2026 NHL Draft Thread

[Calgary4LIfe]

Originally Posted by fotze2

Olsen broke my kids hip. Not dirty at all. He is awesome.

Ouch! I hope your kid's recovery went well! I can imagine a broken hip really, really sucking.

[Vinny01]

Pronman continues to have some bizarre rankings


https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/699...shared_article


Verheoff up to 1. Stenberg 2. Reid is 3 with McKenna at 4.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Vinny01

Pronman continues to have some bizarre rankings


https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/699...shared_article


Verheoff up to 1. Stenberg 2. Reid is 3 with McKenna at 4.

People think he's trolling but I just think he injects a heavy personal bias against players he doesn't care for. He clearly doesn't like McKenna just like he's not fond of Parekh.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

People think he's trolling but I just think he injects a heavy personal bias against players he doesn't care for. He clearly doesn't like McKenna just like he's not fond of Parekh.

I've said this before but I think he's over-corrected for some of his past biases. There was a time where he was really pushing the skilled guys with high hockey sense, and didn't care as much about size.

Now he's swung the other way. He really values size more than the others and just hammers players that are small or slight.

I prefer Wheeler, but I like the different views. Also, on their pod cast they are often joined by Chris Peters, from Flo Hockey, and I think he's got well informed views.

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

People think he's trolling but I just think he injects a heavy personal bias against players he doesn't care for. He clearly doesn't like McKenna just like he's not fond of Parekh.

I'd rather someone put up something unique (assuming they believe what they are saying and not just trying to for clicks) rather than just follow everyone else.

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

Ouch! I hope your kid's recovery went well! I can imagine a broken hip really, really sucking.

It was like a hairline fracture. Month out and then good to go.

[Bingo]

Updated with Pronman's refresh.

Makes the top three a toss up.

1 Gavin McKenna LW 1.92
2 Ivar Stenberg RW 2.00
3 Keaton Verhoeff RHD 2.67

4 Tynan Lawrence C 4.83
5 Chase Reid RHD 6.08

6 Ethan Belchetz LW 8.17
7 Alberts Smits LHD 9.33

8 Carson Carels LHD 10.42
10 Viggo Björck C 11.33

11 Caleb Malhotra C 13.45
12 Ryan Lin RHD 13.92

13 M Nordmark LW 16.00
14 E Hermansson RW 16.17
15 Adam Novotný LW 16.25
16 Oliver Suvanto C 16.55
17 Daxon Rudolph RHD 16.92
18 X Villeneuve LHD 17.00
19 Mathis Preston RW 17.36

20 Oscar Hemming LW 19.00
21 Juho Piiparinen RHD 19.55
22 M Gustafsson LHD 19.90

23 J.P. Hurlbert LW 20.83

24 Will Håkansson LHD 22.70

25 Nikita Klepov LW 23.56
26 Jack Hextall C 24.89
27 Ryan Roobroeck LW 24.90

28 Yegor Shilov C 26.60
29 Ilya Morozov C 27.27

30 N Aaram-Olsen LW 29.78
31 Tomas Chrenko C 30.86
32 Alex Command C 31.67

33 M Dagenais C 33.25
34 Adam Valentini C 33.67
35 B Rogowski C 34.11
36 Casey Mutryn F 34.83
37 Beck Edwards C 35.00
38 N Shcherbakov LHD 35.75

39 Pierce Mbuyi LW 37.71
40 Liam Ruck RW 38.00
41 Ales Di Iorio C 38.60

42 S Ignatavicius C 41.80
43 Adam Goljer D 41.83
44 Giorg Pantelas RHD 42.80
45 Oscar Holmertz C 43.40

[Enoch Root]

Bingo: there is enough data now that new numbers don't move people much, and it becomes difficult to see who's moving up and who's moving down. How about we park this list as the 'first half of the season list' and start a new one from here. Then we can compare the two, and see who seems to be getting more attention now, vs earlier in teh season?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

I'd rather someone put up something unique (assuming they believe what they are saying and not just trying to for clicks) rather than just follow everyone else.

