2026 NHL Draft Thread

[Incogneto]

Sandman, did you have a writeup last year on Ethan Wyttenbach?

[Sandman]

Originally Posted by Incogneto

Sandman, did you have a writeup last year on Ethan Wyttenbach?

Embarrassingly, I did not. I was one of the people who thought his skating, size, and pace were going to keep him from being drafted. He didn’t look like a serious prospect to me, and numerous others.

I wouldn’t trade him for anything at this point though.

[Mitch]

I wonder if the flames will start to lean harder into analytics based draft analysis after the success of Wyttenbach in his D+1 year. IIRC Tod Button mentioned that Wyttenbach was targeted because he jumped out to their stats guys.

[Bingo]

New ranking added (McKeen's Brock Otten)

1 Ivar Stenberg 1.67
2 Gavin McKenna 2.00
3 Keaton Verhoeff 3.00
4 Chase Reid 4.78
5 Tynan Lawrence 5.44
6 Alberts Smits 7.44
7 Viggo Björck 8.56
8 Carson Carels 8.89
9 Ethan Belchetz 9.22
10 Caleb Malhotra 10.56
11 Ryan Lin 14.11
12 Daxon Rudolph 15.22
13 Oliver Suvanto 15.56
14 X Villeneuve 16.11
15 Oscar Hemming 16.29
16 Adam Novotný 16.33
17 E Hermansson 17.22
18 M Nordmark 17.67
19 Juho Piiparinen 18.89
20 M Gustafsson 20.38
21 J.P. Hurlbert 21.75
22 Mathis Preston 22.89
23 Will Håkansson 23.25
24 Nikita Klepov 25.14
25 Ilya Morozov 25.22
26 Yegor Shilov 28.25
27 Tomas Chrenko 29.00
28 Ryan Roobroeck 29.80
29 Alex Command 30.00
30 Jack Hextall 30.00
31 Pierce Mbuyi 30.57
32 N Shcherbakov 31.71
33 Adam Valentini 31.80
34 Wyatt Cullen 32.50
35 M Dagenais 32.71
36 Liam Ruck 34.50
37 N Aaram-Olsen 34.67
38 Casey Mutryn 35.33
39 Adam Goljer 35.40
40 Tommy Bleyl 35.67

[Erick Estrada]

At this point I'm not overly concerned if they don't get 1st overall but 3rd overall would be a bit of a bummer as I don't find Verhoeff a sexy top 3 pick.

[TheIronMaiden]

It's looking more and more like there will not be a centre worthy of the top 5 pick.
not super sexy, you're right, but there is a lot to like about the 4 D floating around pick 3-7.

I really worry the Flames are going to reach to grab a forward.

[Calgary4LIfe]

With hot hard the remaining schedule is for the Flames, plus with more possible trades,last place is still not out of the question for me. I think they are likely to finish 2nd last, however. I am more worried about the lottery dropping them to 3rd, than actually finishing at that spot.

[Monahammer]

Joe Iginla has not been good in Vancouver. I still hope the flames snag him but that is really disappointing to see, too.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by Calgary4LIfe

With hot hard the remaining schedule is for the Flames, plus with more possible trades,last place is still not out of the question for me. I think they are likely to finish 2nd last, however. I am more worried about the lottery dropping them to 3rd, than actually finishing at that spot.

Don't underestimate the Blues, who seem to be destined to just barely out-compete us for whatever spot we're trying to achieve.

Or the Rangers, for that matter, who are in an epic tailspin, and absolutely do not deserve a top 3 pick, but will get one anyway.

[AustinL_NHL]

Umm this should probably be its own thread...

https://twitter.com/user/status/2019165380946870611

[fotze2]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

Quiet confidence can look like arrogance.

I drink wine and i know things.

[cral12]

Originally Posted by Incogneto

Sandman, did you have a writeup last year on Ethan Wyttenbach?

and he admittedly just barely landed in the 7th round in our final rankings at Upside compiled by head rankings guy Eldon MacDonald at 221st.

https://www.upsidehockey.com/nhl-dra...draft-rankings

*Aside: I have our latest rankings to get posted in the next couple of days for the 2026 draft. Stay tuned. Along with our mega spreadsheet, finally have a simpler user-friendly, easy on the eyes version that I'll also get up on our Substack channel.

[The Fonz]

I remember this tweet jumping off the page on draft day, due to this twitter amateur fancy stats guy having him ranked so highly (it seemed like a model mistake at the time):

https://twitter.com/user/status/1939049153038049657


IIRC, he had to defend this Wyttenbach predraft rank of #41 overall, numerous times.

If Wyttenbach pans out, it might land this guy a job with an NHL team.