2026 NHL Entry Draft Thread

[LGR4GM]

Draft season will kick off with the Hlinka tournament and yea... so here's the primer for the 2026 draft for those who are interested.

[French Collection]

All I’ve got is, no RHD needed.

[LGR4GM]

I like Šimon Katolický a 6'4" LW from Czechia who won't be 17 until the end of July. 

[The Jokeman]

6 minutes ago, LGR4GM said:

I like Šimon Katolický a 6'4" LW from Czechia who won't be 17 until the end of July. 

Why not add the "local" kid in Ryan Roobroeck? He  plays for Niagara and wouldn't have to move far to come to Buffalo. 6'4" C. 

[LGR4GM]

2 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

Why not add the "local" kid in Ryan Roobroeck? He  plays for Niagara and wouldn't have to move far to come to Buffalo. 6'4" C. 

I secretly hope we don't draft high enough but Roobroeck, right now, is my 2nd behind McKenna. 

[DarthEbriate]

The good thing is Roobroeck provides some of the vowels missing from Strbak and Mrtka.

[shrader]

2 hours ago, DarthEbriate said:

The good thing is Roobroeck provides some of the vowels missing from Strbak and Mrtka.

Storbak, Mertka, and Robrock? I could live with that. 

[PerreaultForever]

Yes, you might as well start this. We're going to be top 10. 

[Brawndo]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Yes, you might as well start this. We're going to be top 10. 

Looking forward to watching Norris play 50 games next year and Ottawa choosing one of Liger’s Favorite Draft Eligible Prospects at 37th Overall

[Gatorman0519]

2 hours ago, PerreaultForever said:

Yes, you might as well start this. We're going to be top 10. 

Hopefully we go down and not up like this year. But yeah, this is a 75-85 point team next year.

[Taro T]

18 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Looking forward to watching Norris play 50 games next year and Ottawa choosing one of Liger’s Favorite Draft Eligible Prospects at 37th Overall

Wonder who the Sabres will grab at 7 then?  (Yes, without losing the lottery, that would have the Sabres picking 5th, but c'mon this is the Sabres we're talkin' 'bout.  We all know they only win the lottery if they finish dead last (and only 50% of the time at even that.)

[Flashsabre]

5 minutes ago, Taro T said:

Wonder who the Sabres will grab at 7 then?  (Yes, without losing the lottery, that would have the Sabres picking 5th, but c'mon this is the Sabres we're talkin' 'bout.  We all know they only win the lottery if they finish dead last (and only 50% of the time at even that.)

Whoever Adams, fresh off signing a 5 year extension, feel like choosing at 7.😁

[LGR4GM]

30 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Looking forward to watching Norris play 50 games next year and Ottawa choosing one of Liger’s Favorite Draft Eligible Prospects at 37th Overall

Pistols at dawn, sir!

[PerreaultForever]

3 hours ago, Brawndo said:

Looking forward to watching Norris play 50 games next year and Ottawa choosing one of Liger’s Favorite Draft Eligible Prospects at 37th Overall

You think he'll manage 50? I say 40 max. 

[Brawndo]

1 minute ago, PerreaultForever said:

You think he'll manage 50? I say 40 max. 

Trying to be optimistic, oh who the hell am I kidding 

[PerreaultForever]

3 minutes ago, Brawndo said:

Trying to be optimistic, oh who the hell am I kidding 

Oh I wish I could be but not any more. There's just nothing. They have botched this rebuild (if you start with Eichel, Reinhart, Risto trades as the starting point) so badly I don't see a fix. 

Now I think the only thing that can save this franchise is Terry giving up, handing the team over to his kid and retiring to Florida. She fires everybody and lets Jarmo start a new rebuild as GM with full authority to hire whoever and he cleans house and moves out the entire roster and we just start again like an expansion team. Clean slate. Actual NHL people running the thing. Can't be any worse. 

