Tonight is the first round of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. It takes place at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York and gets underway shortly after 7:00 p.m. Eastern (Sportsnet, ESPN, TVA Sports).
It is the second decentralized draft and it is expected that Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg will be the first two picks, but everything else is very up in the air.
On the draft floor, the Boston Bruins traded pick 23 and another first round pick to Utah for J.J. Peterka and the Vegas Golden Knights traded Pavel Dorofeyev to the New York Rangers for pick 26 and two other picks. Mason McTavish was traded from Anaheim to St. Louis for picks 15 and 29. Utah then traded pick 23 for goaltender Sebastian Cossa.
Montreal had the 28th overall pick but traded up to 26.
Round 1
1. Toronto – F Gavin McKenna
2. San Jose – F Ivar Stenberg
3. Vancouver – F Caleb Malhotra
4. Buffalo (from CHI) – D Daxon Rudolph
5. NY Rangers – D Alberts Šmits
6. Calgary – D Carson Carels
7. Seattle – D Chase Reid
8. Winnipeg – F Viggo Björck
9. San Jose (from FLA via OTT) – D Keaton Verhoeff
10. Nashville – F Wyatt Cullen
11. St. Louis – F Tynan Lawrence
12. New Jersey – F Alexander Command
13. NY Islanders – D Malte Gustafsson
14. Columbus – F Oscar Hemming
15. Anaheim (from DET via STL) – F Nikita Klepov
16. St. Louis (from WSH) – F Maddox Dagenais
17. Utah (from LA) – F Ethan Belchetz
18. Washington (from ANA) – F Oliver Suvanto
19. Los Angeles (from Utah) – F Elton Hermansson
20. Buffalo (from EDM via SJS) – F Ilia Morozov
21. San Jose (from PHI) – D Ryan Lin
22. Pittsburgh – F Liam Ruck
23. Detroit (from BOS via UTA) – F J.P. Hurlbert
24. Vancouver (from MIN) – F Adam Novotný
25. Ottawa (from TBL via SEA via FLA) – F Jonas Lagerberg Hoen
26. Montreal (from DAL via CAR via NYR via VGK) – F Gleb Pugachyov
27. Philadelphia (from BUF via SJ) – D Maksim Sokolovskii
28. Anaheim (from MTL via VGK) – F Marcus Nordmark
29. Vegas (from COL via NYI via STL via ANA) – D Juho Piiparinen
30. Calgary (from VGK) – F Jack Hextall
31. Nashville (from CAR) – D Tommy Bleyl
32. Ottawa – F Jaxon Cover
