It’s a good time to hit the reset button now that we’ve got a few weeks off from NHL games. And one of the subjects we’ll undoubtedly talk about a lot this month is the 2026 NHL Draft.
I dropped an updated, full two-round 2026 NHL Mock Draft on Saturday morning.
In that look ahead to the 2026 NHL Draft, I left the tenth overall pick in the possession of the Chicago Blackhawks. Why did I not give it back to the Florida Panthers (since it has top-ten protection)? Because the Panthers would a) need to finish in the top ten, and/or b) have the draft lottery influence their pick being inside (or outside) the top ten.
As you can see from the table below, the likelihood that a team from No. 11 down moves up into the top ten is incredibly small — even if the New York Islanders pulled off the stunning win in the draft lottery last year.
Here are the current odds of the eligible teams selecting at each slot in the top half of the 2026 NHL Draft.