[Archie Lee]

Pronman at the Athletic has his “way too early” 2026 mock draft up today. The draft order for the mock was set using current betting lines. The Sabres draft 6th in the mock. Only Pittsburgh from the East draft earlier than the Sabres. Pretty useless info, but nonetheless an early indicator of how some view the Sabre off-season.

Utah picked 17th.

The Sabres took Ethan Belchatz, a RW from Windsor.  

[LGR4GM]

57 minutes ago, Archie Lee said:

Pronman at the Athletic has his “way too early” 2026 mock draft up today. The draft order for the mock was set using current betting lines. The Sabres draft 6th in the mock. Only Pittsburgh from the East draft earlier than the Sabres. Pretty useless info, but nonetheless an early indicator of how some view the Sabre off-season.

Utah picked 17th.

The Sabres took Ethan Belchatz, a RW from Windsor.  

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6368342/2025/07/07/2026-nhl-mock-draft-gavin-mckenna/

I think I would lean Šimon Katolický, a Czech who plays in the Liiga system. He's got a late July bday and is a 6'4" 198lb winger who should get a bunch of playing time in the u20 Liiga system this year as a 17yr old. 

This draft has a bunch of big rangy wingers in it. 

[DarthEbriate]

We're at the 2026 draft already? Did we sim the entire season?

[DarthEbriate]

Looks like McKenna is headed to Penn State. Pegula finally gets his #1 pick forward.

It'd be nice if all Penn State upgrade money could get thrown at the Sabres cap the past five years.

[Mr. MVP]

From Bleacher Report (I gotta learn how to do this properly) 

“8 NHL Teams Already Looking Toward Gavin McKenna

When you look at how much high-end talent the Sabres have, the first reaction you should have is that it’s insane we’re throwing them into the race for Gavin McKenna. And you’d be right, too!

However, if you look at how the Sabres did things this offseason and wanted to take the pessimistic viewpoint of it, you'd feel pretty convinced that another long season is in store for Buffalo and the thought of restarting another rebuild with McKenna wouldn't be so bad. 

The Sabres dealt JJ Peterka to Utah for Michael Kesselring and Josh Doan, traded Connor Clifton and a second-round pick to Pittsburgh for Conor Timmins and a prospect and added depth players in free agency like Justin Danforth and Alex Lyon. They're in limbo (for now) with RFA defenseman Bo Byram who may or may not be traded. 

GM Kevyn Adams set out to make the team tougher defensively and harder to play against and they'll most likely be just that, but if the offense stalls out, none of that might matter because then they'll need goaltending to bail them out more often than not. Hoping that Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen rebounds/Alex Lyon steadies them/Devon Levi takes over the net only adds more questions to be answered.

If Buffalo is in the hunt for McKenna by the end of the season, keep Sabres fans in your thoughts because next offseason would be immensely difficult. There's no reason for a team with Rasmus Dahlin, Tage Thompson, Alex Tuch and Owen Power to be in this discussion, and yet...”

[Thorny]

Haha y

[LabattBlue]

2 minutes ago, Thorny said:

 

I didn’t see any of the draft this year, but anything is better than having 5-10 people from each team march to the stage for a photo with the draftee. 

[Taro T]

4 minutes ago, Thorny said:

Haha y

DURING the draft the league was saying this was just a 1 time thing.  Wonder what happened to change their minds to keep the format?

Was it the Wizard of Oz-esque going behind the curtains to watch the GMs and company welcome the player into their fold?  It had to be, right, that and watching the chick interviewing the players during that introduction grabbing every single one of the players she was talking to.

Just when you think the NHL can't say "you'll never see us look more like a league that should be less relevant than indoor soccer than we do NOW" they find another gear and make themselves look like they should be a league less relevant than synchronized swimming is.

[Taro T]

5 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I didn’t see any of the draft this year, but anything is better than having 5-10 people from each team march to the stage for a photo with the draftee. 

Yes, you would expect that to be the case.  And can be cut slack for believing it.  Because, it REALLY REALLY SHOULD be the case.  But the NHL somehow managed in their own inimitable way to make THAT look like good TV relative to what they actually did.