2026 NHL Draft

[Chef Boi RD]

The Hlinka Gretzky Cup just finished. America takes gold, Sweden silver, Canada bronze. Unfortunately Canada was missing two of its best 2026 draft class prospects in McKenna and Roobroek.

- LW Ethan Belchetz (CDN) sealed his fate as a top 5 pick. A big boy with elite hands and skating. 6’-5” behemoth who doesn’t mind dropping the mitts. Canada for some reason is back producing big boys who can play, as seen over the last two draft classes, 2026 draftees - Verhoeff, Belchetz, Roobroek, Rudolph, Reid, Carels are big boys who can play. Keep an eye out for QMJHL player and 2027 nhl draft class prospect Alexis Joseph - 6’-4” 200 lbs who is drawing comparisons to Nathan McKinnon. Could challenge DuPont for 1st overall.

Hlinka tourney player - centre Tynan Lawrence (CDN) looks like a beauty as well as Mathis Preston (CDN). Both had good tournaments, Lawrence is poised to go between 5-10 as well as Preston.

- RS D-Man Keaton Verhoeff (CDN) whom some believe could challenge Mckenna for 1st OA had a so so tourney as well as RS D-man Ryan Lin and 2027 potential 1st OA pick - D-Man - DuPont. The most impressive player from the 2027 class at the tourney was CDN - Dima Zhilkin

CDN - RS D-man Daxon Rudolph was very impressive and will challenge to go top 10.

The 2026 class is super impressive, a lot of very good Swedish 2026’ers and some Americans, whom most seem to be playing in the WHL.

[UWSaint]

This isn’t as deep of USA group as some years; makes it all the more impressive they won the Cup given they don’t generally send players from the USNDTP program to play. (And I think maybe one of was on this team? Also explains the # of WHL players — first option for most who get offer is usndtp).

[Chef Boi RD]

This isn’t as deep of USA group as some years; makes it all the more impressive they won the Cup given they don’t generally send players from the USNDTP program to play. (And I think maybe one of was on this team? Also explains the # of WHL players — first option for most who get offer is usndtp).

The one thing I’ll say about the Americans at the junior tournaments, they play better as a team than Canada. Canada certainly had some star level talent at the tourney but they just didn’t click as a group when it was needed. You can have all the star players you like but if the group ain’t clicking, you’ll only get so far riding on the coattails of a few stars. The Americans played as a team and weren’t relying on “Individuals”.

[Megaterio Llamas]

This isn’t as deep of USA group as some years; makes it all the more impressive they won the Cup given they don’t generally send players from the USNDTP program to play. (And I think maybe one of was on this team? Also explains the # of WHL players — first option for most who get offer is usndtp).

You hear the CHL college eligibility situation is likely to change this. We could be seeing the beginning of a shift away from the USHL.

I wish I'd remembered to check the TV listings for this. I would have enjoyed watching some of it.

[UWSaint]

This isn’t as deep of USA group as some years; makes it all the more impressive they won the Cup given they don’t generally send players from the USNDTP program to play. (And I think maybe one of was on this team? Also explains the # of WHL players — first option for most who get offer is usndtp).

You hear the CHL college eligibility situation is likely to change this. We could be seeing the beginning of a shift away from the USHL.

I wish I'd remembered to check the TV listings for this. I would have enjoyed watching some of it.

This is a great point. While the CHL will be losing a lot of the older juniors, they should probably get a few more of the Americans who would otherwise have played in the USHL to maintain college eligibility.

But the cream of the crop will still almost exclusively go to the USNTDP, which has a U-17 team that competes in the USHL and a U-18 that plays exhibition games against NCAA teams (DI and DIII) and USHL teams. The reason for that is the same reason RD is correct that the US International junior teams tend to look more like a team. While the World Juniors is post-NTDP, they draw nearly entirely from NTDP alumni (and the occasional U-18 player or U-17 phenom) because they've been played together for years. Sometimes, it seems like the national team uses the NTDP credential at times to their peril -- kids are getting tracked into the program at 15/16, and we know how different development curves can be. (BTW, this is why USA Hockey does NOT use the USNTDP to ice their Hlinka/Gretzky Cup team -- because they use the tournament to judge the players that developed later (and missed the NTDP cut) or didn't track into the program to begin with for any number of reasons. NDTP player are used (almost exclusively) for the IIHF U-18 tourney and usually make up 90%+ of the U-20 team at World Juniors).

At any rate, I think those elite American 16 year olds are still going to (usually) choose NTDP over CHL because (1) they want to stay in the pool for the IIHF tournaments; (2) the development program has a proven track record of maximizing NHL potential through exceptional skill coaching and because kids are always playing older players; and (3) the USNTDP is heavily scouted (almost every player is worth having a scout watch).

[Chef Boi RD]

It will be interesting seeing how two of the top ranked 2026 names - Verhoeff and McKenna will handle the move over to the NCAA. Didn’t seem to bother Celenrini. I imagine these two won’t get an easy ride.