2026 NHL Draft: Orth’s Top 32 February Rankings
With the 2026 World Junior Championship in the rear view mirror and the 2026 Winter Olympics in full swing, eyes are starting to turn to the 2026 NHL Entry Draft….
Prospects are one of the most important parts of an NHL franchise and over the last few years, there’s been a rise in the focus that hockey fans put on keeping track of them.
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Whether they are already drafted or are looking to be drafted in the coming seasons, THW’s writers work tirelessly to make sure that we have everything you need.
Every year, our prospect experts analyze the state of the NHL prospect pool and how every NHL team’s farm system stacks up against the rest. Here’s just some of their work:
Prospects graduate, they get traded, they perform better or worse than expected, and sometimes they simply don’t make the cut. In recent years, it seems like the talent pool is getting deeper and better as the years go on. With a wealth of skilled prospects in the league, we take a look at the top-100 in the league.
On most teams, they have a clear-cut, number one prospect in the organization. Others have two or more that could easily take the title, but for the most part, there’s an obvious choice. In this list, we’ll take a look at just who those to prospects are.
A team’s farm system is a very fluid thing. Prospects graduate to become full-time NHL players, general managers make trades involving some of these young players, and sometimes players just don’t work out. Knowing exactly what you have, where they are in their development and what they need to accomplish next is a major responsibility of every front office.
Goaltenders have been, and will likely always be, the toughest position to evaluate in hockey. How many high draft picks haven’t panned out? How many late-round selections did? Usually, the highest-drafted goaltender doesn’t always end up being the best one down the road. Each team has its own opinion on what makes a goaltender great around the draft and how they’ll develop down the road.
With the NHL’s regular season just around the corner, we round out our offseason prospect coverage with a ranking of the best NHL prospects from each country. We only include players who have been drafted by NHL teams and who we believe have a realistic chance at becoming meaningful contributors in the NHL someday.
With the 2026 World Junior Championship in the rear view mirror and the 2026 Winter Olympics in full swing, eyes are starting to turn to the 2026 NHL Entry Draft….
The Boston Bruins were not expected to make the playoffs this season, but here they are sitting in the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. There are plenty of…
The Pittsburgh Penguins were supposed to be in a state of transition this season, but they have exceeded expectations and sit in second place in the Metropolitan Division. With 26…
The Boston Bruins are one of the most represented teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. While many of the team’s active NHL roster players are in action for…
On March 7, 2025, the Toronto Maple Leafs traded top prospect Fraser Minten and a 2026 top-five protected first-round pick to the Boston Bruins. Right-shot defenseman Brandon Carlo was sent…
Recently, the Philadelphia Flyers have caught some flak for their drafting. Since 2023, four first-rounders have been used to net Oliver Bonk, Jett Luchanko, and Jack Nesbitt (trade-up involving picks…
With Elias Pettersson, Filip Hronek, David Kampf, Teddy Blueger, Kevin Lankinen, Lukas Reichel, and Anrī Ravinskis competing for their countries at the Winter Olympics, and the rest of the Vancouver…
The New York Rangers have struggled to develop their top forward prospects since announcing that they were beginning to rebuild during the 2018-19 season. Those struggles have led them to…
The Montreal Canadiens are only one to two more years away from transitioning from a rebuild to legitimate contenders. By that point, players like Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield should still be firmly in their…
Although there will be no Ottawa Senators hockey for over two weeks, that doesn’t mean there won’t be any Senators to watch. Apart from the six players competing at the…
Right before the roster freeze went into effect, the New York Rangers made headlines by trading star forward Artemi Panarin to the Los Angeles Kings. Fans immediately questioned the return,…