2026 NHL Draft First Round Recap

In this episode of The Draft Board Hockey Show, Linc and I recap the first round of the 2026 NHL Draft. We go over each pick and decide if it's a good fit for the team and whether there was value as to where each prospect was selected. We were live at the draft in Buffalo, so it was a lot of fun describing how things went down!

Hosts: Mark (NHL Draft Pros) and Linc (New Wave Hockey)

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to the Draft Board Hockey Show. My name is Mark, and as always, I'm joined by my co-host Link from New Wave Hockey. What is going on, bud?

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Not much, not much. The draft is finally over, and man, all we have to do is really recap and uh talk about what's happened. And then we're on to next year already, Mark. It's kind of nuts, kind of crazy. Our second draft together. And this time we were in person for it, which was which was pretty awesome. So, what did you think?

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Did you have a good time? What a blast the draft is in person. What a blast.

SPEAKER_01 0:31

I was so happy. I think my favorite part because you uh you knew uh the Billet family for Ethan Belchez, and we were there with them when Belchez went, which was awesome. So that was I was very happy with that. I was I I was I did not like to see that he he slipped as far as he did, but man, it was an interesting day. It was an interesting week leading up to, first of all, which was crazy. But uh it was uh there was a lot of shock. I I will say it wasn't as like crazy as other drafts had been in terms of like some of the picks, but it was it was very cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

The amount of trades, especially in the second half, like it seemed like after pick I don't know, 18 or whatever, it was like almost every second pick was a trade. It was wild, and we kept on thinking it was Pittsburgh trying to move up to land the other ruck brother, uh, but it wasn't, and it was uh it was a pretty interesting, it's crazy. Yeah, that was that was unreal. And uh, and anyways, the the ruck twins ended up on the same team in Pittsburgh, so that was awesome to see, and uh yeah, so lots of stuff. Well, let's let's dive right into it. Let's uh let's get right into it. All right, so in the first overall, we knew that it well, we didn't know, but we assumed it was Gavin McKenna, and sure enough, it went Gavin McKenna, and then second overall was Ivor Stenberg and to the San Jose Sharks. Third overall, Caleb Malholcha. There's a lot of talk here that it could have been, you know, Chase Reed. There was a lot of mocks that had Chase Reed. You and I said Caleb was gonna go second over uh third overall to Vancouver, and we were correct. And then this is where it gets interesting. Fourth overall, Daxton Rudolph. What say you, Lang, on that one?

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah, Buffalo came up on the stage with the fourth overall pick, and I was like, okay, Chase Reed time because with Caleb Malhotra going at three, uh, that honestly shocked me. First of all, that was the first part that shocked me. Um, because I did not think that they were gonna pick Manny's own son, but Malho, but Rudolph going fourth, that shocked me. I was looking with Brock Otten, our boss, and I was like, no way, right? That's crazy. And what was the funniest part about all of it was on Twitter when they announced the pick uh on the Sabres, they had a picture of Carson Carles instead of instead of Daxon Rudolph when they announced the pick. Yeah, whoops, yeah. I I guess they would have wanted Carls. Uh that would have been more uh more awesome for them. But look, it's a it's the draft. People like their guys, and if you like Daxon Rudolph ahead of Reed and Veroff, you're gonna go with Daxon Rudolph. And it kind of uh it kind of made the whole sort of momentum of the draft go a little fakta, but it otherwise it was it was it was very solid. I was shocked to see Chase Reed fall all the way to seven to Seattle.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

That's well, don't don't spoil it for our listeners here. They already know. So yeah, let's let's get to the rest of them here. So we got Albert Schmitz at five to the New York Rangers. Carson Carls goes to Calgary at number six. Chase Reed it goes drops all the way to number seven to the Seattle Kraken. What do you think they were thinking when uh Chase Reed fell into their lap at number seven? Like, wow, Seattle.

