The Vancouver Canucks are going through a sorely needed rebuilding phase in their team-building cycle, a reality that only enhances the importance of the NHL Draft.
Over the next few years, we’re going to spend more time covering amateur players and tracking prospects for Canucks fans, a process that began this year. This exercise — my first ever top-32 draft eligible prospect rankings, in a tiered list, of course — is part of that newfound effort.
Now, before we proceed, I want to offer up this critical qualifier: I am absolutely not a talent evaluator, and I wouldn’t pretend to be.
I haven’t put the time in at the rink. I haven’t watched as many games or done the sort of character deep dives that the likes of Corey Pronman and Scott Wheeler do so well for The Athletic.
That doesn’t stop me from having strong non-expert opinions on draft-eligible prospects. These are opinions shaped largely by a combination of what the data I collate suggests, on video viewings of various prospects, a handful of live viewings throughout the season (primarily of WHL players) and a heavy dose of conversations with scouting contacts throughout the hockey world.
Is Viggo Bjorck the best center in the NHL Draft?
Corey Pronman, Scott Wheeler and more
Given how frequently I express these opinions, it seems only fair and reasonable that I actually put some skin in the game in discussing the 2026 draft class.
Please note that the criteria I’ve utilized in ranking these prospects are based solely on my view of the probability that the players listed below become star-level NHL players. Considerations about a player’s floor and positional premiums are granted no quarter in this ranking.
The draft, as I see it, isn’t a team-building exercise. It’s where teams should go about building value.
And the most reliable source of NHL value is star-level players of the variety that you cannot sign on the open market (especially in the cap growth era), or usually trade for (unless something between the player and the team has gone horribly wrong).
We are thus ranking players based solely on my perception of which prospects are the best bets to develop into star difference-makers.
With those qualifiers out of the way and our lack of expertise disclosed, here’s my tiered ranking of the top 32 prospects at the 2026 NHL Draft.
The “What this guy is selling you can’t buy anywhere else” tier
1. Gavin McKenna, LW, Penn State (NCAA)
A standout offensive player of the variety that’s never available anywhere but the apex of the draft.
Bona fide elite prospect tier
2. Ivar Stenberg, LW/RW, Frölunda (SHL)
Well-rounded, exceptionally skilled and near-historically productive in the SHL as an 18-year-old. Stenberg would be a No. 1 calibre prospect in a weaker class.
Franchise player upside tier
3. Viggo Björck, C, Djurgården (SHL)
This might seem high, but I know of teams that will enter the draft with Björck ranked higher than this on their list.
Every piece of objective data we have, except for listed height, suggests strongly that Björck is closer to Stenberg in quality than he is to the other top prospects in this class.
4. Carson Carels, LHD, Prince George (WHL)
Carels has the measurables and skating ability, he hits like a truck and is the most productive 17-year-old WHL defender since Scott Niedermayer. Seems pretty good?
Franchise player upside tier with a slightly lower confidence interval
5. Keaton Verhoeff, RHD, North Dakota (NCAA)
Verhoeff’s draft stock has vacillated widely. He struggled a bit against older competition toward the tail end of his NCAA season, but Verhoeff still fared very well at that level. He has also consistently dominated his age group. Despite some concern about his foot speed, I view him as the best bet among the defenders in this class to be a long-term power-play fixture in the NHL.
6. Caleb Malhotra, C, Brantford Bulldogs (OHL)
A high-end athlete with solid playmaking skills, there are holes you can poke in Malhotra’s scoring profile. When that profile is adjusted, however, to account for draft capital investment, NHL teams have generally had a very good handle on Malhotra-type prospects and whether they’ve got the ability to be top-of-the-lineup calibre centres.
Provided Malhotra is selected in the top 10, and that’s a lock at this point, he’s a relatively clean bet to be a long-term top-six calibre centre.
Clean bets to be top-of-the-lineup level players tier
7. Daxon Rudolph, RHD, Prince Albert (WHL)
Rudolph has every attribute you’d want in a top-10 pick defender: the pedigree, production, size, big right-handed shot and big-game mentality.
8. Chase Reid, RHD, Sault Ste. Marie (OHL)
I find it difficult to square the sky-high opinion of Reid’s offensive ceiling in the industry with his good-but-not-great scoring profile as a late birthdate 18-year-old. There’s no ignoring his rapid rise and improvement, and his elite mobility and prototypical size should be weighed heavily (and will be by NHL teams on draft day), but I’m just not convinced that Reid’s offensive upside is as high-end as the defenders I’ve ranked ahead of him.
