Good news, everybody! We now know more about the 2026 NHL Draft than we did a couple days ago.

First off, the 2026 edition of the NHL Draft will once again be a decentralized draft, with various league officials and prospects taking care of business in scenic Buffalo, New York while the various teams conduct business remotely from their respective home cities. While there were rumours that perhaps the league would change format from prior years in terms of what rounds are done on what days, the release announcing Buffalo as host indicated that it’ll be first round only on the first night (as usual), and rounds two through seven on the second day.

The NHL’s Central Scouting Service also released their mid-term rankings for the 2026 draft, split into their four usual categories: North American skaters, North American goaltenders, International skaters and International goaltenders.

Here’s a rundown of the top players by category, with some notes comparing Central Scouting’s assessment to Daily Faceoff’s Steven Ellis’s December rankings.

Ellis’ top five North American skaters were McKenna (ranked 1st overall), Verhoeff (2nd), Boston University freshman centre Tynan Lawrence (4th), Windsor Spitfires winger Ethan Belchetz (5th) and Reid (6th).

Central Scouting had Lawrence ranked 7th among North American skaters. Ellis had Carels at 7th overall on his rankings (6th among NA skaters) and Malhotra at 10th overall (8th among NA skaters).

Knowling was the only goaltender in Ellis’ top 50. (He was 50th).

Ellis’ top five International skaters were Stenberg (ranked 3rd overall), Smits (8th), Hermansson (13th), Suvanto (16th) and HV71 defender Malte Gustafsson (18th).

Ellis had Bjork at 24th overall, his 9th-ranked International skater. (Ranked higher than Bjork on Ellis list were Swedish winger Marcus Nordmark, Finnish defender Juho Piirpanen and Slovakian centre Tomas Chrenko.)

Borichev didn’t crack Ellis’ top 50.

The top six on McKenna’s list: McKenna, Verheoff, Stenberg, Lawrence, Belchetz and Reid.

The Flames have eight selections in the upcoming draft: two first-rounders (their own and Vegas’ from the Noah Hanifin trade), one second-rounder (their own), two third-rounders (their own and Vancouver’s from the Nikita Zadorov trade) and their own fourth, fifth and sixth-rounders. Given all the trade chatter regarding several members of the Flames roster, it seems pretty possible that they could end up with even more picks.

Stay tuned to FlamesNation and Daily Faceoff as we’ll have continuous preview coverage of the 2026 NHL Draft at the end of June.

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