2026 NHL Draft Thread

[dammage79]

If not McKenna, then I'm all for the RHS Center swede, Viggo Bjorck. Then Stenberg.

[Sandman]

I don’t think it will be long before guys like C Caleb Malhotra, C Yegor Shilov, and W Nikita Klepov are flirting with the top-10 and beyond…

Edit: throw Morozov in there too.

[Sandman]

Double post

[GioforPM]

Wolf made it hard on himself there

[GioforPM]

Wrong thread

[Enoch Root]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Right but if Ottawa wins the lottery then the team that gets #1 is only the Flames if the Flames win the 2nd slot. Otherwise the team that gets #1 is the team that wins #2.
Right?

Yes, I missed that scenario. So... Flames pick 1st if:

1) Flames win 1st draw
2) OTT wins 1st draw and the Flames win round 2
3) OTT wins 1st draw and a team ranked 12-16 wins round 2
3) any team ranked 12 to 16 wins round 1 and the Flames win round 2
4) any team ranked 12 to 16 wins round 1 and OTT wins round 2
5) any team ranked 12 to 16 wins round 1 and a team ranked 12 to 16 win 2nd round

Sum the odds for each of these, and that's their odds of picking 1st

[Jay Random]

If the Arizona precedent stands, then Ottawa can't win the draft lottery. If their numbers are drawn, the lottery will be redrawn, same as if it was the 1,001st combination that isn't assigned to any team.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Yeah I had it wrong

[FanSince'01]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Yes, I missed that scenario. So... Flames pick 1st if:

1) Flames win 1st draw
2) OTT wins 1st draw and the Flames win round 2
3) OTT wins 1st draw and a team ranked 12-16 wins round 2
3) any team ranked 12 to 16 wins round 1 and the Flames win round 2
4) any team ranked 12 to 16 wins round 1 and OTT wins round 2
5) any team ranked 12 to 16 wins round 1 and a team ranked 12 to 16 win 2nd round

Sum the odds for each of these, and that's their odds of picking 1st

From my understanding, that's not exactly how it works, but someone please correct me if I'm wrong here.

As I understand it, the first draw is for the 1st overall pick and the second draw is for the 2nd overall. A team winning the 2nd draw cannot win the 1st overall pick.

So if we finish last and either win the first draw or a team ranked 12-16 wins in, we're not involved in round 2 at all and we get the 1st overall pick. We're only in the second draw if a team from 2-11 wins the lottery, in which case there is a possibility we lose that draw as well and drop to 3rd if a team not ranked 13 to 16 won the second draw.

If Ottawa were to win the draft for 1st overall, assuming the previous precedent stands, they would re-draw the 1st selection and the above would apply to the re-draw before the 2nd draw were to occur.

[FlamesAddiction]

I expect Malhotra to rise up the rankings if he keeps doing what he is doing, but right now he seems to be a possibility to draft with the Vegas 1st or our 2nd rounder. He seems like someone to keep an eye one.

[Aarongavey]

Flames should have their eyes on Vandenberg from the 67’s. One of the youngest players in the draft and is a pretty good player in the two games I have seen.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Aarongavey

Flames should have their eyes on Vandenberg from the 67’s. One of the youngest players in the draft and is a pretty good player in the two games I have seen.

Absolutely! I mentioned his name a few pages back under my “centers to watch” post.

[Fan69]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

I expect Malhotra to rise up the rankings if he keeps doing what he is doing, but right now he seems to be a possibility to draft with the Vegas 1st or our 2nd rounder. He seems like someone to keep an eye one.

I think that their are some good center but not a lot of them; would be surprised if he made it to second round. Really hoping Hextall goes kind of unnoticed.

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Sandman

Bjorck's 74 points in 42 games are the highest total ever posted by a U-17 player in Sweden's J20 League, by a huge margin- the next best is Jakob Ihs-Wozniak, with 50 points in 36 games.

Likewise, Bjorck's 15 points in 9 playoff games are the best ever by a U-17 player in the J20, the next highest player being 9 points in 7 games.

Taken from my post in August.

[FlamesNightmare]

It's about the time for The Flames to get 1st overall draft pick for once this decade. But we know Gary Bettman hates The Flames.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by FlamesNightmare

It's about the time for The Flames to get 1st overall draft pick for once this decade. But we know Gary Bettman hates The Flames.

Gary Bettman helped saved the Flames.

[FlamesNightmare]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Gary Bettman helped saved the Flames.

Oh really, how so?

I was under the impression that he never liked the flames getting decent draft picks for some reason.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by FlamesNightmare

Oh really, how so?

I was under the impression that he never liked the flames getting decent draft picks for some reason.

Under his leadership he:
- Implemented the Canadian Assistance when the Canadian dollar was very low relative to the USD
- Was able to get a salary cap implemented
- Brought a team back to Winnipeg
- Advocated for a new arena for Calgary. Though at the same time this included him at times seemingly threaten that if one was not built, the future could be in doubt.

What evidence is there that he "never liked the Flames getting decent draft picks"?

[Toonage]

Anyone who remembers buying the Flames/Oilers lottery tickets back in the day should know how close those teams were to leaving. Give Bettman his due.

[FlamesNightmare]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

Under his leadership he:
- Implemented the Canadian Assistance when the Canadian dollar was very low relative to the USD
- Was able to get a salary cap implemented
- Brought a team back to Winnipeg
- Advocated for a new arena for Calgary. Though at the same time this included him at times seemingly threaten that if one was not built, the future could be in doubt.

What evidence is there that he "never liked the Flames getting decent draft picks"?

Okay I jest that he never wanted the flames to get draft picks. I think I heard somewhere (maybe on reddit) he's all about favoring "America", or the league having an pro-american bias.