Five bold predictions for the 2026 NHL Draft
BUFFALO, New York — We’re almost there.
In a little over 48 hours, draft hopefuls and their families will begin filing into KeyBank Center for the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft. For the second time in as many years, they’ll do so as part of the league’s new decentralized format, with most of the heavy lifting having already been done weeks ago at the Combine.
And that’s part of what makes this week so interesting.
The interviews are over. The testing is complete. The final viewings have long since been logged. The debates that consumed scouting meetings from September through June have largely run their course. Boards are mostly set.
At least that’s what we’re expected to believe.
Yet somehow, the rumours keep coming.
This player is rising. This one is sliding. One team is trying to trade up. Another is quietly exploring a move down. An executive insists a prospect won’t get past a certain pick. A scout from another organization texts an eye-rolling emoji, saying he should be available 20 spots later.
It’s the annual draft-week tradition. Everyone claims certainty. Nobody actually has it.
Especially this year.
The 2026 class has been one of the most polarizing groups I’ve evaluated in a long time. Maybe ever. There is reasonable agreement at the very top. After that, the opinions scatter in every direction. Teams see different things. Scouts value different traits. Public rankings and NHL lists appear further apart than usual.
Which makes this the perfect environment for a few bold predictions. Another annual tradition.
This series began back in 2018 in the sweltering Texas heat. Over the years, some of the predictions have come to fruition. Many others have not. But that’s by design.
We don’t expect these predictions to happen. We’ve added a healthy dose of spice to make them enjoyable. However, there is enough logic woven in to keep them within the realm of reason.
And if history has taught us anything, it’s that reason isn’t always the conductor on draft day.
Gavin McKenna does NOT go first overall
Let’s start with the obvious one.
I’ll admit, it’s low-hanging fruit, but fruit is delicious and nutritious, so here we are.
After earning CHL Player of the Year honours as a draft-minus-one player, Gavin McKenna took his talents to Penn State. What followed was a curious case of ups, downs, and headline-grabbing moments.
At the end of the day, many clubs see the top tier as consisting of four to six players, with McKenna at or near the top for most. But let’s be honest: if there’s a GM who might zag while everyone else expects a zig, it’s Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka.
He could take Ivar Stenberg and go with the more hard-skilled winger. He could go after Caleb Malhotra and grab the best shot at a future top-line centre. He could target Chase Reid and bring in a top-pairing right-shot defenceman.
There are options here.
The best player in the class goes outside of the Top 10
Some years offer better odds than others when considering the leader-versus-the-field debate. This is one of those years.
But I have one specific name in mind here, and it rhymes with Biggo Vörk.
The 5-foot-9 centre has endeared himself to teams with his impressive performance as the top centre on Sweden’s gold-medal-winning World Junior squad, as well as on his SHL club team. His work against proper NHL talent at the men’s World Championship only furthered that infatuation.
Yet this is still the NHL – old habits don’t disappear overnight.
And despite the Hurricanes winning the Cup on the backs of tenaciously skilled undersized studs, Viggo Björck slips outside of the top 10 this year. All he’ll do after that is prove it was a mistake to make him wait and become the best player in the class.
I know, spicy.
Trades will dominate the day
Listen, I wrote this one before what shall henceforth be known as Tradin’ Tuesday. But I’m going to keep it in and amend it slightly.
Even though we’ve already seen Brady Tkachuk, Bowen Byram, Jordan Kyrou, William Eklund, and Šimon Nemec all move in the last couple of days, more fireworks are on the way.
As one executive put it so candidly on Tuesday evening: “I'm afraid my phone is going to start smoking any minute now."
The trade market has never felt more alive. With a rising cap, a weak free-agent market, and teams seemingly in a race to keep up with the Joneses, there is strong potential for more major deals.
The Dylan Larkin watch remains active. Vancouver, perhaps the one true long-term rebuilder, has yet to wade in. Jake DeBrusk, Elias Pettersson, and Brock Boeser are all names we could see move. There’s a lot of noise around Connor Hellebuyck, Zach Werenski, Jason Robertson, Matthew Knies, Colton Parayko and a host of others.
This could be the biggest week of movement the NHL has seen in years.
Wyatt Cullen is the third forward off the board
At the beginning of the 2024-25 season, Wyatt Cullen arrived at U17 NTDP camp standing 5-foot-5. He was decidedly the most skilled player on the ice, but was easily lost among the trees.
Fast forward a year and several inches of growth, and NHL Central Scouting assigned the American winger a C-grade on its preliminary watch list.
A grading suitable for the mid-rounds of the draft.
Now here we are in June, and Cullen, with his tremendous bloodlines and electric skill set, measured in at 6-foot-1 at the Combine and has become perhaps the draft’s biggest riser.
In this world, a team steps up and takes him before the top 10 has finished unfolding.
Ahead of Björck. Ahead of Ethan Belchetz. Ahead of all the forwards who were consistently ranked well ahead of him for the past 24 months.
Bonus Prediction: A goalie goes in Round 1
No, I don’t mean Keaton Verhoeff either.
Despite the lack of a consensus first-round goaltender, at least one team won’t be able to help itself at the tail end of Round 1 and will step up to select a goalie.
My best guess?
Dmitri Borichev, out of the MHL.
He's 6-foot-3, young for the class, and lauded for his excellent edgework and technically impressive positioning.
Industry predictions - collected June 23rd and 24th
We asked several team-side people what their spiciest prediction is for this weekend.
“(Connor) Hellebuyck is sent out east. I think New Jersey makes a big play here.”
“People have forgotten about (Alberts Šmits). He’ll be gone in the top five.”
“The draft flops again, and we’re forced back to the old way of doing things.”
“Everyone thinks Vancouver will take Malhotra. I think it's Chase Reid.”