'Biebs' performed, we got more major trades and the hugs were as happy and hearty as ever.
The 2026 NHL Draft did not disappoint, beginning with Justin Bieber making the selection everyone expected on behalf of his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs.
Even before Bieber welcomed Gavin McKenna to Leafs Nation, we got a substantial deal when the Boston Bruins acquired JJ Peterka from the Utah Mammoth. And the fireworks continued once the selections were under way, with the re-tooling New York Rangers swooping in to land pending-RFA Pavel Dorofeyev from Vegas — then inking him to a huge new deal — and St. Louis pulling the trigger on a deal with Anaheim that sent centre Mason McTavish to the Blues.
There’s always plenty to sift through on the first night of the draft and while — as it’s always worth repeating — we won’t know how many of the 32 picks pan out for years to come, that won’t stop us from identifying some winners and losers from one of the biggest events on the NHL calendar.
Winners
The Leafs winning the lottery understandably dominated draft talk when it kicked off in May, but the Sharks moving up to No. 2 — with the build San Jose already had going — was a huge development. For a couple weeks, we wondered if the Sharks might flip the second pick for immediate help. However, they wound up doubling-down on the future by grabbing the ninth-overall selection from Ottawa.
Once that happened, the idea was GM Mike Grier would take Swedish stud winger Ivar Stenberg second overall and then be happy with whichever defenceman slipped to No. 9. In his wildest dreams, though, Grier could not have anticipated that defenceman would be six-foot-four, right-shooting Keaton Verhoeff.
At one point in the fall, Verhoeff was appearing near the very top of draft rankings. His offensive numbers took a bit of a hit during his freshman year with North Dakota, but this is a player who will likely play once more season of NCAA hockey, potentially wear the ‘C’ for Canada at a 2027 World Junior Championship happening in his home province of Alberta, then make the jump to pro hockey next spring.
With six-foot-three blue-liner Sam Dickinson — who fell to the Sharks in similar fashion two years ago at No. 11 — in the fold, Verhoeff becomes the RHD who can anchor a second pair for this emerging power of a club.
Getting Stenberg and Verhoeff isn’t quite on the level of landing Macklin Celebrini and Dickinson at the 2024 draft, but it’s not that far off.
To top it off, the Sharks traded up to add another solid RHD, in Ryan Lin, at No. 21.
Chase Reid was a real riser during his draft-eligible season, showing out with the Soo Greyhouds of the OHL. At certain points in the lead-up to the draft, Reid seemed like a potential pick for the Sharks at No. 2 and by the time the event rolled around it seemed certain he would not fall past No. 4.
Well, there he was at No. 7 and the Seattle Kraken likely couldn’t believe their luck. Surely still stinging from the fact pending-RFA Jason Robertson wanted no part of a rich contract with the team, the Kraken get a salve in the form of a right-shot blue-liner who figures to be an offence-driver and PP1 fixture down the road after he’s done with a college career at Michigan State University.
Even if Reid doesn’t quite reach the offensive heights fellow righties Cale Makar or Adam Fox, he still brings a bigger frame to the table than those guys thanks to his six-foot-two stature.
It goes without saying, the future is not written on the night a team drafts what it hopes is its next great star. Four years ago, the Kraken were high-fiving when a potential first-overall pick in Shane Wright fell to them at No. 4 and he could quite conceivably be traded this summer.
Still, for a franchise crying out for talent — which is why they threw all that money at Jason Robertson and, back in the winter, Artemi Panarin before him — landing Reid is a wonderful development.
Toronto Maple Leafs
A largely miserable season flipped on May 5 for the Leafs, when they made good on an 8.5-per cent chance of winning the lottery. Suddenly, talk of gifting the sixth-overall pick to Boston turned into euphoria over the opportunity to add Gavin McKenna.
There’s no guarantee McKenna ends up being the most winning player from this draft, but it’s hard to imagine the Buds didn’t land themselves an offensive force when they grabbed the super-skilled 18-year-old who’s been a projected top pick for years.
All in all, this is a massive win for Toronto.
The Jets always figured to land a good player with the eighth-overall pick; but the ideal player — someone who could potentially fill the 2C hole that’s existed forever in Manitoba — figured to be gone. Caleb Malhotra was certainly going to be off the board by then and most people figured the second-best pivot in the draft, Viggo Björck, would also have pulled on some other team’s sweater by the time Winnipeg picked.
As it happened, though, a run on defencemen from picks four through seven left Björck sitting right there for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. Now, the Jets hope this very skilled, high-motor Swede can fill a major gap for the franchise up the middle.
Draft night is a time to let yourself dream and if you’re a Blues backer, the hope is you just re-made the all-important centre position in a matter of minutes. First, St. Louis took Tynan Lawrence with the 11th pick. Lawrence scuffled at Boston University when he made an in-season move to the NCAA from the USHL, but he’s a highly skilled centre who, eight months from now, could look like a much different player than he did for the back half of his campaign. Then, St. Louis went out and used its other two first-round picks (Nos. 15 and 29) to land McTavish from the Ducks. With Robert Thomas apparently off the trade market, the Blues clearly feel Thomas and McTavish can push the team forward from the middle, with Lawrence — perhaps — able to lend a hand in the not-too-distant future.
Losers
Eastern Conference Playoff Hopefuls
The worst team in the East, the New York Rangers, acquired a premier sniper in Pavel Dorofeyev at the draft and the second-worst team in the conference, the Leafs, picked first overall. Throw in some other moves from non-playoff squads earlier this off-season — the Florida Panthers landing Brady Tkachuk, the Washington Capitals adding both Jordan Kyrou and Alex Tuch — and it makes you wonder just how hard the path to being a top-eight team in the East is going to be next year.
Unless the Blue Jackets suddenly unload some big pieces or the Red Wings really get hosed on a potential Dylan Larkin trade, it’s sure hard to spot the soft touches in this group of 16 teams.
It took 99 points to crack the Eastern Conference playoffs this past season and looks like it will require at least that many to make it next spring.
Broadly speaking, it’s just hard not to view Chicago as a loser of draft season based on moving the fourth-overall selection in a swap with Buffalo for Bowen Byram. Wishing to add a D-man like Byram makes sense, but Chicago’s original hope was likely that Stenberg would fall to them at No. 4. Once the Sharks acquired a second top-10 pick, the likelihood of that happening was greatly diminished. You can understand Chicago pivoting, but it still feels like the Hawks could have leveraged that pick for a bigger return.
