Northeastern added a second goaltender to their pipeline last week when Neilan Johnson committed to play his college hockey on Huntington Avenue. Ryan Sikes of PuckPreps broke the news on Twitter and one day later Johnson announced it via his Instagram.
Johnson is an ’08 birth year, turning 18 in August 2026. He stands 6-foot-3, 175 pounds, and catches traditionally with his left hand. He hails from Annapolis, Maryland. He currently is playing for The Hotchkiss School, a prep school in Connecticut, where in 21 games he has a stellar .943 save percentage. He was recently named the MVP of the 2025 Flood-Marr Tournament, held in late December between most of the top prep programs in New England. Prior to Hotchkiss he played for the Pittsburgh Penguins Elite 16U program, where he was teammates with defenseman commit Leo Laschon, and before that he played youth hockey in Pennsylvania.
A veteran of USA Hockey Selects 16 and Selects 17 camp, he was ranked as a goalie to watch by the NHL Central Scouting Service in their most recent 2026 NHL Draft rankings. He was drafted in the 2025 USHL Entry Draft by Green Bay in the 6th round. Rated a 3.75-star recruit by Neutral Zone, Johnson was called a “fast-rising ’08” by The Scouting News. Neutral Zone ranked him as the second-best ’08 in prep hockey, sandwiched between fellow NU commits, defenseman Brian McFadden and forward Noah Survilas.
NZ has scouted him extensively in the last few years, including most recently in January 2026 on the heels of a 24-save shutout victory, saying of his game “he moved efficiently towards pucks, tracking them from a distance and either absorbing them into his body or directing them safely to the corners with minimal movement, avoiding erratic positioning…took effective angles to direct pucks into his chest and was difficult to beat on straight shots….tracked the puck well and could make quick post-to-post movements.” After the Flood-Marr Tournament they also added “he is long and lean and looks like he has some room to fill out. He is calm and does not rush around his crease…he cuts down angles well with his footwork. He has a good glove and calmly catches pucks…made saves he shouldn’t have and was never out of the play.”
New England Hockey Journal has also scouted Johnson extensively this year, and have repeatedly lauded him as one of the top goalies in prep hockey this year. Called “an athletic, composed netminder, he tracked shots well and was good at controlling his rebounds” at the Flood -Marr Tournament per NEHJ. His numbers reflect his status as a top goalie as well, as he currently sits with the sixth-highest save percentage among starting prep goaltenders in the entire country. NEHJ has called him a candidate for New England Boys Prep Player of the Year.
Johnson is listed as Hotchkiss class of 2027, which projects him for enrollment to Northeastern in either 2028 or 2029. If he stays at Hotchkiss for his senior season, Northeastern’s staff may want him to have two full years of junior hockey before enrolling, which pushes him out to 2029, but if he makes the leap to the USHL next season, coupled with Quentin Sigurdson’s graduation in 2028, that could pave the way for Johnson to enroll Fall 2028. Based on the profiles and ratings given by Neutral Zone and NEHJ, he projects as a starter-quality goalie and could form arguably the best goaltender tandem I’ve ever seen at Northeastern with Samuel Meloche, an ’07 goaltender projected to enroll in 2027.
Congratulations to Neilan on his commitment to Northeastern!
As always, go Huskies!
Feature photo via Neutral Zone,