The Athletic Hockey Show - Hlinka Gretzky and 2026 NHL Draft preseason ranking takeaways

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

This summer’s very competitive Hlinka Gretzky Cup is now in the books with the US taking gold over Sweden and Canada finishing an underwhelming tournament with the bronze medal. Max, Corey, and Scott discuss what contributed to Canada’s poor performance, Keaton Verhoeff’s play, why Finland’s Oliver Suvanto was the second best center behind Canada’s Tynan Lawrence at the tournament, and much more. Plus, the guys break down Scott’s latest 2026 NHL Draft ranking and have a quick debate on Ryan Lin to close things out.We want to hear from you! Please fill out our listener survey: https://forms.gle/CDbF51vAPngm2ZYS6Hosts: Max Bultman and Corey PronmanWith: Scott WheelerExecutive Producer: Chris FlanneryProducer: Chris Flannery Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This is the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. Hey, everybody. Max Bolman here alongside the athletics, Corey Promont and Scott Wheeler for another episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. This is our recap episode for the Halinka Gretzky Cup. Corey, you were on the ground there in Berno. And Scott, obviously, you had your 2026 draft rankings come out this week, your preseason edition. So we got a lot to get to here. And I want to start with the Halinka Gretzky.

And Corey, usually, this is the time of year where we see the stars on Team Canada really dominate this tournament. The NTDP doesn't go to this tournament. Canada usually loaded, especially this year I think I was expecting Canada to really walk through this. That is not what happened here. So I guess the question is why? Yeah, I think that's a great point. You know, usually go to this tournament and it tends to go as expected. You're looking to see how the top draft eligible looks look.

but typically you'll see Canada either win every game or win every game convincingly, and you come away saying, well, these are the four top 10, top 15 picks on this team, and there's some other guys have known on some other teams, and it's a great kickoff point going forward. This tournament was one of the more interesting Kalinga Groskiskees I've ever been to. It might have been the most interesting from a competitive standpoint. There was a lot of competitive games in both groups. Canada doesn't advance to the gold medal game for like the first time,

10 years. Well, you got to keep in mind as well that they missed one tournament in the COVID era. But that was highly unexpected. And then you see team USA beat both Canada and Sweden in the medal round, both teams that won their group to win their second ever Holinkagreski Cup. And to those who don't know, the USA is this is not the US NTDP. This is for the most part players who did not make the US NTTDP, or decided to go to the CHL instead.

Usually, there are sometimes really good players on these Hlink of teams, but usually it's like guys who are more like the B squad for Team USA. And for them to win this tournament is just massive. And it kind of shows that there's some nice depth for this USA class going forward. But focusing on Canada for a moment, you definitely left this tournament wanting from this Canadian. team. There was never a game really in the entire tournament where they looked convincing. Opens up against Finland. It's a tight game right to the very end.

Switzerland, they win, I think, 9-1, but I think they only had one goal against Switzerland up until about, I think, five minutes into the third period. And then it opens up in the third period. They beat the checks, but it was a very tight game right to the last minute. And then obviously, they lose against the U.S. in the semifinal game. The Canadian team's strength was on their blue line. They have four potential first round picks in Keaton Verhoff, Daxon, Rudolph, Carson Carroll, she gets injured there towards the tournament in Ryan Lynn. The forward group, though, was very underwhelming.

You know, there was a lack of offense on this Canada team in a way that you usually don't see from a Canadian helenka team. And it was really their four-room, other than Tyne and Lawrence and Mathis Preston, there weren't really any forwards that were consistently generating offense and chances for this team Canada. And you're looking at this Canadian forward group going into the draft and maybe thinking about this draft class a little less optimistic, especially when it comes to the forward front,

definitely when it comes to the center front because it just wasn't a lot of skill on display in this tournament outside of maybe Team Sweden, really, to be quite honest, and a couple of players on Team Canada. So let's zero in then for a second here to start on the Canada forwards here because you talked about some of the talent on the blue line. But while there were player, you know, Ethan Belkitts and Windsor, I think is a prominent player on this team. I think that's the first place we have to look, right, when we assess what went wrong with this Canada team, Scott? Big time.

Even Tynan. I mean, I thought Tynan had a really impressive sort of semifinal. I thought the semifinal was actually Lawrence's best game of the tournament and he was creating throughout. but didn't pop in terms of bearing down on his chances, finishing on plays. I thought Belkitts was a positive for Team Canada, and specifically just so noticeable going to the center of the ice, going to the front of the net, along the wall, just so much bigger and stronger than these other kids. And I thought he skated and made some plays, and that was positive.

