach’s dream center, one who makes an attempt on every shift to try and get back and prevent the opposition from scoring.”
And that was a common theme when his coaches were interviewed as well. Mooseheads head coach Andrew Lord calls him a “Jonathan Toews-style player, captain style of player” and lauded his competitiveness, work ethic, and character when describing his young forward. Salisbury head coach Andrew Will adds ““Looking at his ability to think the game and be a step ahead is so impressive. The mental side of his game and his IQ is really elite. And then you couple that with a kid who really tries to play the game the right way, he’s not a kid who cheats offensively or takes shortcuts.” And Buffalo Regals head coach Kyle Quick says that Kilfoil has the “it factor,” who makes everyone around him better, adding “He’s always on the right side of the puck. He’s a very cerebral player and a very good finisher around the net, he can create space for himself on the ice, he has the puck on his stick all the time.”
When watching Kilfoil’s game via highlights posted to YouTube and social media, his skating ability is evident, being able to generate speed with possession through the neutral zone. He has an excellent wrist shot that he can get off both in traffic and in space, and he’s not afraid to get into the slot and area around the crease, which enables him to score from distance and in close. He has excellent reflexes that help him corral and redirect rebounds once they are loose. His effort without the puck jumps off the screen- he works tirelessly to hound his man, disrupting play with a good stick and anticipation of where the play is going to go, showing off the hockey IQ and cerebral aspect of his game that scouts and coaches alike rave about.
Kilfoil is projected to enroll to Northeastern in 2027, likely after two more seasons with Halifax. He is likely to be the top center for the Mooseheads again this year and we believe he is due to grow his game even further. His style and game relates very closely to recent Northeastern superstars Justin Hryckowian and Jack Williams, and Kilfoil similarly projects as a high-end player in college in that same vein. He is someone we expect to see at the top of Huskies line charts for years to come once he acclimates to the college game.
Congratulations to Liam on his commitment to Northeastern!
As always, go Huskies!