Pro comparisons for the top 8 NHL prospects at the 2024 Frozen Four

Editor’s note: This article was originally published on Bleacher Report and was adapted for NCAA.com

The NCAA men’s Frozen Four gets underway on Thursday and with it comes a load of talent to watch among all four teams.

With Boston College taking on Michigan and Boston University facing Denver, we want to familiarize you with some of the notable college players who will be on display by comparing them as best as we can to current NHL players.

The fun part about making comparisons is that it’s something almost every scout hates doing. It sets unreasonable and often unrealistic expectations for those players, and these things often have a way of coming back to make talent evaluators look a little foolish.

So, we’re going to take a crack at it, because you can’t hurt us with our own words and we’re not paid to be scouts. But when you watch enough games and video of the players, certain players come to mind immediately as to who they remind you of.

That’s pretty much our methodology here.

Cutter Gauthier as Alex Tuch

Maybe it’s because Cutter Gauthier plays for Boston College and is a power forward with a lot of skill to go with his size that made us think of Alex Tuch. After all, the Buffalo Sabres star is a former Eagle and a power forward with size and skill.

Or maybe it’s because Gauthier plays in such a similar way, you’d think Boston College only wants to have players built like that to load up its roster.

However, when you watch how the 20-year-old handles himself in open space and around the net with the kind of hands and shot we’ve seen Tuch use to light it up in Vegas and Buffalo, it’s hard not to picture the two being similar.

Gauthier is the leading goal scorer in college hockey because he’s able to use all of those gifts to make life miserable for opposing teams and that he’s a Hobey Baker Award finalist is no surprise, either.

Anaheim Ducks fans will be relishing the idea of Gauthier lining up alongside Leo Carlsson and Trevor Zegras down the line.

Macklin Celebrini as Mitch Marner

The easiest way to describe Macklin Celebrini is to take a look down the list of past no-doubt No. 1 picks in the NHL draft and select the one he’s most like. After all, he will be the No. 1 pick in June and his abilities are off the charts.

Consider he’s 17 years old and tied for second in the country in…