But you started to look at some of the other guys that sort of lined up on this group, Alessandro Diario, Becca Medwards, Casey Fitzgerald, or Colin Fitzgerald. There just wasn't that sort of kid who stepped up and even Preston sort of came and went in a bunch of games. Obviously, he had a hat trick against the Swiss, but it just was, they didn't have that game breaker. They didn't have a Porter Martone or a Berkeley cat and some of the kids that have come through this event over the years. And they didn't have a kid like a couple of years ago when Michael Misa played at the tournament as an underageer who sort of climbed up the roster. Michael Mises started that tournament in a depth role and then climbed up the roster and made plays. And they just, nobody really seemed to emerge to grab hold of it until maybe the semifinal with Tynin really stepping up.

And it just wasn't even Lawrence having his best game in the semifinal. It just wasn't enough. Probably the most skilled player on that Canadian team was a defenseman in Landon DuPont, who we think very highly of for next year's draft. but he really didn't have his best tournament. Like he was good still. He was still among Canada's more important players, excellent skater,

excellent puck mover. But for a guy who's supposed to kind of be an offense to Dynamo, he was sometimes noticeable offensively. And really until Carol's injury, he wasn't really getting a lot of ice either in the early games with the tournament. So, you know,

they were just really looking for a skill throughout the whole tournament. Like Liam and Marcus Ruck got the top power play duties. and they did like next to nothing with it, quite honestly. I have the one nice goal against, I think it was against the U.S. It was against the U.S. against the Czechs where they made a nice play to score the first goal of that game. Valentini couldn't break through. They played him way too much. But yeah, you know, he really didn't get much done either.

It just said just a team that was really looking for skill. Like they were playing the underage kid, Dima Jilkin, a ton, trying to get off. fence out of him. You had Pierce, a boy in Cooper Williams kind of like sitting on the bench there during the whole tournament. They were skill guys. You wondered if they should have played a little bit more. They left Maddox-Dajunay

at home. There were some scouts at the event wondering whether he should have been there. The first pick in the queue draft. That was kind of the overarching themes from Team Canada, at least on the forward front. Their goaltending struggled, too. I thought Betts had some really tough moments.

Not so much an on-ice question, and I'm only going to get away with this because Chris isn't here to tell me to put away the tape measure. But one of the more interesting takeaways out of this, Corey, was the height update on Tyne and Lawrence, right? Yeah, he's a, well, a couple of the kids, you know, whenever they come into camp, they look a little different. Like, he got a little taller. Carson Carroll's got a little taller. Daxon Rudolph looked a little bit taller. Those are all things that are going to help. You know, you saw, I think Belkitt's not sure whether he was 6404.

he's now close to 6-5. Those are all things that are relevant going into a draft class for sure. But I think especially with Lawrence, like this is a guy who we would have been talking about as a sub-six-foot center. And, you know, how much you want to believe in it or not, it is a real factor when you see that six at the start of a guy's height. I do think that is relevant. I, yeah, I mean, I agree. I mean, I am quite honestly, he was, despite his point totals, which were minimal, he was the guy talking to scouts at the event who, they were the most excited about.

That was the guy that people left thinking like this is the top prospect on Canada, which was surprising because we thought that was probably going to be Keaton Verhoff going to the tournament. And it still might be. But Lawrence is the one that people are really buzzing back because he's such an easy, high-end skater, high-in competitor, you know, just came off a Clark Cup MVP performance in the USHL. And I think we're respecting big things from him going into this junior season. To Corey's point about Canada's lack of depth down the middle,

too, that's true in this entire draft class. So the fact that Lawrence is a natural center and a two-way center and a competitive kid and all that, he's going to have a ton of eyes on him this year. I mean, I think the conversation with him probably starts at two. I mean, I'm not saying I have him to. I know Scott doesn't have him too, but I think just given the position and the talent, once the mechanic is off the board, I think you have to start talking about him. Well, just how long are you going to wait to take the first center?

I mean, teams that are picking on the top five, they tend to need premium positions. And I know teams aren't going to kneecap themselves on purpose to chase one. But if it's close, like, you know, Yvars Stenberg, winger, like Vigo Bjork could be a center, but he's five foot 10. I mean, he's not going to top five. Right. You get my point. I'm just saying like, you know, some of these defensemen you're talking about, Ryan Lynn is not a huge guy. I just think that when you're talking about the top of the draft class.

