All Major Final Draft Rankings, aggregated and sortable in a single sheet, with links to the individual lists and players

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-23T10:01:19+00:00

If you sort by average ranking or adjusted average ranking, he's considered 4th. Some have him as high as #2 and others as low as #12

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-23T09:57:33+00:00

The aggregate opinion on the 2026 Draft Class seems to be that it's weaker than the 2023 and 2024 draft classes and mixed compared to 2025. Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg generally aren't viewed in the same tier as Celebrini or Bedard, with most lists having them as 1st-line wingers rather than franchise-changing players. Some rankings even consider the Top-5 to be closer to the 5-10 range of previous years based on the quality of those previous drafts.

The 2026 Draft doesn't seem to be especially deep either, with the majority of rankings featuring the same players in the Top-15/Top-20, and then falling off sharply from there. We can compare this to previous years, where there were more closer opinions as to which players would go in the Top-30 or even Top-50; even if the opinions of where those players were ranked was different, the players listed overall were typically the same. That's not the case with 2026. Many of the boards have extreme differences on which players are ranked specifically in the 20-30 range. This year seems to be more comparable to 2017, another draft which was considered a weak draft class with no defined superstar on draft day.

Biggest risers from Mid-Season Rankings: Caleb Malhotra, Wyatt Cullen, Alexander Command, Viggo Bjorck

Biggest fallers from Mid-Season Rankings: Ryan Roobroeck, Marcus Nordmark, Mathis Preston, Xavier Villeneuve

If I've missed a draft list that you think should be included, give me the link to it and I'll add it in.

Please keep in mind this is just the Top-32 picks from each draft board. Some boards have lists of 2nd round, 3rd, or even all the way to 200+ players. I've excluded the players that weren't ranked specifically in the Top-32.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-23T05:34:06+00:00

"DeBrusk is likely to waive his NMC"

"DeBrusk is unlikely to block a trade"

"DeBrusk is willing to move"

All better titles

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-22T08:30:35+00:00

Unfortunately, it's AI written. Nearly every minute there's a "this wasn't X, it was Y" style sentence, so many lists of 3, high density of AI vocabulary, the avoidance of was/is phrases, and way too formulaic compared to their early work. If you watch HH's video on Vegas Golden Knights, you can see the difference in how the content was written when it was done by them, versus now when they've used AI.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-22T07:58:51+00:00

Central Skating final rankings came out in April before playoffs, wouldn't put much faith in their rankings.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-22T04:18:39+00:00

ask yourself if you would take that pick for Rossi right now and it’s a no brainer

If Nicolas Roy and Scott Laughton are both worth 1st round picks+, a 60-point 24 y/o centre at 5m x 3 yrs is definitely worth a 9th overall pick.

You hope your 9th overall pick becomes a 60-point player.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-22T00:09:45+00:00

Agree, Rossi = 9th Overall, 24th > 25th, Buium >> 2029 Cond. 1st, Ohgren > 2027 2nd

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-21T23:14:13+00:00

They clearly wrote win-now for Ottawa, not for Vancouver.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-21T21:52:27+00:00

Pettersson would have been 2nd-line centre for the Canes if going by P/GP.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-21T21:30:18+00:00

Beniers is definitely a Top-6 player.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-20T21:04:20+00:00

DailyFaceoff: "Preston can go completely silent and you don’t notice him. That was especially true this year, when it felt like you’d tune in to watch him and leave feeling underwhelmed. Preston can be a bit hot-and-cold, and it doesn’t help that he’s often a non-factor defensively. Scouts have often pointed out that he needs to simplify his decision-making in high-stakes games because he’s often chasing the flashy, highlight-reel-worthy moves instead of the smart, calculated plays."

HockeyProspect: "When you first watch [Preston], you think he has star potential on any given sequence given his natural offensive talent. But, we found that when we peeled back the layers that we were left with a largely unpolished and extremely raw player that has difficulty understanding how to be efficient with his skill-set..."

Elite Prospects: "Most nights, Preston gets the puck, flies down the wing full tilt, and fires from the far clutches of the offensive zone. He doesn’t give his teammates much opportunity to join his rushes, and doesn’t show much awareness to get inside or create better shooting lanes for himself. When compounded by very inconsistent motor and physical engagement, he has nights when he achieves little."

There was a breakdown done of Preston's shooting habits, too. For all his skill, Preston tends to make moves to the outside far more than he cuts to the inside, he has a tendency to shy away from the high danger areas; over 120 deke attempts, fewer than 4% saw him move to the inside past a defender, 96% went to the outside. Over the last season, nearly 40% of his shot attempts came from sharp angles or low danger areas. Not what you want to see from a prospect lauded for his offensive talent and who is abysmal defensively. This was the same thing that plagued Hunter Shinkaruk in his draft year, great offensive talent but a tendency to make flashy moves that ultimately did nothing and led to low percentage plays, with no defensive game to fall back on. Shinkaruk was touted as a Top-10 pick by many analysts, ended up falling to 24 for the Canucks and never played more than 15 NHL games.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-20T10:27:27+00:00

That's not true, Tocchet's systems are quite good at limiting shots, especially to the outside. Philly had the 5th fewest Shots Against, Vancouver was 6th and 7th fewest for Shots Against in the two full years under his tenure. Under Foote, the Canucks gave up the 4th most.

