Alexander Lloyd DeBrincat (born December 18, 1997) is an American professional ice hockey player who is a winger for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was selected by the Chicago Blackhawks in the second round, 39th overall, of the 2016 NHL entry draft. He has previously played for the Blackhawks and the Ottawa Senators.
Born in Farmington Hills, Michigan, DeBrincat spent one year at Harrison High School before transferring to Lake Forest Academy in Illinois. He had planned to play college ice hockey in Massachusetts but signed with the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) for the 2014–15 season. There, he set a franchise record with over 50 goals and 100 points in his first season, and he won the Emms Family Award and CHL Rookie of the Year trophies. During the 2016–17 season, DeBrincat became the all-time Otters goal leader and the top scorer of any OHL player born in the United States. He won the Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy, Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy, Red Tilson Trophy, and CHL Player of the Year award for his performance. He spent three years with the Otters, becoming the second player in OHL history to score 50 goals and 100 points all three years.
DeBrincat joined the Blackhawks for the 2017–18 season, where he experienced goal streaks and droughts as a rookie, including three hat-tricks. He surpassed his rookie scoring totals in 2018–19 season, but fell into a slump during the 2019–20 season, particularly when he was not on the power play. DeBrincat's offensive production improved during the COVID-19 pandemic-shortened 2020–21 season, during which he maintained a pace of over a point per game. DeBrincat continued this production the following year when he represented the Blackhawks at the NHL All-Star Game and recorded his second 40-goal season.
DeBrincat was born on December 18, 1997, in Farmington Hills, Michigan, to David and Tracey DeBrincat, who met at Michigan State University. His favorite ice hockey player as a child was Pavel Datsyuk, who played for the Detroit Red Wings of the National Hockey League (NHL) from 2001 to 2016. DeBrincat attended Harrison High School in Farmington Hills for one year before transferring to Lake Forest Academy, a college preparatory school in Illinois. Because all hockey players at Lake Forest were required to play a spring semester sport, DeBrincat also played baseball. In his single season there, he scored 54 goals and recorded 111 points in 50 games.
DeBrincat signed with the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) as a free agent on April 28, 2014. At the time, he had planned to play junior ice hockey and then attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he had committed to play college ice hockey for the Minutemen, but he left Lake Forest to play for the Otters. Erie general manager Sherwood Bassin had scouted him during Lake Forest's 8–2 rout of the Soo Indians, in which DeBrincat scored three goals and recorded two assists.
DeBrincat scored his first OHL goal in his first game with the Otters, a 7–1 win over the Saginaw Spirit to open the 2014–15 season. After scoring 10 goals and 21 points in 10 games, DeBrincat was named the OHL Rookie of the Month for October 2014. He followed that with his first junior hockey hat-trick in a 5–2 win over the Sarnia Sting on November 7. He was named the OHL Rookie of the Month again in November with another nine goals and 17 points in 13 games. DeBrincat finished the regular season with a six-point game in Erie's 8–7 win over the Niagara IceDogs. In addition to securing the Otters' 50th win of the season, DeBrincat finished the season with 51 goals and 104 points, becoming the first rookie in franchise history to score 50 goals and 100 points. He added another nine goals and 16 points in 20 playoff games, but the Otters lost to the Oshawa Generals in the J. Ross Robertson Cup finals. At the end of the season, DeBrincat followed Connor McDavid as only the second Otter to win the Emms Family Award, given to the OHL Rookie of the Year, and in May, he was named the CHL Rookie of the Year. He was also named to the OHL All-Rookie First Team and the Second All-Star Team.
On October 1, 2015, DeBrincat scored five goals in the Niagara IceDogs' home opener for the 2015–16 season. The following week, he had a four-goal game against Niagara, giving the Otters a 7–2 win to stay unbeaten through five games. He was named the OHL Player of the Month after scoring 16 goals and 23 points in 12 games, and he followed the award with his third hat-trick of the season, this time against the Peterborough Petes. That January, DeBrincat was one of two Otters named to the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game, playing on Team Cherry. DeBrincat scored his 50th goal of the season against the Owen Sound Attack on March 17, becoming the first player in franchise history to record consecutive 50-goal seasons and the first OHL player to do so since Tyler Toffoli in 2011 and 2012. Two days later, he picked up his 100th point with two assists in the Otters' 4–2 win over the London Knights. DeBrincat finished his sophomore OHL season with 51 goals and 101 points, and he was named to the 2015–16 OHL Third All-Star Team. Additionally, he was a highly rated prospect going into the 2016 NHL entry draft: the NHL Central Scouting Bureau ranked DeBrincat 20th among all North American skaters in their midterm rankings and 21st in their final rankings. In June, he was drafted in the second round, 39th overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL. He signed a three-year, entry-level contract with the team on November 7, 2016.
After missing the first three games of the 2016–17 season in Blackhawks training camp, DeBrincat returned to the Otters to pick up 15 points in six games. DeBrincat and his teammate Taylor Raddysh were named the OHL's Co-Players of the Month for November 2016 after they both scored 27 points in 12 games. He was the first player that season to reach the 30-goal mark, doing so through 28 games. DeBrincat was named the Player of the Month again in February after leading all players with 32 points in 12 games. The month also came with several milestones. He scored his 40th goal of the season and 142nd of his career on February 3 against Peterborough, becoming the Otters' all-time scoring leader. On February 11, his four points against the Saginaw Spirit helped him cross the 300-point marker for his career, and with three points against London the following week, he became the first OHL player to record 100 points during the 2016–17 season. On February 21, DeBrincat joined Dale McCourt as the only two players in OHL history to score 50 goals in three consecutive seasons. He finished the month with two goals against the Barrie Colts on February 27, putting him ahead of Rob Schremp as the OHL's all-time leading goal scorer from the United States. In the final game of the regular season, a 5–2 win over the Guelph Storm, DeBrincat scored his 65th goal, a single-season record for the Otters.
With 65 goals and 127 points in 63 games, DeBrincat won the 2017 Eddie Powers Memorial Trophy for the OHL's leading scorer, as well as the Jim Mahon Memorial Trophy for the top-scoring right winger in the league. He was an OHL First-Team All-Star and the recipient of the 2016–17 Red Tilson Trophy, given to the OHL's most outstanding player. He followed the OHL awards season by being named the CHL Player of the Year. Although Warren Foegele won the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award for the OHL playoffs' most valuable player, DeBrincat led the playoffs in scoring with 13 goals and 38 points in 22 games as the Otters won the J. Ross Robertson Cup for the second time in franchise history. The Otters lost the 2017 Memorial Cup finals to the tournament hosts, the Windsor Spitfires of the OHL, but DeBrincat was named to the Memorial Cup All-Star Team. DeBrincat finished his OHL career with 167 goals and 332 points in 191 regular season games, and an additional 30 goals and 73 points in 55 postseason games.