Right. There's always a center high up. there. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, he's absolutely in that conversation. And after him, it's not really clear who the next center is. Like, we will see this year. Ryan Rubrik has played some center in his life. I think most people project the way he plays to be a wing in the NHL. We'll see how much center he plays with Niagara this year. As a six-four guy, who can skate, if he actually looks like he could be a pro center, that could change the dialogue there a little bit. But right now, Lorth looks like the only real center in this draft. And nobody's really close. to him. Well, let me ask you this, Corey. It's August. So there's a lot of time. These kids have not even had a full training camp, let alone real regular season games.

Stop with the caveats. Let's overreact to August hockey. All right. So Canada kind of flops at this tournament. They are still the team that is made up of the most prospective first round picks here, right? Like they're most of like the top talent in this draft. That's where it's coming from. Does it change the way you view this draft class at all going into it?

A little bit, yeah, because I think, like, after the U-18 world, you were looking at the way Keaton Verhoff played at that tournament, he played, say, better than Matthew Schaepper did the year before at the U-18s, and he had a monster year in the Western League, he looked at Verhoff, you thought, hey, this guy might push McKenna if he has a really good college year. Maybe McKenna doesn't do exactly what we expect him to do. Like, could we see a conversation here? And now, you watch how Verhoff, like, kind of was average at this tournament. like he was still their best defensively. He played the most minutes. Big heavy, right shot, good enough skater.

He's not really dynamic like Schaefer was. He kind of bobbled a lot of pucks, its decisions. His playmaking weren't really great. Skating isn't as dynamic as Shafers. So I think the caliber of him as a prospect changes a little bit. So right away, that changes things. You don't have a premium prospect, really in this entire tournament. I don't think anyone outside of,

Lawrence at times looked like a for sure tough five player and I think Verhoff will be in that conversation. I think you know, but it just was a very underwhelming term from a talent perspective. So I think you're looking into this draft saying like the late births really need to carry this thing. You talk about Stenberg, Rubrik McKenna,

like Novotny, those guys really need to have huge years. Otherwise I think you're looking at a draft class that may not have a lot of really sexy trait at the top of the draft. I think that's a part of this conversation, too. There were 10 players from that September 15th to December 31st window, 10 sort of late birth year players who were selected in the first round in last year's draft. I have 12 late birth year players in my top 32 to start this year.

So could speak to a little bit more of a skew in this sage group towards those sort of late 07s instead of the 2008s. Well, you know, we talk about the lack of centers in this year's draft. there was a ton of centers in last year's draft. And if a guy, like a Jake O'Brien's born, like a month or two later kind of thing, he's in this draft. We had so many centers last year, like this year, other than Lawrence, I don't see anybody who looks like a guy who has been a top two-line center in the NHL right now. Yeah.

Let me ask you this, just going back to Verhof, and I got Corey's opinion on this already because we were slacking about it earlier this week. So, Corey, I'll let you weigh in on this, but I want to get Scott's unfiltered opinion. here before I ask it to you, how do you compare Keaton Verhoff to Artim Levschenov at the same stage in their draft year? I know obviously one's a late birthday, that being Levschenov. Yeah, Verhof's not only true to the birth year. It's worth noting that Berhof is a summer birthday. So there's like nine, ten months separating Artie Levchunov and Keaton Verhof at the same

timestamp, if you will. Artie was just more haywire, more naturally gifted, more sort of all over the ice with that skating and gallop that he has and was just sort of, I think, more hectic, more raw. But the talent, I think, had popped at least at an equivalent level to Verhoff. Now, Verhoff scored 20 goals in the W.HL last year. So Verhoff had a very productive year, made some big plays in the WHL last year, et cetera, et cetera. They're similar in terms of size. They're both 6-2 to 6-4, RTI's thicker, maybe an inch shorter than Verhoff.

but I think Verhof was Arty's sickled in Verhof? I think Verhof's pretty thick boy. Artie is a specimen. Like you saw Artie in that year and you thought he was a grown man. And Verhof has a little bit of that, but Artie physically in terms of just the way he looked, he looked like a pro hockey player.

Verhof does have that as well to a certain degree. I think Verhof is just a little bit more, like he looks more like an NHL defenseman in terms of the habits and, And the decision making and the way that he plays the game, Artie was kind of looked and played like a kid out there in terms of just flying around the ice, trying to make things happen, a little hectic. So I think that's the big difference.