Personally I think he’s trying too hard. As Jiri mentioned he’s overcorrected so much that a lot of people think he’s trolling because some of his takes come off as outrageous compared to the consensus. He gets destroyed in the reader comments while Wheeler gets a lot of praise. Clearly the masses disagree with his beliefs. He’s the Hockey version of Walter Football. I still read his stuff out of curiosity because you know his take will be different. I just don’t value his analysis as much as I do others as he’s at the bottom with Sam Cosentino.

[D as in David]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Updated with Pronman's refresh.

Makes the top three a toss up.

#9 is missing.

[Snuffleupagus]

Corey Pronman is just a video scout, I would trust Sandman and a few others on CP rankings over his.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Enoch Root

Bingo: there is enough data now that new numbers don't move people much, and it becomes difficult to see who's moving up and who's moving down. How about we park this list as the 'first half of the season list' and start a new one from here. Then we can compare the two, and see who seems to be getting more attention now, vs earlier in teh season?

I've been updating lists and recording the date as well.

So there is now only 4 rankings that are dated as far back as November. And a strong majority updated in the last 5 weeks.

Even if we expired this it would pretty much be the same ... unless I omitted the most dated rankings.

Additionally it's probably time for me to seek out the old ones and see if they've updated and it slipped past this string on CP.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by D as in David

#9 is missing.

Fixed.

It was out of respect to Lanny's jersey retirement.

[Monahammer]

It would be a huge mistake to take Verhoeff, even at 3.

[Bingo]

Here is another update ... Bukula from Sportsnet back on Jan 14th updated, and then for fun I removed all the rankings from before December 1st.

More recent complete average.

1 Ivar Stenberg RW 1.63
2 Gavin McKenna LW 2.25
3 Keaton Verhoeff RHD 2.88
4 Tynan Lawrence C 4.88
5 Chase Reid RHD 5.25
6 Alberts Smits LHD 8.00
7 Ethan Belchetz LW 8.50
8 Carson Carels LHD 9.25
9 Viggo Björck C 10.50
10 Caleb Malhotra C 11.13
11 Ryan Lin RHD 13.88
12 Daxon Rudolph RHD 15.75
13 Oliver Suvanto C 15.88
14 Xavier Villeneuve LHD 15.88
15 Adam Novotný LW 16.25
16 Marcus Nordmark LW 16.75
17 Elton Hermansson RW 17.00
18 Malte Gustafsson LHD 19.33
19 Juho Piiparinen RHD 19.43
20 J.P. Hurlbert LW 20.63
21 Oscar Hemming LW 20.86
22 Mathis Preston RW 21.14
23 William Håkansson LHD 23.57
24 Ilya Morozov C 25.25
25 Tomas Chrenko C 26.50
26 Jack Hextall C 27.00
27 Nikita Klepov LW 27.80
28 Yegor Shilov C 28.25
29 Ryan Roobroeck LW 29.00
30 Alexander Command C 30.00
31 Pierce Mbuyi LW 32.17
32 Nikita Shcherbakov LHD 32.50
33 Niklas Aaram-Olsen LW 33.00
34 Adam Valentini C 33.25
35 Wyatt Cullen C 33.80
36 Adam Goljer D 34.40
37 Maddox Dagenais C 34.86
38 Brooks Rogowski C 35.43
39 Beckham Edwards C 38.25
40 Alessandro Di Iorio C 38.75

[SuperMatt18]

Bjorck feels low to me.

He's playing C in a mens league at 17. He was very impressive at the WJC.

I know size is a concern but he's dynamic and an elite skater to overcome that.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by Snuffleupagus

Corey Pronman is just a video scout, I would trust Sandman and a few others on CP rankings over his.

not entirely true. He attends games in person.

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Bjorck feels low to me.

He's playing C in a mens league at 17. He was very impressive at the WJC.

I know size is a concern but he's dynamic and an elite skater to overcome that.

And dropping on the most recent lists.

Surprises me as well.

[Fan69]

Originally Posted by Bingo

Here is another update ... Bukula from Sportsnet back on Jan 14th updated, and then for fun I removed all the rankings from before December 1st.

More recent complete average.

Snag one of the top three the grab two centers at the bottom of the first top of the second.

Draft could look like:
Stenberg/vaerhoff/mckenna
Beckham edwards/Rogowski/ Suvanto
Brooks Rogowski/mutryn/ Hextall

Lots of possibilities but i also like Aram-Olsen and Shcherbakov in the second as well.