2026 NHL draft prospects

[JotAlan]

This topic always reminds me of the storm I received for talking about Roobroeck when I was 14. My prudence had led me not to mention McKenna.

Here are those who thought they were smart, where are you ?

Things haven't changed much among the late 2007 except that McKenna outclassed Roobroeck and took on another dimension.

Apparently Alessandro Di Iorio would have taken the upper hand in Ontario 08

Some interesting names :

Gavin MCKENNA

Alessandro DI IORIO

Ryan ROOBROECK

Adam NOVOTNY

Vladimir DRAVECKY

Daxon RUDOLPH

Keaton VERHOEFF

Liam RUCK

Markus RUCK

Braidy WASSILYN

Adam VALENTINI

Dylan ROZZI

Gabriel ANCTIL

J.P HURLBERT

Mikey BERCHILD

Alexei VLASOV

Viktor FEDOROV

Viggo BJORCK

Elton HERMANSSON

Oliver TORKKI

Lincoln KUEHNE

Landon NYCZ

Evan JARDINE

Ryan BROWN

Xavier VILLENEUVE

Yaroslav FEDOSEYEV

Rafyk VAROSYAN

Carson CARELS

Joe IGINLA

Beckham EDWARDS

Gavin WEEKS

Xavier WENDT

AJ FRANCISCO

Logan LUTNER

Jackson MARTHALER

Luke SCHAIRER

Cole BUMGARNER

Aurelio GARCIA

Logan STUART

Spencer THORNBOROUGH

Zane TORRE

Parker TROTTIER

Cameron CHARTRAND

Mateo BEITES

Callum CROSKERY

Ryan LIN

Zachary NYMAN

Mathis PRESTON

Aiden O'DONNELL

Tynan LAWRENCE

Filip NOVAK

Jakub FROLO

Ivar STENBERG

Good list

 

[JotAlan]

Alessandro Di Iorio should be in any of the early top 3-4’s.

The two best Americans I’ve watched so far are Mikey Berchild and Chase Reid. Berchild needs to physically grow. Otherwise, he’s looking at Marco Rossi range for his draft stock. Reid doesn’t get much playing time yet in the USHL for whatever reason, but I think he’s going to make waves. Reminds me of Letang.

Di Lorio looked like a top 10 talent for 2026, but I only saw him in youth and many lists have him below the top 10 in the draft ohl, so I'm not convinced. I'll wait for the OHL Cup to have a better opinion.

 

[kyle44]

This topic always reminds me of the storm I received for talking about Roobroeck when I was 14. My prudence had led me not to mention McKenna.

Here are those who thought they were smart, where are you ?

Things haven't changed much among the late 2007 except that McKenna outclassed Roobroeck and took on another dimen

I wouldn't say he took on another dimension. There were a lot of folks, including myself, who tried to point out to you that McKenna was just as good, if not better than Roobroeck a few years ago when McKenna led a U-18 league in scoring while spending most of the year as a 13-year old. I believe you thought Roobroeck was better because he had 6 more points at the WSI. If memory serves, I believe you also said Kosick was better than both because he put up piles of CSSHL U15 points, and now he isn't even on your 2026 shortlist. This is why actually watching players is important instead of relying on stats.

 

[Dirtyf1ghter]

I wouldn't say he took on another dimension. There were a lot of folks, including myself, who tried to point out to you that McKenna was just as good, if not better than Roobroeck a few years ago when McKenna led a U-18 league in scoring while spending most of the year as a 13-year old. I believe you thought Roobroeck was better because he had 6 more points at the WSI. If memory serves, I believe you also said Kosick was better than both because he put up piles of CSSHL U15 points, and now he isn't even on your 2026 shortlist. This is why actually watching players is important instead of relying on stats.

You have to stop inventing a life for yourself - you are not intervening on the topic and McKenna has never been mentioned. Everything revolved around Roobroeck's age, too young to be visibly mentioned.

Roobroeck has always outperformed McKenna in the tournaments recorded until 2022.
McKenna took over in 2022/23 with a great year for him and a disappointing year for Roobroeck, costing him a #1 OHL selection

 

[kyle44]

You have to stop inventing a life for yourself - you are not intervening on the topic and McKenna has never been mentioned. Everything revolved around Roobroeck's age, too young to be visibly mentioned.

Roobroeck has always outperformed McKenna in the tournaments recorded until 2022.
McKenna took over in 2022/23 with a great year for him and a disappointing year for Roobroeck, costing him a #1 OHL selection

Sure bud. You literally mention McKenna twice in the quoted post.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

I updated my 2026 top-32 like 4 months back if anyone is interested.