But as far as prospects go, I think they're comparable prospects. And Corey, you know, I think the reason I asked it and the reason we were talking about earlier this week is because we will see Verhof play college hockey. It's going to be hard to be as productive as Ardum Levshinov was and as the second overall pick two years ago. Yeah, obviously he's a straight U-18 defenseman. So I think when I was talking to you, I thought like, you know, looking at Hanifin season or Zacharyinsky season, that's maybe a little bit more of a one-to-one there. But comparing him to Artie, I think, like, Lef Shunov, I think it was way more of a natural puck guy. You know, way smoother and more creative with the puck. When Verhof is, but Verhof is bigger, meaner, much, much more polished defender.

So I think there are some distinctions there. You know, I think the name that's going to come up a lot with Verhof is Aaron Neckblad, just because they're, you know, right-shot Canadians, you know, with, you know, really advanced, you know, big frames going into their draft years. So I think that's where the conversation is right now. You know, with Verhoff, you know, it'll be sure to see how he does a Nodak. I expect he'll get big minutes right away. I think the big thing with him is going to be how much offense does he actually show by the way. I think we all expect that he's going to, you know, play hard, make stops, kill penalties.

Does he show significant offense in college as a 17-year-old? If the answer to that is yes, I think the conversation with him could swing right back the other way after a disappointing tournament. I do wonder a little bit about, I know I've mentioned this on the pod before, but I do wonder a little bit about his feet as well. Like he looked on pivots, even at the Hulinka pivots and going back to get pucks and winning races and that. He just, I think his feet are probably average, but I think at the college level, it's, that's cool. The speed of play and the pace of play could be a bit of an adjustment for Verhoff. Yeah, I don't think his feet are fantastic, but I think they're good. I don't think that's the big issue, but I also don't think it's the thing about his game to get you excited.

Yeah, I've thought they've looked heavy at different points, even dating back to you 17s a year ago. All right, well, we probably owe the team that won this tournament some air time. So let's take a quick break. We'll come right back and we'll get to Team USA. All right, we are back. And before we get to more on the Halenka Gretzky, listeners, we want to hear from you. You can check out the link in the description of this episode to give us your feedback on the show, what content you've enjoyed most, what you'd like to see us do differently next year.

We certainly appreciate your continued support and would love to hear your feedback. All right, Corey, Team USA. So this is what we talked about at the very top. What I'm used to on the international draft season calendar, basically, is that at the Halenka, Canada dominates because they have all their players. And at the U-18s, Team USA dominates because they send the NTP, they've played together all year, they cook. I'm living in a little twilight zone right now because we just saw Canada roar through

the U-18s in the spring. And now Team USA, and I think a more surprising way, wins the Helinka Gretzky. These are, this is the guys that basically didn't make the NTDP. And so what I want to know is how did Team USA produce this kind of result? So there's a couple of things going on there. one, obviously last year's NTP group, though not the one going into this year, the 18s, the 18s of last season,

that was one of the weaker 18 groups we've ever seen, you know, in the last decade. Another thing that's happening is obviously due to the landscape changes in terms of the CHL and college hockey, there's a lot of guys who probably could be in the NTDP discussion that are in the CHL this season. I think there's quite a few. few of the players on this

Holy Kukreski team that will absolutely be in the world U-A-Team conversation come April. And especially if this NTP team does not come out of the gates flying that they don't show that they are, this is a team that's going to make guys hard to cut.

I think USA is going to look to a lot of the key players on this Klinka team and wonder whether they should make some changes. But you look at this USA team is there like high high-end guys on this team? Probably not.

But there were, you know, one, I thought the compete level and almost all of these players were fantastic. There were, you know, they were highly physical, highly competitive team. You know, they battled through every penalty kill, didn't give up a lot of high,

you know, quality chances against the good teams. And then they had enough skill in their top players, particularly the guys like, Blake Zelensky, you know, Jack Hextall, you know, that just made plays, that capitalize on their power plays when they got them. You know, do I see, for sure, first rounder on this team? Maybe, maybe not. I think the late birth date, his name's escaping me, the hyphenated name Scott.

Schaefer Gordon Carroll. Yeah, he looks like a guy who could be a first rounder next year. playing in Medicine Hat this year. He has the kind of the size, skating skill combo. You know, Hextall, maybe at first, maybe. I would guess more of a second rounder when it comes down to it. But I think there's going to be, you know, usually you see these Holinket teams and six players on those teams get drafted.

I think you're going to see a lot of mid-round picks on this team, a lot of guys that people are going to look at a couple of traits and be like, yeah, there's stuff to work on there. but there's, I mean, like I said, you don't win this tournament by accident. You know, it's hard to fluke to a major junior tournament win in hockey, even if you get hot goaltending, which they really didn't get. Like, this was not a tournament, just that they were carried by a goalie or something like that. It just was really an all-around team effort.