SPEAKER_01 3:38

I remember they answered their, I remember they uh they were on the they were off the clock pretty quick. They they got their pick in really, really quick. Um, it's the first uh defensive prospect they've selected in the first round ever in their history. And uh what a defenseman to pick. A guy that you and I unilaterally had as the number one defenseman. Um, he's gonna only play one year at Michigan State, and then he's gonna be in their lineup, and that is a guy who could become a Zach Karensky like type player. And he's playing in the States as an American-born player. So a lot of things at work here. Maybe he'll request a trade at the to the Red Wing. Uh swear, sorry for swear, but um no. I actually the the two picks prior, Smeets and Carls, I love the fit so much. Smeets, I think, is in a situation where with New York you the you kind of don't want to have a development mishap like they've had the last few first-round picks they've had. So getting a guy who's uh surefire, high ceiling, like or high floor, like Smeets is great, and then Carls just feels like a Calgary flame. He just feels like he's from the city of Calgary.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

He's a good old western boy, farmer, farm boy. And also, I mean, when you got Perek on the right side, now you got Carl on the left. Like, come on, what a combo that is.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

And Nemitz is up, Nemitz is up there too now. So they've got some.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

I know, yeah. I'm just saying, though, in terms of like the youth, what they got in the last couple of years, it's pretty phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Um Craig Conroy seems to build the the teams the right way. He likes to build from the from the back out, and he's got wolf, he's got Wolfie in there, he's got the defenses now building up, you know. Now they just need to buff up the uh the forward core.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

Yeah, it's pretty, it's a pretty sweet uh group that they got. All right, give me a second here. Okay, so we got then at number eight, we got Vigo Bjork to Winnipeg. That's an that's a nice pickup by them. Uh Keaton Vierhoff drops all the way into San Jose. Like, San Jose, come on, are you kidding me right now? They are their team is just absolutely banana land. Like, come on.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Unreal. It's it's truly unbelievable. Um sorry, a little tired. Um, no, it's unbelievable how how well they made off in this draft, especially in this top 10. Uh, literally two short years ago, Macklin Solabrini and Sam Dickinson, and now they've got Ivar Stenberg and Keaton Verhoff. That's crazy to me. Crazy to me. You got your franchise center, and now you've got a franchise winger, and you've got two incredible defensemen to boot, uh, and they're both, I guess, above six foot three. That's just that's a heck of a haul. I had people critiquing this pick. I heard people saying, like, oh, Verhoff at nine, like, what are they doing? Like, they can go with other people. Like, I think people are overthinking the Verhoff pick. Um, I don't know why anyone's critiquing it. This is a player with extremely high upside, with arguably the best shot in the draft. So I loved it. It was phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

Moving on. Let's see what else we got here. So we got uh White Cullen goes to Nashville at number 10, and Tynan Lawrence to the St. Bluest Blues at a number 11. All right, I want to I want to put a disclaimer here. I went 11 for 11, not right on, but I picked the top 11 picks and I went 7 out of 11 in my mock. Daxon Rudolph's the only one that that kind of threw a couple of wrenches in my picks here, so that was fun. And then Alexander Command at 12 to New Jersey. What do you think of that one? Whoo! You went, I mean, we we had him rated high, but uh at uh 12.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

New Jersey likes their guys, they draft like that continuously. With a guy like Command, I feel like if he was a guy who was playing in the United States, you would see a lot more people be bigger on him. And I kind of try to take that into account with my rankings. Um, but you know, I I I still had him relatively high. He was in my top 25 and stuff like that. But uh I don't know. In terms of center, I would have preferred a guy like you know me with Suvanto, Morazov, Dajne, but those guys went soon after. So I think if New Jersey likes the guy that they can get, um, pick 12 is not a pick where you can really expect a high-end offensive talent, I would say, in this draft. So if you just like your guy and you think he's more of a safe pick, why not go for him? I've got it, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

And at pick 13, we got Malte Guffeson to the New York Islanders. 14 is Oscar Hemming to the Columbus Blue Jackets, and 16 is Nikita Klepov to the Anaheim Ducks. That's a pretty nice pickup by Anaheim.

