It is officially time to start looking ahead to the 2026 NHL Draft, with the minors and juniors jumping into full swing in the 2025-26 hockey season this fall in the past few weeks. College hockey is also well underway in the NCAA this fall, since early October earlier this month.
The Los Angeles Kings pick just outside the lottery and miss out on the Gavin McKenna sweepstakes in the first 2026 NHL Mock Draft for this year
We're starting to look ahead at who some of the top early prospects are for the 2026 draft in our first NHL Mock Draft of the 2025-26 regular season in the league. It's still too early to know exactly how the draft board will shape up for the 2026 entry draft this early on. But we do know some of the top prospects in this draft class at the top of the board at certain positions, including Penn State's Gavin McKenna and North Dakota's Keaton Verhoeff.
This past summer, the Los Angeles Kings picked defenseman Henry Brzustewicz with the 31st overall pick in the first round of the 2025 entry draft.
We used the FanDuel sportsbook odds to determine the draft order for the first round of this 2026 mock draft for the NHL.
Here's a look at the first edition of our 2026 NHL Mock Draft as we're a few weeks into the 2025-26 regular season this fall.
McKenna is the early face of this draft class in the new prospect big board for the 2026 entry draft this upcoming offseason. The two Canadian phenom prospects in this draft class, McKenna and Verhoeff, are the cream of the crop for 2026 in the NHL.
In all likelihood, McKenna is going to be the first player selected in the 2026 draft at first overall, regardless of which teams picks him or how Penn State does in the NCAA this college hockey season.
McKenna scored over 125 points in the WHL last season, and he is expected to have a fantastic season with Penn State this winter.
Verhoeff is the top defensive prospect at the position on the draft board for 2026. He realistically could be considered the top overall prospect in this class. Verhoeff scored 21 goals and 45 points for the Victoria Royals in the WHL this past season.
The combination of size and skill that the 6-foot-4 and 215-pound defenseman brings to the table makes Verhoeff a rare prospect who can command the pace of play on the ice, lead the power play, and be very productive scoring the puck in college and in the NHL.
In the past couple of seasons, center Tynan Lawrence has lit up the score sheet with the Muskegon Lumberjacks in the USHL. He's already got multiple points in two games early this season for Muskegon in the USHL. Since the start of last season, he scored 54 points and 25 goals in 56 games.
This past year, Lawrence was one of the best performers for Canada in the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He showed off his skill and physicality in the offensive zone and his versatility covering down low in the defensive end of the ice as a young player in the Gretzky Cup.
Lawrence is committed to Boston University in the NCAA.