Hextall and some of the 2027s, I think, are interesting. I think Hextall's got a chance to be a late first in this draft. Two players that Corey didn't mention who I thought had excellent tournament. were Levi Harper, who is going to play in Saginaw and is an offensive defenseman that has a chance to make plays, but is a little bit undersized. And we saw last year with the way that 5-11, 6-foot D went to the draft, that even when you're a high-end player in that mold, that it can be tough. I think Harper's going to end up in that sort of conversation for scouts a year from now. He's going to put up a ton of points in the next two seasons in Saginaw.

And then we're going to get to the draft in 2027, and people are going to say, okay, where can this 511D realistically go, similar to Axine Sandine-Pelene Pelica and some others in recent years. And then Noah Davidson, who's actually going to play with Schaefer Gordon-Carril and the Ruck Twins in Medicine Hat, I thought Noah Davidson, this was my first time seeing him play. I hadn't seen any of him at Shattuck. He played at Shattuck last year. I had not watched a single one of his shifts. So this was my introduction to Noah Davidson. And he's a six-three winger who seems to have some playmaking quality and some pro habits and all of that. So it was more that, I mean, Zalinski and Hextall were arguably their two best

players and both of those kids are 2026s, but it was more the 2027s that I think have a chance to be first rounders, whether that's Schaefer Gordon Carroll or Davidson. But Davidson, I just want to see, I just want to see more of Davidson play. I hope Cade Meyer grows a little bit. You mentioned 27s. He's a lateh birth.

He's five eight, so he's not five ADs. He's not really in this conversation. His offense is anything special, but he's his competitive levels, like off the charts, good. If he gets to five, 10, 5-11 by the time his draft rolls around, he's definitely going to be a draft. All right.

How about Team Sweden here? Because you mentioned, Corey, USA's path was not just going through Canada. It was going through a good Sweden team. I mean, there are a couple players on Sweden that we think are going to be really prominent in the 2026 draft conversations that we're going to be having over the next year, starting with Elton Hermanson and Marcus Nordmark, who were the two top scorers at this event. Quite an eventful tournament for Team Sweden. And they, you know, in typical team Sweden fashion, they roll through the round robin. And then the metal round comes around and things get a little bit more difficult. They play against Finland in the semifinal.

They go up to 1. Then Finland comes back and makes it 5'2. And then Finland takes a major penalty. Sweden scores two on that major penalty. And then they win the game 6-5 in overtime on a hat trick by Marcus Nordmark. I think when it's all said and done, Sweden had, I think, the top three overall scores in the tournament

in Nordmark, Elton Hermanson and Oliveson, the smaller team man. I think, like, just from my assessment and talking to scouts as well, I think there's three guys on this team, Sweden team that look like first rounders. You have Nordmark, you have Hermannsen, and you have the big defenseman,

Maltek, Gostof Sin. Ghost of Sin is 6'4. He skates well. Not a natural-ish puck mover, but you kind of think of like Simon Edvenson, but like smaller. And I think there's some, there's some similarities there in terms of the style of play. Hermanson is probably one of the outside of Team Canada. He was probably the most purely skilled player I saw at that event.

He's got really high-in, you know, touching creativity, just made a ton of things happen whenever he was around the puck. Nordmark's going to be the most interesting one because I think he actually led the tournament in both goals and points. Yep. But if I'm beat, you know, I watched a couple of his games live and watched the rest of them on video on the way back.

And I wasn't like blown away by what I saw there. Like I thought he was good, but I didn't think he dominated the tournament. I just felt like he was opportunistic. He's a really good shot. He scored a couple of goals from mid-range. He wasn't on the first power play for them, so it was kind of interesting how much he scored,

given that. Although I think they have like a, Sweden is doing this year of kind of what they did last year with the powerplay units where they have like these two separate units that they're built around. And when Vigo Biorke comes back, he's probably going to play on that unit with Nordmark to both your garden teammates. They did the same power play units last year with the U17 group. But regardless what I watched him, I thought he's skilled, he's 6-2, he can skate. But I don't know. If you look at just his production, he leads the U-17s.

Well, no, he let. He was one of the U-17 leading scorers. and a great J20 scoring here. Now he leads the Hulinkin scoring, 6-2, good skater. It's typically the profile of like a top-10 pick. And I don't think it's unreasonable to suggest he could go like top 10, top 15.

I would struggle getting him there, though, from what I've seen. I didn't see that level of dynamic traits just from my eye test, but maybe I don't know what I'm watching. Scott, on the Finns, I mean, I don't think we went into this tournament expecting to really even have a Finland segment.