SPEAKER_01 8:08

Yeah, pretty pretty solid. It was one of my favorite picks by the entire first uh the entire first first round because Klepoff had to go to a certain number of places that could really fit his style. He is a player who is extremely good in the offensive zone, needs help in transition, but like also needs other people to take care of other parts of the game. He's a scoring forward, he is an energy guy, he is going to bring that flash and bang style to the middle six. And guess what? He went to the great he went to a great spot because Anaheim's already very fast. They're already very big. They're gonna get even bigger, they're gonna get even stronger. And with a guy like Klepov, they're gonna be even more refined in the offensive zone. I love this pick for them. Uh, another pick in this range that I thought was phenomenal was Malte to New York. Um, he is just such a New York Islander. I can see him playing as early as next year for them. I mean, he is just such a very competent, smooth defenseman. They're gonna make him into a really a really polished defenseman. They've done very well with guys like Adam Pelleck, Ryan Pelock, and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

Well, then you know what? The next one here is another interesting one. It was Maddox Dajanay to St. Louis at number 16. A lot of rankings had him move up uh near the end of the season, and you know, justifiably so. Uh, did you were you surprised at all that he went top 16 and especially to St. Louis? I mean, that's a it's a pretty decent pickup for them considering you know they got Carbonal last year.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

I would say no. Um, I think it's a very good idea of a pick. Obviously, I think he's gonna be a winger, and I think that's I mean, if you got him and Carbano, that's pretty solid. All you need to get is got a done then Yaya, and you're all set. But like uh no, I like they they they made out pretty well with this draft. You got Tynan Lawrence a little bit higher than I would have liked, but you got Maddox Dajine, and you've got Mason McTavish to boot. They traded two of their picks to Anaheim to make that happen. That's a pretty good day if I'm Bill Armstrong. Bill, yay, man.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

He's he's making some good four first rounders in this draft, so they you know they made it work. All right, Ethan Belchez finally gets called up at 17 to Utah. That's the kind of player that they like, six foot five, 227 pounds. There's your boy Oliver Savanto to the Washington Capitals. And you know what's funny? I was reading a lot of mocks, and they were like, Oh, so Suvanto won't go to Washington, they don't draft Finns. What happened?

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Of course, I Suvanto is such a capital, he plays just like their system. He's big, he can't move him off the puck, he is a smart player. I think people are gonna really look back at this draft and say Suvanto is one of the better players in this draft. I think he has the potential to be the third best center in this draft. Like, seriously, that's how strongly praised by Lane. Yeah, but I like it goes in order too, because obviously there's Belchez and Suvanto, but right after them, this run of picks, these next four picks are go ahead phenomenal in my opinion. Um, Elton Hermanson to the Kings, he's a guy that I you know I was extremely high on. Absolutely. Um, I thought he was a top 10 prospect at the end of the year. I really feel strongly about his offense. I think you can see elements of his game that are similar to very small, strong offensive players. And I think him going to the LA Kings, he's gonna be learning from a guy like Kevin Fiala, who I think is a person that he really should emulate his game after. It's gonna work out very well for him there. And then Buffalo takes Iliam Marazov at 20. I think that sort of run of forwards, uh 17 to 20, uh, is going to be looked at. I I think it's going to be kind of comparable to like a 2015 sort of run on forwards towards the end of the the end of the first round there for them. There was a lot of good forwards at the end of that uh draft. And I think all four of those guys ended up in really good situations. I think Belchez is going to thrive in that system in Utah. Uh Suvanto is going to be a pretty good center in Washington, Marazov as well in uh in Buffalo, and then Hurlson. I think he slots in the wing so well in in in LA, they could use a lot of scoring depth.

SPEAKER_00 12:05

And then at 21, we got Ryan Lynn of San Jose. Come on, what a haul by the San Jose Sharks. You got Stenberg, Virhoff, and Ryan Lynn. Like, whoo!

SPEAKER_01 12:16

Wow. They win day one by a mile. Like there's nothing else I can really say easily. Um, and I think grabbing Lynn feels so much, I feel so much more safer in the pick now that you have a you had a defenseman taken earlier. I feel like if Lynn was the only defenseman they walked away from because they didn't draft another defenseman unless I'm wrong. No, they drafted Karmanov, the seven foot one. We'll get to it. But yeah, we'll get to it. But they uh they drafted very well this this this draft. They got a couple, we'll get into their overall draft, but I think they had one of the stronger drafts. Was it the best one? Maybe their day two, they only had three picks, so it wasn't as strong, but their day one strong as stronger than any any ones we've seen in a minute. It's great, it's been phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

