Scouting Report: Adam Levac

A closer look at Detroit's 2026 4th round draft pick

Credit: The Peterborough Examiner

Note: during the summer, I’m going to create scouting reports on the most recent Red Wings draft picks. In my Red Wings draft primer I identified Levac as a prospect I liked in the back half of the draft, so this year’s series will start off with him.

For the Peterborough Petes, the star of the show during the 2025-25 season was winger Adam Novotný, and for good reason: the smooth skating forward put up 34 goals and 65 points over 58 games for the Petes. The Vancouver Canucks liked Novotný so much, they selected the forward out of Czechia with the 24th overall pick, one pick after the Red Wings selected JP Hurlbert.

A big part of the reason the Petes lost their playoff matchup against the North Bay Battalion was due to the fact Novotný was held to one assist and went -7 over the 6 game series. North Bay maintained territorial supremacy for most of the series, with both their losses coming in OT games. Novotný simply didn’t have enough help to turn the tide in Peterborough’s favor.

Adam Levac didn’t play a prominent role for Peterborough in terms of ice time, but he was a solid point producer, registering 3 points in their two wins, and 4 points in total over the 6 game series with a +2. Levac’s name stood out to me when I looked at data on which 17 year olds were good at generating assists:

Dude has got that grittaayyy play style that the Red Wings North American scouts love, but surprised a bit in a scoring role with Peterborough. Generated 30 helpers (regular season + playoffs), which is very good for anyone not named Caleb Malhotra.

Referencing Novotný once more, the first round draft pick only generated 2 more helpers than Levac over the entire regular season and playoffs. While scoring goals is the hardest thing to do, a guy with Levac’s limited ice time who routinely generates assists is still impressive in its own right.

Adam Levac’s Career Stats to Date

Credit: Elite Prospects

Let’s get a quick overview of Adam Levac as a player. This scouting report will cover Peterborough’s 4-3 overtime win in game two of their OHL playoff series against the North Bay Battalion.

Adam Levac’s Position and Playing Style

While Levac is listed as a center, in Peterborough’s 4-3 overtime win, he was stationed along the right wing. He mostly played with 20 year old, undrafted players with the exception of Kieron Walton who was drafted by Winnipeg in the 6th round of the 2024 draft. Walton was Peterborough's best forward in the series, putting up 3 goals and 3 assists against the Battalion.

Levac took 11 faceoffs, with the Peterborough site listing him as having won 6, and he played on both specialty teams units. When he has the puck on his stick in his d-zone, he keeps his head up looking for passes, but for the most part his destination is center ice so he can dump the puck and get the forecheck going. He’s a north-south player, you aren’t going to see him skating laterally with the puck on his stick, at least not enough for it to become a defining characteristic at this point.

In the o-zone, he’s active along the boards and is always looking to pass the puck to an open teammate, with both his assists coming from Levac winning the puck along the end boards before setting up a teammate. The first was a primary assist to Braydon MacCallum to put the Petes up 3-1, and the final one was a secondary assist on the game winner, with him finding McCallum behind the net who passed the puck to Kieron Walton for the goal.

His physical game seems solid, as he’s good at battling along the boards and seems to understand when he should provide an outlet when his team wins possession, and when he should join the fray. As the game got chippy late in the third period, he was comfortable delivering hits near the North Bay bench after the whistle. Of course there’s the infamous slew foot that got him an 8 game suspension, but in this game he stuck to normal hockey plays, and his physicality was solid without overdoing it. There was nothing that came close to crossing the line.

In the d-zone he has an active stick which is effective in breaking up passes, and he’s good at getting his body into the opposing puck handler near the boards to separate him from the puck. He was +2 in this game and wasn’t on the ice for a single goal against.

His shooting is fairly basic at this point: Levac is good at getting the puck on net, but with 6 shots on goal — two of them being up close in front of the net — he never seemed to generate much danger for the Battalion keeper.

With that out of the way, here are my skill ratings for this game.

Adam Levac Player Ratings

Skating: 6/10

Levac’s skating doesn’t stand out at all. There are no speed bursts, little in the way of edge work, and, speaking in broad terms, it’s neither a benefit nor a hindrance.