2026 NHL Draft Rankings - Elite Prospects

User submitted ranking at Eliteprospects.com - 2026 NHL Draft Rankings

www.eliteprospects.com

 

[Garl]

I updated my 2026 top-32 like 4 months back if anyone is interested.

2026 NHL Draft Rankings - Elite Prospects

User submitted ranking at Eliteprospects.com - 2026 NHL Draft Rankings

www.eliteprospects.com

Why is Fyodorov ahead of Bjorck?

 

[waitin425]

I updated my 2026 top-32 like 4 months back if anyone is interested.

2026 NHL Draft Rankings - Elite Prospects

User submitted ranking at Eliteprospects.com - 2026 NHL Draft Rankings

www.eliteprospects.com

Stuart and Garden from Little Ceasars. Both smallish players. No Edwards, who I thought was leading the team in scoring.

Any insight on that German?

 

[Erikfromfin]

Finns very early very long list

2026 Draft

1. Juho Piiparinen D
2. Wilmer Kallio W
3. Samu Alalauri D
4. Viljo Kähkönen C
5. Jiko Laitinen C
6. Vilho Vanhatalo W
7. Vertti Svensk D
8. Oliver Suvanto C
9. Rasmus Rinne W
10. Pyry Lammi G
11. Eelis Uronen D
12. Oiva Juntunen W
13. Milo Nuutinen W
14. Luka Arkko W
15. Oliver Torkki W

Honorable Mentions
G: Hämäläinen, Varonen, Riihimäki
D: Järvenpää, Suominen, Kasurinen, Tynkilä, Tukio, Kostiainen, Uusitalo, Kaarto
F: Virtanen, Hämeenkorpi, Myllyniemi, Karassaari, Wahlroos, Saari, Hemming, Tukiainen, Rajala, Kossila, Uronen

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Why is Fyodorov ahead of Bjorck?

Because from my viewings of him, Fedorov could be the single best player in this draft class. His intelligence is off the charts. We’ll get a better picture next year of course and he could very well disappoint in the MHL, but right now he is my favourite prospect in the class.

 

[theslatcher]

Because from my viewings of him, Fedorov could be the single best player in this draft class. His intelligence is off the charts. We’ll get a better picture next year of course and he could very well disappoint in the MHL, but right now he is my favourite prospect in the class.

Will be interesting to see when his peers catches up to him physically, how he adapts.

 

[LeProspector]

This is why you can’t formulate an opinion based off one event. From what I have read,Di Iorio should be a top10 pick in the OHL, but he isn’t best in Ontario good like many on HF believe.

 

[JotAlan]

This is why you can’t formulate an opinion based off one event. From what I have read,Di Iorio should be a top10 pick in the OHL, but he isn’t best in Ontario good like many on HF believe.

It's how I think. That's why he's out of my top 10 momentarily.

 

[JotAlan]

Because from my viewings of him, Fedorov could be the single best player in this draft class. His intelligence is off the charts. We’ll get a better picture next year of course and he could very well disappoint in the MHL, but right now he is my favourite prospect in the class.

I believe Fyodorov has the highest ceiling in this draft, but the leap Bjorck and especially McKenna made this year was unbelievable. That's why I put Fyodorov in third. But if development happens as expected, I see an incredible fight between the 3 for first place.
I also believe that a lot of people will be surprised by Shilov and Vlasov, they are very good.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

I believe Fyodorov has the highest ceiling in this draft, but the leap Bjorck and especially McKenna made this year was unbelievable. That's why I put Fyodorov in third. But if development happens as expected, I see an incredible fight between the 3 for first place.
I also believe that a lot of people will be surprised by Shilov and Vlasov, they are very good.

It’s a strong Russian age group from what I have seen, I agree. Shilov is so creative and slick amd Vlasov is real good at finding soft spots on the ice to get his unreal shot off. Even Gromakov I was quite impressed with a year back but I haven’t been able to see how he’s progressed.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

This is why you can’t formulate an opinion based off one event. From what I have read,Di Iorio should be a top10 pick in the OHL, but he isn’t best in Ontario good like many on HF believe.

Wait until the OHL Draft. I don’t know who actually believes any of those others are seriously better than him. It didn’t look close. Not even the same playing field.

 

[Garl]

Because from my viewings of him, Fedorov could be the single best player in this draft class. His intelligence is off the charts. We’ll get a better picture next year of course and he could very well disappoint in the MHL, but right now he is my favourite prospect in the class.