9. Alberts Šmits, LHD, Munchen (DEL)
Based on watching Šmits play at the Olympics and at the World Championship, I’m convinced he’s NHL-ready and probably capable of holding down a top-four role as an 18-year-old. I’m just not certain that he possesses the sort of offensive ceiling and future power-play one utility as the defenders I’ve ranked ahead of him.
Top-of-the-lineup player upside tier
10. Tynan Lawrence, C, Boston University (NCAA)
With speed, size and scoring touch, Lawrence has all of the tools you’re looking for in a prospect with the potential to be a top-six centre. His pedestrian NCAA production as a 17-year-old that joined Boston University at midseason isn’t a concern for me.
11. Ryan Lin, RHD, Vancouver (WHL)
Lin is an elite athlete, a skilled right-handed shooter and a tempo setter on the ice and a leader in the room. I’m convinced that Lin should be selected in the top half of the first round.
12. Elton Hermansson, LW, MoDo (Allsvenskan)
Hermansson has a big bag of tricks off the rush, works hard off the puck and is actually a better playmaker than finisher off the wing.
He’s also the fourth-most productive 17-year-old at the Allsvenskan level in 20 years, and the only three players that were more productive than him on a per-game basis are either star players or top draft picks (David Pastrnak, William Nylander and Anton Frondell).
Top-of-the-lineup upside tier, with a slightly lower confidence interval
13. Malte Gustafsson, LHD, HV71 (SHL)
I struggle with assessing shutdown defenders in the draft. Elite defensive defenders make for volatile evaluations, especially as teenagers. Most of the smartest and most impressive defensive defenders I’ve seen the past 20 years were either mid-round picks (Zdeno Chara), late-round picks (Gustav Forsling, Jared Spurgeon, Niklas Hjalmarsson, Mattias Ekholm), or undrafted players (Chris Tanev).
Also, while I don’t care about positional premiums, I do care about the value of various player archetypes. And it’s generally the case that shutdown-type defenders can be acquired via trade and free agency.
Gustafsson has been productive enough against his peers at the U20 level and played a pretty telling amount of SHL games as a 17-year-old this season. That, to me, gives him the sort of two-way upside required to pay off a top-half-of-the-first-round draft selection.
14. Oscar Hemming, LW, Boston College (NCAA)
I’m generally not holding the pedestrian performance of 17-year-old players at the NCAA level against them in evaluating the 2026 draft class. Especially if they missed the first half of their year due to a contract dispute.
It’s a new world at the NCAA level, and I suspect the teams that are sharpest about being forgiving to the Verhoeff, Lawrence and Hemming tier of prospects in this class will be the teams scooping surplus value.
15. Tommy Bleyl, RHD, Moncton (QMJHL)
Bleyl just put together the best QMJHL season we’ve seen from an 18-year-old on a points per game basis (minimum 40 games played) since the mid-1990s. I don’t really understand the argument against Bleyl being selected in the middle of the first round.
16. Wyatt Cullen, LW, U.S. NDTP (USHL)
Cullen has the upside — and the production — to be a bona fide star offensive driver. I’m not sure how anybody could be low on this draft class when there’s a profile like this one likely to be available well outside of the top 10.
Strong bets with an outside shot to be high-level difference makers tier
17. Alexander Command, C, Örebro U20
Mean, physically assertive centre with strong production at the U20 level. It’s bullish that he was given a taste at the SHL level, too.
I think Command has more offensive upside than most in the industry, too. In my viewings of his games this season, I thought his playmaking was consistently creative.
18. Oliver Suvanto, C, Tappara (Liiga)
The knock on Suvanto, a physical specimen and a natural centre, is that he may have limited offensive upside. I’m not sure I see it that way.
While Suvanto only had two goals and 11 points in 48 Liiga games for Tappara this season, he’s a very young player in this class. And he was solidly productive when the challenge was against his own age group.
Also, for what it’s worth, Mikko Rantanen at the same age managed nine points in 37 games in the same league. Juraj Slafkovský managed 10 points in 31 games.
19. Nikita Klepov, RW, Saginaw (OHL)
Outstandingly productive and exceptionally creative, Klepov’s production as a 17-year-old in the OHL compares neatly with recent top-10 pick Jake O’Brien’s at the same age, in addition to names like Taylor Hall, Quentin Musty, Nick Suzuki and Bobby Ryan.
Strong bets with an outside shot to be high-level difference makers, but with more uncertainty tier
20. Ilia Morozov, C, University of Miami (Ohio) (NCAA)
A natural centre and an athletic freak who checks every measurable box you’d want, Morozov was bullishly productive as a 17-year-old at the NCAA level.
