{"id":568140,"date":"2026-05-06T08:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/568140\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:51:23","slug":"nhl-mock-draft-2026-instant-projection-after-maple-leafs-win-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/568140\/","title":{"rendered":"NHL mock draft 2026: Instant projection after Maple Leafs win lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Stanley Cup Playoffs roll on, but on Tuesday night the league conducted the 2026 NHL Draft lottery with the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> winning the No. 1 pick, and the right to draft either Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg in a class with more parity at the top than originally expected.<\/p>\n

McKenna was viewed as the grand prize for much of the 2025-26 season. The rangy left wing already has good height, great playmaking, and a knack for driving the pace from the wing \u2014 making him a low-risk top overall pick. At times he\u2019s been compared to Connor Bedard<\/a> and Macklin Celebrini<\/a>, though personally, I don\u2019t think he has quite the same ceiling as either phenom. Still, he\u2019s a franchise cornerstone player, and it will be interesting to see whether a team chooses to keep him at his natural LW, or tries to convert him into a center.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

The choice at No. 1 will be between McKenna and Sweden\u2019s Ivar Stenberg, who has been racing up the boards as scouts take a deeper look into his run in the SHL. It\u2019s unusual for a true 18-year-old to have any modicum of success in a pro league, but Stenberg more than held his own with his hockey IQ, and a shot volume that routinely made him one of the biggest threats on the ice for Fr\u00f6lunda HC. That pro-readiness is appealing for a team looking for an immediate impact, and his polish could cause him to be the top overall pick.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ll take a deeper dive into this year\u2019s class as the draft approaches, but for now here\u2019s a rapid-fire mock draft involving the teams in the lottery for the 2026 NHL Draft.<\/p>\n

Pick<\/p>\n

Team<\/p>\n

Player<\/p>\n

Position<\/p>\n

Current Team<\/p>\n

League<\/p>\n

1<\/p>\n

Toronto Maple Leafs<\/p>\n

Gavin McKenna<\/p>\n

LW<\/p>\n

Penn State<\/p>\n

NCAA<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

San Jose Sharks<\/a><\/p>\n

Ivar Stenberg<\/p>\n

LW\/RW<\/p>\n

Fr\u00f6lunda HC<\/p>\n

SHL<\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks<\/a><\/p>\n

Keaton Verhoeff<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

North Dakota<\/p>\n

NCAA<\/p>\n

4<\/p>\n

Chicago Blackhawks<\/a><\/p>\n

Chase Reid<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

Soo Greyhounds<\/p>\n

OHL<\/p>\n

5<\/p>\n

New York Rangers<\/a><\/p>\n

Tynan Lawrence<\/p>\n

C<\/p>\n

Boston University<\/p>\n

NCAA<\/p>\n

6<\/p>\n

Calgary Flames<\/a><\/p>\n

Caleb Malhotra<\/p>\n

C<\/p>\n

Brantford Bulldogs<\/p>\n

OHL<\/p>\n

7<\/p>\n

Seattle Kraken<\/a><\/p>\n

Viggo Bj\u00f6rck<\/p>\n

C\/RW<\/p>\n

Djurg\u00e5rdens IF<\/p>\n

SHL<\/p>\n

8<\/p>\n

Winnipeg Jets<\/a><\/p>\n

Ethan Belchetz<\/p>\n

LW<\/p>\n

Windsor Spitfires<\/p>\n

OHL<\/p>\n

9<\/p>\n

Florida Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n

Carson Carels<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

Prince George Cougars<\/p>\n

WHL<\/p>\n

10<\/p>\n

Nashville Predators<\/a><\/p>\n

Daxon Rudolph<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

Prince Albert Raiders<\/p>\n

WHL<\/p>\n

11<\/p>\n

St. Louis Blues<\/p>\n

Adam Novotny<\/p>\n

LW\/RW<\/p>\n

Petersborough Petes<\/p>\n

OHL<\/p>\n

12<\/p>\n

New Jersey Devils<\/a><\/p>\n

Ryan Lin<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

Vancouver Giants<\/p>\n

WHL<\/p>\n

13<\/p>\n

New York Islanders<\/a><\/p>\n

Mathis Preston<\/p>\n

C<\/p>\n

Spokane Chiefs<\/p>\n

WHL<\/p>\n

14<\/p>\n

Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a><\/p>\n

Oliver Suvanto<\/p>\n

C<\/p>\n

Tappara<\/p>\n

Liiga<\/p>\n

15<\/p>\n

St. Louis Blues (from Detroit<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Albert Smits<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

Jukurit<\/p>\n

Liiga<\/p>\n

16<\/p>\n

Washington Capitals<\/a><\/p>\n

Xavier Villeneuve<\/p>\n

D<\/p>\n

Blainville-Boisbriand Armada<\/p>\n

QMHL<\/p>\n

As a reminder, these were the lottery odds for winning the first draw entering Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

Vancouver Canucks \u2014 18.5%
Chicago Blackhawks \u2014 13.5%
New York Rangers \u2014 11.5%
Calgary Flames \u2014 9.5%
Toronto Maple Leafs (Top 5 protected to Bruins<\/a>) \u2014 8.5%
Seattle Kraken \u2014 7.5%
Winnipeg Jets \u2014 6.5%
Florida Panthers \u2014 6.0%
San Jose Sharks \u2014 5.0%
Nashville Predators \u2014 3.5%
St. Louis Blues<\/a> \u2014 3.0%
New Jersey Devils \u2014 2.5%
New York Islanders \u2014 2.0%
Columbus Blue Jackets \u2014 1.5%
St. Louis Blues (from Red Wings<\/a>) \u2014 0.5%
Washington Capitals \u2014 0.5%<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Stanley Cup Playoffs roll on, but on Tuesday night the league conducted the 2026 NHL Draft lottery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":568141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5119],"tags":[7704,60768,530,26,96,230,508,599,57,766,5,629,9388,501,23474,2409,231,5281,901,151,3328,159,35,4,591,10551,2410,3358,168,234,1970,84,31,27,109,18],"class_list":["post-568140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nashville-predators","tag-2026-nhl-draft","tag-albany","tag-bruins","tag-calgary-flames","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-columbus-blue-jackets","tag-connor-bedard","tag-detroit","tag-florida-panthers","tag-gavin-mckenna","tag-hockey","tag-ivar-stenberg","tag-lw","tag-macklin-celebrini","tag-minnesota-duluth-bulldogs","tag-nashville","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nashvillepredators","tag-ncaa","tag-new-jersey-devils","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-islanders","tag-new-york-rangers","tag-nhl","tag-nhl-draft-lottery","tag-penn-state-nittany-lions","tag-predators","tag-red-wings","tag-san-jose-sharks","tag-seattle-kraken","tag-shl","tag-st-louis-blues","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-vancouver-canucks","tag-washington-capitals","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=568140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/568140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/568141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=568140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=568140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=568140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}