Ok, why I asked, I have personally not seen him yet, I know a russian scout who had ranked him as the best russian in his age class a year ago, but I look at his stats this year, and they are well, pedestrian. He has been outscored by his peers Vlasov and Shilov and also historically by other russians, a guy like Yegor Surin scored way more at his age.

Thats why I asked. So basically, stats did not affect your rankings.

 

[GermanSpitfire]

Ok, why I asked, I have personally not seen him yet, I know a russian scout who had ranked him as the best russian in his age class a year ago, but I look at his stats this year, and they are well, pedestrian. He has been outscored by his peers Vlasov and Shilov and also historically by other russians, a guy like Yegor Surin scored way more at his age.

Thats why I asked. So basically, stats did not affect your rankings.

Fedorov has never been the top scoring player at whatever tournament he has attended. He impacts the game on and off the score sheet. He has fantastic details to his game, and he is so smart with where he puts himself - it’s these details that make people like me so exited about him. This all doesn’t matter until we see him in the MHL next year, of course - many players have had difficulty adjusting to that league but I’d be surprised if Fedorov had a difficult time adjusting. He is the type of guy from my viewings of him that is going to produce consistent results in whatever league. He just has the “it” factor.

 

[LeProspector]

Wait until the OHL Draft. I don’t know who actually believes any of those others are seriously better than him. It didn’t look close. Not even the same playing field.

It’s pretty much consensus that Valentini, Wassilyn, & Belchetz are the top 3 talents in the OHL bar none. GS recently gave a vague statement that he isn’t the highest scoring player on his GTHL roster. Any player can catch fire for a few games, and with a tournament like that where only 4 games were played, I’d be hesitant to garner a strong opinion of a player one way or another when there are a multitude of factors at play.

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

It’s pretty much consensus that Valentini, Wassilyn, & Belchetz are the top 3 talents in the OHL bar none. GS recently gave a vague statement that he isn’t the highest scoring player on his GTHL roster. Any player can catch fire for a few games, and with a tournament like that where only 4 games were played, I’d be hesitant to garner a strong opinion of a player one way or another when there are a multitude of factors at play.

Can you link me to where he said this? And regardless, a lot of these stats and reports from lower levels don’t matter that much. Once you watch these guys on your own, that’s the best way to form an opinion. A lot of these players take on mythical status before they reach junior and then once they get there they simply don’t have the goods. Di Iorio looked well above all these other hyped Canadians at the YOG. It wasn’t stats either. It was how he dominated the game that was so impressive, so I don’t know how that can be summarily dismissed. Is it all that matters? No, but it definitely matters a lot.

 

[kyle44]

Can you link me to where he said this? And regardless, a lot of these stats and reports from lower levels don’t matter that much. Once you watch these guys on your own, that’s the best way to form an opinion. A lot of these players take on mythical status before they reach junior and then once they get there they simply don’t have the goods. Di Iorio looked well above all these other hyped Canadians at the YOG. It wasn’t stats either. It was how he dominated the game that was so impressive, so I don’t know how that can be summarily dismissed. Is it all that matters? No, but it definitely matters a lot.

I would agree. This was the first time for me seeing all of these players on the ice in one place, and it didn't even look remotely close. I would say Valentini looked more impactful than Wassilyn but neither appeared even close to Di Iorio in terms of offensive talent. I've said it before, but i find it very hard to believe there are 10-15 OHL draft eligible players that are better than him. I get its one tournament, but even if Valentini and Wassilyn were underperforming and Di Iorio hit a hot stretch, the gap looked large.

What's more, in public lists and online scouting communities I've always seen Valentini and Wassilyn ranked among the top 5 Canadians for that birth year, and I thought that even guys like Tynan Lawrence and Aiden O'Donnell looked like better all around players at the YOG. Not going to definitively say they are better based on one tournament, but I expected a lot more from those two considering the hype.

 

[Eye of Ra]

Why is Fyodorov ahead of Bjorck?

ur hate towards russian and belarussian players is off the charts

 

[Pavel Buchnevich]

If the draft were today, what would the top 10 look like?
My:

1 McKenna
2 Björck
3 Fyodorov
4 Preston
5 Vlasov
6 Verhoeff
7 Rudolph
8 Roobroeck
9 Hermansson
10 Shilov

Another player who I think has a good chance to be a top 10 pick is Dravecky.

 

[Garl]

ur hate towards russian and belarussian players is off the charts

Which belarussian player did I ever "hate"?

 

[Lavar Ball]

Which belarussian player did I ever "hate"?

Lol no denial of the other part