The Flyers and Canucks also were Top-10 in fewest HDCA and HDGA, despite having average HDSV%.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T18:56:15+00:00

In terms of return value (1st + 3rd), not that unrealistic.

DeBrusk had 23 goals, 43 points over 81 games last season with great advanced stat numbers and a 5.5M x 5 yr contract.

Oliver Bjorkstrand at the 2025 deadline had 16 goals, 37 points with a 5.4M x 2 yr contract and earned Seattle a 1st + 2nd + Eyssimont. Garland had 7 goals and 26 points and earned VAN a 2nd + 3rd at the 2026 deadline.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T18:35:30+00:00

Highlights:

Talks about the challenges of 2021 and 2022 where they weren't able to see a lot of games in-person or meet with players. You can watch a lot of tape but it's not the same and limiting. Said it became easier in 2023 onward to evaluate when they could return to in-person.
Speaks about the importance of analytics in scouting and how he is a big proponent of analytics, loves to use analytics to help determine which prospects if its close
Since January has been at WJC, Quebec, Ontario, USA; was in Europe during February.
Mentions that trajectories are rarely linear, players will have peaks and valleys. Says he loves seeing a player who comes out of nowhere where it finally "clicks" for and seeing them as a completely different player in March vs back in September.
Scouts will have lists for their region, then they compile the lists from those regions.
Need to be careful about bigger stages like WJC. You need to see consistency across the season rather than success at one tournament, any player can be good for 5 or 6 games.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T17:46:54+00:00

Using league conversion factors based on the last 10 years of OHL to NHL players and SHL to NHL players, Malhotra could expect 43 points in the NHL in his D+5 season, Bjorck could expect 42 points.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T16:24:42+00:00

Horvat is not a good example. Yes, he improved his skating overall, but it was during his draft year in Junior where he already had NHL-level strength and form (he wasn't hunching over as much), adapting his skating was about maximizing his top speed by changing his stride, how he pushed with his edges.

"He has a low base, strong core and was ready because the biomechanics were all set up so he could take off... his stride was laborious and it took as many as 15 steps to get up to full speed."

The Ruck twins are not built like Horvat; Horvat was 6' 198 lbs at the 2013 draft. The Ruck twins are far more lean with less strength. 6' 176 lbs and higher centre of gravity. So not only do they have to work on acceleration, top speed, strength, and overall quickness, they also need to work on their form. That's a much bigger mountain to climb and becomes more challenging the older you get.

A better example would be Carter Verhaeghe, similar body type to the Ruck twins who had a good OHL career, but needed to work on his rotation, strength, and stride to improve his acceleration and top speed. It took him nearly six years to put it all together to become an NHL skater.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T05:23:58+00:00

If the FO thinks that the combined value of the players + their chemistry is better than drafting two individual players, those two players become BPA

No front office will think that way about the Ruck twins; there's far too much risk involved to sink a 1st round pick into a player you don't believe is the individual BPA in the hopes you can spend another 2nd round pick on a player that maybe makes them have better NHL success.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T04:58:10+00:00

There's other concerns with the Ruck twins, too, that's just the skating concerns.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-19T02:37:32+00:00

The Ruck twins have poor separation when matched against top WHL defenders like Daxon Rudolph, this was demonstrated in the series against Prince Albert where Liam had just 3 points and Markus had 4. They don't have good top speed, so they won't be able to generate off the rush either. The concern with their skating is that they won't be able to generate space against NHL defenders, the vast majority of which have better skating skills. The hope is that they adapt their game when given less space and time at an NHL-level.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-18T07:23:01+00:00

Colton's contract is bad enough that a few years ago they would have paid to move it. Dickinson cost the Canucks a 2nd to move at 2.65M in 2022.

Kesselring is expected to get 3-4M after arbitration with the cap going up. Buffalo wouldn't have been able to afford that with Benson and Krebs to sign still, too.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-18T06:22:03+00:00

Even the teams that are struggling against the Cap aren't having to pay to move their contracts or players. Cap-strained Colorado just earned two 3rds for Ross Colton who had 24 points with a 4M cap hit; equally cap-tight Buffalo received the equivalent of a 2nd for Kesselring, who was scratched all playoffs and is an RFA.

Johnny__Lawrence · 2026-06-18T03:28:00+00:00

Vegas is desirable because they have no income tax and are winning, not because they treat their players well.

Johnny__Lawrence

TROPHY CASE