2026 NHL Draft

[Hockey Widow]

Colour me a rose coloured glasses optimist but I think we will be a playoff team next year. Hronek will be a big part of that. The newly married Brock will probably have a kid before Pettersson so we could have more drama but barring that I think we will be a team next season. Something we havent been for 2 years.

[Nuckertuzzi]

All the more reason to ship FH the hell outta here now.

With all due respect HW, I pray to the HG's you are wrong.

Pretty sure I don't have to pray, the tank will take care of itself but gotta admit the hiring of new people sparks a little fear in me that they will actually make efforts this Summer to try and speed up the building process. Which I can't express enough will be horrible news because that seldom works and only sets you back further.

I want no part of any improvement next year, not even incremental because you know what FA does when he gets a chubby off a few wins.

[Picker of Cherries]

If it’s a tie between picking Malhotra, Stenberg or Carels, maybe the tie breaker should be who will make the best Captain, who will lead their team into the fight… and that’s probably Carels.

[Hockey Widow]

Ya now that I am over the anger that TO got the 1AO I kinda like where we sit. Whoever gets overlooked at 1 and 2 will drop to us and it is looking like we should get a pretty good pick.

[donlever]

One groups top 100 tiered prospect ranking...guys we have bandied about here are bolded...

First a reminder of our picks in '26....so barring further moves 5 of these 100 should be in our stable moving forward...

2026: 1st, 1st (MIN), 2nd, 2nd (SJS), 4th, 5th, 6th


Tier 1
LW Gavin McKenna

LW Ivar Stenberg

Tier 2
D Carson Carels

D Keaton Verhoeff

D Chase Reid

D Alberts Smits

Tier 3
C Caleb Malhotra

C Viggo Bjorck

D Daxon Rudolph

Tier 4
C Tynan Lawrence

D Ryan Lin

LW Ethan Belchetz

Tier 5
LW Nikita Klepov

D Malte Gustafsson

Tier 6
C Alexander Command

C Ilya Morozov

LW Oscar Hemming

Tier 7
LW Adam Novotny

LW Wyatt Cullen

LW Marcus Nordmark

RW Elton Hermansson

Tier 8
LW Ryan Roobroeck

C JP Hurlbert

Tier 9
C Oliver Suvanto

C Yegor Shilov

D Tommy Bleyl

RW Niklas Aaram-Olsen

Tier 10
LW Liam Ruck

D Juho Piiparainen

D William Hakansson

D Xavier Villeneuve

C Jack Hextall

Tier 11
D Adam Goljer

C Maddox Dagenais

D Nikita Scherbakov

C Thomas Vandenberg

C Simas Ignatavicius

RW Casey Mutryn

C Tomas Chrenko

LW Mathis Preston

C Brooks Rogowski

C Adam Valentini

Tier 12
C Lavr Gashilov

G Dimitri Borichev

C Ryder Cali

Tier 13
C Markus Ruck

G Brady Knowling

D Giorgios Pantelas

D Luke Schairer

RW Chase Harrington

RW Blake Zielinski

LW Jaxon Cover

Tier 14
D Ben MacBeath

D Jakub Vanecek

G Tobias Trejbal

LW Adam Nemec

D Landon Nycz

RW Gleb Pugachyov

Tier 15
D Vertti Svensk

C Beckham Edwards

C Alessandro Di Iorio

D Samu Alalauri

LW Cooper Williams

G Harrison Boettiger

Tier 16
D Mans Gudmundsson

RW Rian Chudzinski

C Ludvig Andersson

G William Lacelle

D Charlie Morrison

RW Jonah Sivertson

RW Lars Steiner

RW Cole Zurawski

LW Pierce Mbuyi

Tier 17
LW Landon Hafele

C Tyus Sparks

C Liam Lefebvre

LW Noel Pakarinen

G Tobias Tvrznik

LW Filip Novak

Tier 18
D Alexander Bilecki

RW Nils Bartholdsson

C Oscar Holmertz

LW Victor Plante

RW Beckett Hamilton

Tier 19
LW Landon Amrhein

D Callum Croskery

LW Jakub Frolo

C Rudolfs Berzkalns

D Jakub Floris

D Brek Liske

RW Zach Lansard

C Viktor Fyodorov

G Frantisek Poletin

D Vladimir Dravecky

Tier 20
G Yegor Rybkin

D Lucas Ambrosio

Tier 21
D Sean Burick

RW Vilho Vanhatalo

C JC Lemieux

D Maxim Sokolovskii

[rats19]

Thnx Donny… we should do fairly well..

[Carl Yagro]

Appreciate the breakdown, DL.

[theman]

Thanks for the breakdown. I still think Maholtra at 3 would be a reach. That being said, if both he and Cootes teach their potential of being 2C that is a pretty good centre depth situation to have.

[Meds]

Thanks for the breakdown. I still think Maholtra at 3 would be a reach. That being said, if both he and Cootes teach their potential of being 2C that is a pretty good centre depth situation to have.

Which one of them plays 3C then?

[theman]

Thanks for the breakdown. I still think Maholtra at 3 would be a reach. That being said, if both he and Cootes teach their potential of being 2C that is a pretty good centre depth situation to have.

Which one of them plays 3C then?

Neither, EP 40 does.

[Megaterio Llamas]

Thanks for the rundown Don.

[Lancer]

Thanks for the breakdown. I still think Maholtra at 3 would be a reach. That being said, if both he and Cootes teach their potential of being 2C that is a pretty good centre depth situation to have.

Which one of them plays 3C then?

Neither, EP 40 does.

What team has ever competed with 3 x 3Cs and gone far??

That's why you don't waste a top-3 pick on a centre whose potential prognosticators are saying is 2C max but more likely 3C.

Go for the one with the highest ceiling who's like to be with the club when he reaches it.

[Hockey Widow]

Ya the more I think about it the more I want them to take one of the Dmen if Stenberg or McKenna don’t drop to us. Especially since a number of fans want us to sell high on Hronek at the right time. It would be nice to have another RD developing.