One way people love to process the NHL draft is through comparisons. What NHL players can we look to in order to contextualize a prospect’s abilities?
It’s a useful exercise, but it can do more harm than good if not curated carefully. Players are idiosyncratic in real life, while comparisons are often reductive. Every smart center gets compared to Jonathan Toews or Patrice Bergeron. Every tall defenseman who can skate is framed as Miro Heiskanen.
There’s also the problem of setting expectations. Watch back drafts from the past and you’ll see casual comparisons of fifth-overall picks to Hall of Famers. It rarely works out that way.
This attempt to compare the 2026 draft class to current and former NHLers is not perfect, but it is the culmination of watching games, looking at data and speaking with scouts to move beyond the cliches and low-hanging fruit.
Most importantly, it’s an attempt to hypothesize what an optimistic yet reasonable upside might look like for these players. Inevitably, some will surpass the comparisons, some will underwhelm, and some may not even make the NHL.
The lack of clarity is what makes the NHL draft so much fun, but this is at least a good-faith effort to set fair expectations while still allowing fanbases to dream of a better future.
So, without further ado, let’s compare the top prospects to NHL players of the past and present.