It's been a little quieter stretch for Finland lately. But at the top of the show, before we started recording, you made a point. You had some guys you want to talk about on Team Finland that you felt raised their stock. Yeah, we were coming off of an age group that was frankly the worst Finnish age group that I've ever scouted for an NHL draft class a year ago for 2025. And there was talk in Finland and at U18 worlds about, okay, maybe they have a couple of defensemen, a couple of the defensemen who played on this Halenka team, Al-Laure, Pipporinen. They played on that U-18 team in Frisco for the Finns. And there was talk about Verte-Svensk, another defenseman on that team who was a late birthday, so wasn't eligible for

the Hinkogretzky Cup, but played on that blue line at U-A-Tens. Very funny name for a Finnish guy, by the way, Svenz. Yes. And there was talk of, okay, maybe they have a couple of sort of mid-round pick defensemen here, hadn't been much talk about any of the forwards. And then I thought they looked like they had a lot like the Americans. They looked like they had. had five or six real players at this tournament. And like it was a stronger age group than a year ago. I thought Oliver Suvanto was excellent and looks like a potential top two round guy. Van Halto, his linemate and Hemming's younger brother, Emil Hemming's younger brother,

I thought all three of those players looked like legit players. They're all interestingly enough. The Finns were actually the heaviest team in the tournament. That first line that the Finns had, which was excellent throughout the event, they're all six, three, they're all over 200 pounds. Suvanto looks like a real player. And then a couple of the defensemen, I thought Al-Lari and Piper-Rinan in particular looked like legit prospects.

Like I think Pippa-Rin has a chance to be a sort of late, mid-to-late first-round pick kind of thing. So that was one of the big takeaways for me. I thought those American kids were a takeaway, but some of those fins are legit, like, top 50 prospects in this draft class a year after there were, I don't believe, when did Lassie, When did he go in last year's draft? I think he went like 60th to Anaheim. He did go 60.

And I remember that fact because we had a bet where I bet. We did have a bet about that. That I said where you took the opposite end of that a Finn wouldn't go on the top 100. And you didn't take until the end of the second round before you lost that. Which is highly unfortunate. But I'll say one more on Savanto. Not that he's keeping score. Oh, I completely keep scores.

That's not really an issue. is I would say Savanto, for what I saw, for this year's draft, look like the second best center at that tournament from a prospect perspective. His feet are a little heavy, but he's 6,3, 6.4. He plays hard. He's got legit skill in hockey sense. Like, I think he's got a really good chance to be a late first rounder, especially in a draft that lacks centers.

One of the youngest players in the class, not going to turn 17 for a couple weeks. He's like a week or two away from being eligible for next year's draft too. All right, let's take a break right there. We're going to come back and we're going to get into Scots way too early, although not way too early. Scott's preliminary, his preseason ranking for the 2026 NHL draft. All right, we are back.

And before we wrap up the show today, I want to get into Scott's 2026 NHL draft ranking, the preseason top 32. I don't think anyone's going to be surprised with the name at number one. It is Gavin McKenna. At number two, though, it's Evar Stenberg. And again, I don't think anyone's shocked by that either.

Stenberg certainly on everyone's radar. We've talked about him plenty coming out of the U-18s and certainly in our World Junior Summer Showcase podcast a couple weeks ago. But given he is the number two prospects, Scott, I got to ask you, how big is that gap between McKenna at one

and Stenberg at two? I do still think it's pronounced. I think some of the talk over the last six months, and I think there will be less of that now coming out of the Halenka where Verhof looked good, but not great,

playing big minutes. I think some of the talk of there being challengers for Gavin McKenna in this draft class got carried away. I still think Gavin McKenna, who wasn't, it should be no,

in his World Junior Summer Showcase game, all that notable. But I still think Gavin McKenna is going to have a monster year in college hockey and be a star at the World Juniors and profiles based off of everything that he's accomplished in Medicine Hat to date and the way that he looked into the Memorial Cup last year and etc, et cetera, et cetera, I still think Gavin McKenna is the clear number one prospect in this draft class. I think he's one of the more gifted prospects that have come through the draft even in recent years. I don't know whether in terms of the damage that he's going to do with the

world juniors will be on par with Connor Bedard, but I think we're talking about a high-end, high-end star, if not superstar prospect. And this year we'll decide where he lands in terms of the historical context of what he accomplishes in college. So that's going to be up to him. But I think it's McKenna 1 and then there's a gap and then it's Stenberg, too. I love Evar, though. And every single time I've seen Evar play internationally on tape with Rolanda. Last year in the playoffs and the SHL playoffs with Frolanda, I have seen a legit star prospect. I think Evar is going to be a top of the lineup player in the NHL. He compares it.