21. JP Hurlbert, RW, Kamloops (WHL)
Hurlbert’s hockey IQ and ability to anticipate play, both on and off puck, give him a chance to be special. He’ll need to add a step to be a star, but already has a pro understanding of how to work to create offence off puck.
22. Liam Ruck, LW, Medicine Hat (WHL)
Ruck is an elite shooter and a creative passer. There are questions about his skating speed, but he’s still physically underdeveloped and is exceptionally long. That combination makes me think that Liam — and his brother, Markus — will have the opportunity to add a step as they graft muscle and strength onto their twin frames.
21. Ethan Belchetz, LW, Windsor Spitfires (OHL)
A physical specimen who’s more likely to be selected in the top 10 than in the 20s, Belchetz is a very good prospect, but the profile is a bit dime a dozen.
Historical comparables for Belchetz — based on his 17-year-old OHL production — include the likes of Boone Jenner, Wojtek Wolski, Austin Watson and Devante Smith-Pelly. I tend to think the base rate for Belchetz is that he’s more likely to be a useful middle-six type winger than a prospect with as good a chance to be a star as those players I’ve ranked ahead of him.
22. Adam Novotný, RW/LW, Guelph Storm (OHL)
A heavy shooting winger, Novotný could be selected higher than this ranking, but for a player who turned 18 in November, his OHL production in his draft year is more good than great. There are quality NHL players who produced in the OHL, like Novotsny did at 18, and went on to have long NHL careers, but most of them did so as defensive specialists, pests or centres.
23. Markus Ruck, C/RW, Medicine Hat (WHL)
What follows is a list of 17-year-old WHL players this century who had a more productive season on a points per game basis than Ruck did in his draft year: Connor Bedard, Gavin McKenna, Andrew Cristall, Berkly Catton, Nic Petan, Seth Jarvis and Zach Benson.
24. Gleb Pugachyov, RW, Nizhny Novgorod (MHL)
Standing 6-foot-3 with skill to burn and boasting an impressive track record of production in the Russian junior leagues (and in the KHL as a 17-year-old), Pugachyov is a fascinating sleeper in this draft class.
25. Xavier Villeneuve, LHD, Blainville-Boisbriand (QMJHL)
An explosive, deceptive skater and high-end athlete, Villeneuve is absolutely worth a dice roll in the first round for teams looking for a high-octane, Hutson-clone defender.
Higher risk upside swings
26. Maddox Dagenais, RW/C, Quebec (QMJHL)
Might be a full-time winger when he becomes a pro, and his production was more good-than-great in his draft year. Still, Dagenais is tall and long, with high-end skill to burn.
27. Adam Valentini, LW, Michigan (NCAA)
A polarizing prospect in this class, I can’t overlook that among 17-year-old NCAA forwards the last 20 years, only Jonathan Toews, Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Wood were more productive than Valentini was at Michigan in his draft year. Especially if I’m cutting prospects like Hemming and Lawrence slack for their less impressive production due to the emerging difficulty of the NCAA.
28. Ryan Roobroeck, C, Niagara (OHL)
Roobroeck is a massive human being and put together a sensational age-17 campaign in the OHL. Then he entered the season as a probable top-five pick, regressed heavily and is now dogged by concerns about his character, his perimeter orientation and his work ethic.
At this point in the rankings, however, I think it makes sense for teams to close their eyes and bet on the superstar-level upside he flashed as a 17-year-old.
29. Mathis Preston, LW, Vancouver (WHL)
Super athletic and highly skilled, Preston battled through some significant injuries this season, which may offer a partial explanation for why his scoring profile is only good, not great.
He’s a home run cut late in the first round, however, because if it all comes together for Preston, he has superstar potential.
30. Marcus Nordmark, LW, Djurgården (U20)
A maddening player for scouts, Nordmark is also a wildly gifted offensive forward with real NHL size who just put together one of the 10 most productive scoring seasons we’ve ever seen from a 17-year-old at the J20 or U20 level of Swedish hockey. Late in the first round, you ignore the red flags and just swing on the upside.
31. Niklas Aaram-Olsen, RW, Örebro (SHL)
A super athletic, quick-skating, highly productive winger hailing from Norway, Aaram-Olsen is the last of the really high-end offensive profiles remaining on the board.
32. Maksim Sokolovskii, LHD, London (OHL)
Sokolovskii is 6-foot-8 and 240 pounds, with plus skating ability. When the scoring profiles dry up, you might as well roll the dice on freakish traits.