All right, and then finally, one of the ruck twins. He goes 22 to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Liam Ruck, and then 23. JP Herlberg gets picked up by the wings. That was a trade. Nice little pickup by uh by Detroit. They went off, they went off like their usual. They usually have like the two-way forward who has a little bit of offensive touch, but they went with a pure goal score here in JP.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

I think it's phenomenal. You get a program boy who is a very disciplined player, someone we don't really talk about as being a very disciplined player, uh, smart guy, obviously, uh, an incredible goal scorer, freezes the goalie like no other. This is a uh this is the potent offensive talent that you should be taking swings on. And I don't know why I didn't look at Herlbert and be like, oh, this guy is an absolute Detroit Red Wing through and through. Like, I I can't believe that never occurred to me. There are always those fits that happen after the draft where you're like, he is such a red winger, he is such a whatever team he goes to. Herlbert is that type of guy where I look at him now and I'm like, okay, he's gonna be a red wing for 20 years. Perfect, great, awesome.

SPEAKER_00 14:03

All right, moving on. We have Adam Novotny goes to Vancouver at 24. This was a little bit of a shocker, I think, for a lot of people. Jonas Ligerberg Hohen to Ottawa at 25. Whoa, what do you think about that one?

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Yeah, that one was I wouldn't say it was shocking per per se, um, because I had heard whispers obviously on a couple people's podcasts being like he could go in the first. I think the shocking part of it is that he played a total of nine games this year. He broke his leg, uh, or he had a debilitating knee injury in October, and he did not play the rest of the year. But in those nine games, he showed that he is an extremely powerful skater with an incredible shot. So that's a good bet. Would I take that bet in the first round? No. And I think that's like that's kind of the issue that you make here. Is nine games a big enough sample size to really assess a prospect? And I I I think no. Um, I only saw uh like four of those nine games, and he was a really fascinating prospect. He's a very solid player. I I think it's a good bet, but I think at that high of a pick, it's just yeah, small sample size like that kind of would scare me, but hey, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Ottawa, they trust the system. All right, then we got Gleb Pugachov to the Montreal Canadians at 26. The wrecking ball to the halves. That was a nice pickup.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Poogie. I love him. I think that's gonna be a really good spot. I don't know why I didn't really think of that. Honestly, I should have kind of been like, okay, can't use his, he's gonna make his he's gonna make his picks, he's gonna really uh narrow it down. But it was a very interesting pick. I thought it was a thing's gonna be a good pick for them now. Now Montreal is the new Russian hub. It's not it's no longer Washington. Okay, so look out. Uh, you've got Demodov there, you've got uh Zarovsky's coming up, and now Pukachev's on his way.

SPEAKER_00 15:57

Man, fantastic! All right, moving on to number 27, our beloved Flyers. They went with the big six foot seven, Maxim Sokolovsky from the London Knights, and they keep their first rounders. I think they got the most first rounders by an OHL by a CHL team, maybe. Uh, but anyways, they they just yeah, they just pump out first rounders all day long, and we got the big boy, Maxim Sokolovsky.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

I'm very happy with this pick for the Flyers. Uh, some people were very critical of it. They're like, oh, where's Xavier Villeneuve or Tommy Blyal or something like that? I don't think that is the type of player that is going to be very conducive to a Rick Tocket lineup and a Denny Briere organization. Uh, Maxim Sokolovsky, I don't think people realize he is going to be a killer. He is going to destroy people. When you have a chance to get a player who is as competent of a skater as he is, with the reach that he has, with the hands that he has, at six foot seven, some were saying he's six foot eight. Good lord. Good lord. Mark, that is an entire foot above me. He he he is an entire foot taller than me. If I run into him in the street, I am moving a yard out of the way. All right. I don't want to bump into this guy. All right. I would even be scared if he gave me a hug. Like this guy's terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

He's a beast of a man. All right. Then we go with Marcus Nordmark, the skilled player to Anaheim. So Anaheim with two skilled forwards. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Yeah, I wasn't really a huge fan of Nordmark going here. I didn't think he was a first rounder in my mind, but look at the way he tore it up the J20. Uh and the size that he's at, he's got a lot of great tools. And Anaheim, look, they love their toolsy players and they usually work out. So I think it's a good pick.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