We've mentioned it on the pod before, but he compares himself to Tim Stutzler. I'm not sure he has the speed that Stutzler. In fact, I don't think he has the speed that Stutzla had at the same age. But I see a lot of similarities otherwise in their game in terms of strength on the puck, puck skill, finishing, playmaking, the ability to be direct, the ability to play out wide and play in the guts of the ice. Like, I think Stenberg, his wall play stick lifts, all of, like, he's, Stenberg looks like a stud to me.

And I'd agree with you about McKenna, by the way, that, especially after this seeing this Haleinka, like, the gap there's pretty notable. Like, I probably wouldn't have him as a Badawerp level prospect right now. And I think, like, he's more like a standard number one. for me, but for him not to go one, something wonky's going to have to happen this year. Like, he's going to need to have a really uncharacteristic year, which he's going to get plenty of opportunity to score when he plays against L.I.U. and Stonehill and R.I.T. But, well, that's something for another day, but like Rubrik or Stenberg or somebody's going to have

to have, like, an absolutely monster season, which combined with McKenna play. uncharacteristically poor, I think, for there to become a legit challenger for one of this stage, again, unless Verhoff just completely has like a monster year or something like that. I certainly want people to go read this story, but just to give some context of some of the players we've already talked about, you got Keaton Verhoff at number three, Tyne and Lawrence at number five, Ryan Rubrik at number six, Belk at seven, then we got the Swedes, Nordmark at 15, Herbenson at 18. I don't think Gustafson made your list, Scott.

No, Gustafsson and Pipporinen were my last two cuts. Okay, yeah. So in the honorable mention tier and then Jack Hextall from that American team at number 21. But Corey, I know you had a question within the top five of this list. Yeah. I guess it would just be Ryan Linod at four. I'm curious to hear Scott's opinion there. You know, seeing him over like Lawrence, that one, I was like that,

that kind of raised my eyebrow a little bit. I think Ryan is phenomenal. I think he is. Well, I imagine you do think he is because that's why you put him at four. Outside of maybe not having elite skating for a 5-11 defenseman, I think he moves really well. He's extremely mobile, but he doesn't have that like pull away, pull-away speed that you'd look for in a 5-11 defenseman. Outside of that, I think he is a brilliant offensive mind in terms of the way he thinks the game.

I thought he was, despite only having, I think he only had two points in five games at U-17s. I thought he was the best defenseman at U-17s a year ago. I thought he was one of the three or four best defensemen in the W.HL last year. I thought he was by far the best player on that Vancouver Giants team, played 25 to 30 minutes as a 16-year-old, had 50 plus points. Him and DuPont are the first two players in over a decade to have 50 plus points as a 16-year-old or under. Obviously, DuPont was 15 defensemen at that level.

I think he's going to run a top power play. I thought it was notable that he ran a solo unit while Landon Dupon and Keaton Verhoff shared the point on Canada's other unit at the Hink. I think the most important part when you're 511, I think he defends at an extremely high level. Great stick, great habits, finds his way out of trouble inside the defensive zone. If he can add a step, I think you're talking about like a truly, truly high end 511, 6 foot defenseman. type. Who would the NHL comp be? I don't think Adam Fox

is completely out of the question there. I thought same. When I watched Fox as a teenager, I thought the plays he made were special like off the charts, hockey sense, and I'm not quite sure. I've seen that with Lynn. I think Lynn is a better skater and competes harder

than Foxx are the same age. He's definitely a much better defender. More polished. Yeah. I don't think I've seen like the pull you out of your seat offense. like hockey sense that Fox had. So that's like that or like what like Hudson does. So like that's where like I'm looking at this one. I'm like wondering like he looks like a really like well rounded good just really

steady player makes plays, plays hard, good skater. Like I'm like, we're a 511D. I probably want like more like elite traits to be put up for. That's just my preference. That's why I'm asking you what the comp would be. Yeah. In talking to him and the staff in Vancouver. about him over the last year too.

I do think that's going to come. Like he has always sort of played within himself, played for his coach, played the way that his coaches. I think we'll see him this year expand his game more and make more plays. And that's coming from a player who obviously was almost a point per game last year in the WHL. But I expect that we're going to see more of that for Lynn because I think he does see the game at a very, very, very high level offensively.