There were several times when I thought his skating prevented him from scoring; two occurred when he was fed a puck that got him in all alone on Battalion goalie Jack Lisson, but he wasn't able to open Lisson up to generate a quality scoring chance. A third came when Levac collected the puck to the left of the North Bay goal, but was slow to get to the front of the net to generate a shot on goal.

With better skating he may have added a goal to his two assists.

Passing: 7/10

Adam Levac’s passing is the one trait that makes him stand out among a Red Wings prospect pool that is chock full of guys with capabilities similar to Levac. The thing that makes his passing so intriguing is he doesn’t generate most of his assists in open ice; his assists usually come after he’s won the puck along the end boards, where he has the vision to get the puck to either the goal scorer or a teammate who will be credited with the primary assist.

There were two of these plays in this game that led to goals, and another pass to Braydon McCallum in the third period that nearly led to another goal. Levac seems to have a strong connection with McCallum and the pair nearly generated three goals in this game.

Shooting: 5/10

As of the 2025-26 campaign, no one is going to mistake Levac for a sniper. His shot is accurate, but it lacks the explosion off the blade you see from high end goal scorers and he doesn’t attempt any deception that would ask questions of the goaltender. He spends enough time in the o-zone either in front of the goalie or between the face-off dots where he generates several scoring chances, but his shot lacks dynamism.

He was credited with 6 shots on goal in this game, and none of them seemed particularly challenging for Lisson.

Physical Play: 7/10

While Levac isn’t big — he’s listed as 6 feet tall and 172 pounds — he’s effective along the boards, often winning puck battles if not providing support for when his team wins possession. He’s also quite comfortable in front of the net and the physical play that entails. While he’s not a heat-seeking missile always looking to initiate contact, he rises to the level of play when the game gets chippy.

Faceoffs: 8/10

The Peterborough website lists him as winning 55.6% of his draws during the regular season off 975 attempts, second only to Aiden Young in total faceoffs, and only by 19 total draws. In this game he was credited with 6 wins on 11 draws, with at least one face-off coming on the PK in his own zone. That’s trust.

One way I like to differentiate between whether guys listed as a center actually play center is by looking at their face-off totals. So while 17 year old Adam Levac played right wing in this game, his face-off totals suggest he’s a capable pivot.

Defensive Play: 7/10

With defensive play, you are mostly looking to see if there are any glaring issues and that hasn’t been the case with Levac. If I’m to infer anything from him playing on the wing and getting a relatively small amount of ice time in this game, it’s easy to assume the coaching staff doesn’t have complete faith in Levac, but his regular season -5 plus/minus combined with his 47 PIMs don’t trigger any alarm bells. I don’t have access to TOI totals for the team, which is another way to get a sense of how much a prospect played over the course of the season.

He’s committed to playing in his defensive zone, whether it be board battles, protecting the slot area from cross crease passes, or attacking puck handlers. Given the fact he got time on the PK and was in the game late with the score tied in the 3rd period and during OT, it’s safe to say he’s capable of playing in all situations.

Adam Levac’s Projection

Adam Levac seems like a safe bet to have a long career in the AHL. His size and physical play would both fit in easily with the Griffins. However if his scoring and his assist totals in particular can grow, that would likely open a path to a higher ceiling.

For instance, 2022 draft pick Amadeus Lombardi put up 59 points in his draft -1 season, good for 0.88 points per game. In his D+1 season, his production exploded to 102 points, or 1.52 points per game. While they are completely different players, if Levac could raise his point per game total above 1.00, there would be reason to believe his offensive skill could travel with him all the way to the NHL.

A better comparison may be Tyler Bertuzzi, who didn't have a breakout season until his age 19 season in Guelph where he put up 98 points, good for 1.44 points per game. If Levac can exceed that 1.00 PPG threshold next season, it would make me sit up and take notice.

Regardless, an AHL career is a safe prediction as far as Levac’s floor is concerned. We’ll have to wait until next season to get a peak at what may be his ceiling as a professional hockey player.