It's a nice pick there. All right. Next one is Yoho Pepper Ryan to the Las Vegas Golden Knights. So that was uh that was an adjustment one. Uh, just gonna finish off the top 32 here. So we got Jack Hexall to the Calgary Flames at 30. Tommy Blyle to the Nashville Predators at 31. That's another nice pickup by Nashville in the first, and then the last pick in the first round, number 32, Jackson cover to the Ottawa Centers, another London Knight. Wow, what say you about those four picks?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Well, I definitely like the Yuho pick. You know that I'm I'm a sucker for you ho. I'm a big fan of him. I like him. Um, Hexall to Calgary. We we ran into him. We got the we got to see him, him and his agent and his coach. We were at Soho on Chippewa Street uh after the draft, and then in walks Jack Hexall, and I'm I I was kind of shocked because I was like the same height as him, and I'm like, wait a second, aren't you supposed to be 6'1? So it was a little bit surreal for me. Um, but no, I told him that I was a big fan of him all year, and I told him not to look at where I had him ranked because it was 42 or something like that. But I look, I think Calgary getting Hextahl and Carls we got to talk about Calgary's draft, Mark, when we get into it, but oh my god, Calgary had a great draft. And then finishing it off, Blyle and Cover. I think those are two good picks. Blyle, I I'm always very big on toolsy defensemen, defensemen who you don't really understand or know what they're gonna be in terms of a role. Send them to Nashville, they'll become something. Even a guy like Dante Favro figured it out and he became something.

SPEAKER_00 19:27

Yeah, you know what? Uh I there's there's a couple. I I thought that San Jose, Anaheim, and Nashville. I thought they they came out of the first round. I thought they did pretty well.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:38

So what so what do you think? Who were some uh big winners in the first round?

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Well, obviously San Jose. I mean, you walk away with those three players. Um, it's it's phenomenal, it's phenomenal. Um, I think also like Calgary, we have to say it's a lot of people. Yeah, Hextahl and Hextahl and uh Carls are phenomenal picks. I I think you walk away with that. Um, I St. Louis, even though I'm not the biggest Tynan Lawrence fan, I think they still are achieve exactly what they needed to achieve. I mean, Seattle as well with the read pick. I mean, how often yeah, that and I the last part I think uh I have to give a nod because I look, I I gotta support our boy here. Vigo to Winnipeg may have been the best fit possible. I think he is going to be electric there.

SPEAKER_00 20:23

He's gonna be so funny because a lot of mocks had Vigo going to Winnipeg, and uh yeah, it it made so much sense.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Uh, he just seems like a player that would gel in that system. Um, he's gonna make he's gonna make a lot of players a lot better. I think you put him around skilled players, and you see what he did at the world juniors, you see what he did with with Ivar Stenberg uh later in the season. He makes players better. He elevates the plays of uh play of people around him, that sort of sort of player in a lineup with guys like Cole Perfetti, Gabe Vellardi, where you need these guys to get going at some point, get back to the playoffs. Vigo's your guy, maybe he could play next year. You never know, Mark. You never know who could do Ben Kindle.

SPEAKER_00 21:05

Be the uh Ben Kindle of this draft.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Um, I think he'd be the better Ben Kindle.

SPEAKER_00 21:11

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey.

SPEAKER_01 21:13

Um sorry, but you know it's true.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

So the draft was awesome. It was such a fun time, it was great. Um, but hey, listen, Buffalo hosted a great uh draft. I thought they they did really well with uh everything. We we had a blast there.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

In the media section, it was really awesome. Um, I I really I mean, obviously, like a lot I think a lot of people have taken for granted like some nice drafts they've had in the past, but for my first draft, I really, really enjoyed it. It was my first time ever going there. I was so happy. It was great.

unknown 21:40

It's fun.

SPEAKER_00 21:40

So, next episode, what we'll do is we'll go through each team, uh, all seven rounds, and uh yeah, we'll discuss uh you know who who had some great picks in the later rounds. So that's gonna be next episode. But uh Link, that's it. That's it for the uh first round recap, my friend.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

Awesome. It was a great draft, it was a great weekend. I'm so happy that I'm so happy that it went well for a lot of teams. There weren't a lot of bad drafts, I would say. I think a lot of people picked uh some good picks there.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

All right, that's it then for this episode, and uh we'll see everyone soon. Cheers.