So earlier in the show, we talked about Vigo Bjork. And Corey, you said you don't think he's going to be in that conversation for the top five, top 10. Scott's got up in number eight. I know you don't say that, though, because you dislike the player. You quite like Vigo Bjork. So I just kind of wanted to use this, you know, Scott ranking him at number eight as a platform for us to talk about what I think is going to be one of the enduring debates of this cycle. And that is where do you put Vigo Bjork? Not there, but I don't think he's much lower for me.

I think probably if I was doing a list, he's like a teens guy. I think right now, I think the issues would be that the feet aren't. elite at that size, but I think he's a competitor. He's extremely skilled, extremely intelligent. I'd be curious how Scott would compare him to, like, Marco Rossi at the same age, because I think there's some overlap there in terms of the way they play. I just think that's going to be a hard thing to get around there, unless he just completely just dominates this year, like Marco did when he was in junior, to get him into the top 10 conversation with, with, with, with his athletic traits, which are below average.

Like I've probably talked to more people in the league who think he's a second rounder than think that he's a top 15 pick. And I don't agree with that. I think he's a solid first round pick. But I think the size and the skating is going to scare some people come draft day. I think there are some similarities with Rossi and with Vigo in terms of the profile. Both are sort of that sub six foot center. And both were in that conversation in terms of,

Are they a pure center? What kind of impact are they going to make at the NHL level as a 510, 511 center? Vigo at this stage is actually shorter than Marco was. Marco has sort of always been 59, 510. Vigo is like 59, 510 now, but has dragged behind that a little bit. I think in terms of the craft and the creativity and the ability to play both sides of the puck and all of that, there are a lot of similarities there. I think I've seen at this stage, I think I've seen a little bit more, a little bit more of that,

a little bit more of the creativity, the offensive zone, the power play utility, the ability to pick corners, the finishing. Marco, we didn't really see that until his draft year with the Ottawa 67s. Marco didn't really break out until his draft year. Marco was also an older player than Vigo is at this stage, but I think there are some similarities. What did Marco go? Marco went 12th?

Nine. I think he was nine. Nine? I guess that's about my question. Is Rossi a top 10 pick? No, but he's not, yeah, he's probably a few spots lower than that. Which is kind of what I was insinuating. I think there's, I think.

Might not be as good a class though. That was a good class in 20. And we're talking about this is a little bit underwhelming, I think, in 2026. It was? I thought so. Yeah. Raymond Sanderson Holtzlitzel

You know Holtz Jack Quinn Anton Lundell There's been some guys that have struggled Jarvis That draft Yeah

The number one overall pick Hasn't been amazing That's true Yeah I don't know It's an interesting conversation I had not considered The Rossi comp

But I think I had them eight to 10 in this group. Like I have a tier of that third tier that ran from, ran from four to 10. And I debated having Novotny and Mathis Preston, who were 910 in that group ahead of him and could see that playing out that way. But I've just been really impressed by that that sort of craftiness, the know-how of Vigo Bjork's game and his ability to play center as a 5-9, 510 guy. Now, I think that in and of itself is the biggest question is what does that look like in the NHL? Is he a winger in the NHL? The answer is probably.

But he has played, even in Gergaard in last year, playing against older players. He has played exclusively. Rossi's been a center, though. And Rossi, yeah, to your point, Rossi is a center. And Rossi's a center that, despite 60 points last year, that his team doesn't really know what to do with. So there's, there's, it's an, it's an interesting exercise. I think Vigo would be at least a half grade better skater than Rossi. Is that fair?

Yeah, I think he's similar. I think he's a little quicker and Rossi's probably a little harder. And like a little bit better, you know, a little better off the puck. That probably be my slight differences there. But I think there's some overlap there. That makes it a conversation. But I think Bjork will just remain interesting until we just find center is worth talking about. So if you're, you know, if you're an agent or you're a prospect in this draft listening to this,

like tell your coach to put you at center right now because we're searching for them at the moment. I think I think Bjork has accomplished more to this stage at his career than Rossi had. Rossi's year was the 120 points that he had with the 67s. Bjork has broken J20 records here and J18 records before that. Wasn't his draft minus one year though? Wasn't like the 67's also like a rookie top team that year as well? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And he was a very good player for that team. Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to obviously have a lot more time for the 2026 draft class,

but would highly recommend to get your head start on it, that you go read Scott's 2026 preseason ranking of that on the athletic. For now, that's going to do it for us. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Athletic Hockey Show Prospect Series. You can stay tuned next week for our pipeline rankings series as Corey's NHL pipeline ranking start coming out. We'll talk to you soon.