Cam's Consensus: The Preliminary 2026 NHL Draft Scout Poll

You don’t replace a legend. At best, you try your best to take up even a fraction of the massive space they’ve left behind. With Bob McKenzie officially retired, the hockey world lost the face of the anonymous NHL scout poll he built into the gold standard of draft coverage.

Year after year, Bob’s poll proved remarkably accurate once the draft dust settled. To carry on that tradition, Elite Prospects has recruited eight NHL scouts to take part in a new version of the exercise. 

Three polls will be published this season: September, January, and late May. Each scout has submitted a list of the top players for the 2026 class, with rankings weighted and averaged to give a clearer sense of how NHL clubs view the field.

For this pre-season edition, every scout named at least 15 prospects, but most