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2026 NHL Draft

Prospect Notes: Behrens, Wassilyn, Bourque

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The Colorado Avalanche have received a bit of good news in the quietest days of summer. Defense prospect Sean Behrens shared that he’s been fully cleared to participate in the team’s rookie tournament with Meghan Angley of Guerilla Sports. Behrens missed all but two games of last season after sustaining a knee injury in an October practice scrimmage. The first-year pro only suited up for the very first, and very final, game of the Colorado Eagles’ season.

Hopes were high for Behrens prior to his season-ending injury. He seemed well set for a strong push into pros after finishing a three-year stay at the University of Denver with 31 points in 44 games, and a National Championship win, in the 2023-24 season. Behrens was a core part of the title-winning Pioneers, where he often found himself playing alongside or directly behind top prospect Zeev Buium. He showed off all of the sharp stickhandling and quick skating needed to keep the Pioneers offense running with Buium off the ice, and earned the NCHC’s ’Defenseman Of The Year’ award as a result. Behrens now faces an uphill battle adjusting his slight, 5-foot-10 frame to the pro level. He’s made strong impacts in both junior and college hockey, and could earn a top role with the Eagles with a quick return.. He’ll be a name for fans to watch – though likely one that the Avalanche take their time with – as he looks forward to a healthy season.

Other notes from around the prospect world:

  • Top 2026 NHL Draft prospect Braidy Wassilyn will indeed return to the OHL’s Niagara Ice Dogs next season, then attend Boston University in the 2026-27 season, shares Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. Kennedy mentions that Wassilyn’s return to juniors wasn’t previously guaranteed. This news puts the cherry on top of a productive summer for Niagara. Wassilyn scored 39 points in 62 games of his rookie OHL season last year. He rivaled the team’s top-six by the end of the season, profiling as a sharp and mobile playmaker with a heavy, 200-pound frame. He’ll return to great company in Niagara – set to play alongside fellow top 2026 draft prospect Ryan Roobroeck, Winnipeg Jets prospect Kevin He, and Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Ethan Czata.
  • Dallas Stars forward Mavrik Bourque will now be represented by agent Olivier Fortier, Vice President of Wasserman Hockey, per PuckPedia. Borque just wrapped up his rookie season in the NHL with 11 goals and 25 points in 73 games. It was a relatively calm performance, after Bourque won the AHL’s MVP award with 77 points in 71 games of the 2023-24 season. He did maintain a positive plus-minus and consistent lineup role through his first NHL season, even playing second-line minutes through certain points in the year. He’ll face the task of now cementing a spot up the lineup, and discovering his scoring prowess, ahead of restricted-free agency next summer.

Morning Notes: Ekblad, Verhoeff, Wood

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Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad wasn’t particularly personally involved in the last-minute contract talks that led to him signing an eight-year, $48.8MM contract extension instead of testing free agency this summer, he told RG’s DJ Siddiqi.

Ekblad spoke on how his situation intertwined with other potential Florida UFAs, Sam Bennett and Brad Marchand, both of whom also signed long-term deals to stay with the back-to-back champions. “Obviously we had conversations about what could or may happen, but at the end of the day, I think a lot of us just left it up to our agents to figure it out. We give them instructions, and they kind of handle the gist of it at least. That’s how I felt, personally. I didn’t want to get too involved with the negotiation.”

That’s a formula that’s worked well for the Panthers in the last two seasons, only jotting down defensemen Oliver Ekman-Larsson and Brandon Montour as their only notable free agent departures in 2024. Along with being able to keep Sam Reinhart and Carter Verhaeghe off the open market in that time, general manager Bill Zito may be in for some short-term pain in terms of cap management, but has certainly sold his group on long-term stability.

When Bennett, Ekblad, and Marchand signed their deals, they gave Florida 10 players locked in through the remainder of the decade. That number is proportional to their talent, including their top seven forwards and top three defensemen. That’s some invaluable cost certainty that, despite being rather limited in external additions this offseason, will open up more space for the Cats to be aggressive over the summer as soon as next year.

Here’s more from around the league:

  • While he still enters the season as the consensus No. 2 option in the 2026 draft class, defenseman Keaton Verhoeff still has some work to do to maintain that title, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opines. “I did want to see Keaton Verhoeff dominate more than he did,” Wheeler wrote, referencing this month’s Hlinka Gretzky tournament for the under-18 age group. “At the present moment, I don’t view Verhoeff as a [Matthew Schaefer]-level D prospect. Now, it’s early, and if Verhoeff has a huge year playing big minutes at North Dakota and takes some steps in his development as a 6-foot-4 summer birthday, maybe that changes… I’ve also felt, dating back to U17s last fall, that Verhoeff’s feet are just average whereas Schaefer’s are world class. Verhoeff is bigger and shoots it harder, but that skating gap is pronounced and gives Schaefer the higher ceiling.“
  • Veteran defenseman Kyle Wood is on his way to Germany on a one-year deal with the DEL’s Iserlohn Roosters, the team announced. The 6’7″ righty was a third-round pick by the Avalanche back in 2014 but was sent to the Coyotes as part of a package for winger Mikkel Bødker at the 2016 trade deadline. He was an AHL All-Rookie Team member with Arizona’s affiliate in Tucson, recording 43 points in 68 games in his first professional season, but never sniffed that level of offensive production again and never reached the NHL. He’s been overseas since 2020, spending the last three years with Kunlun Red Star (now the Shanghai Dragons) in the KHL. He previously had 21 points in 32 DEL2 games for Löwen Frankfurt in the 2020-21 season, so this isn’t his first rodeo in German hockey.

Snapshots: Valentini, Thornton, Nikishin, Wilsby

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Initially announced by the OHL’s Kitchener Rangers and later confirmed by the University of Michigan, a top prospect for the 2026 NHL Draft will play for a different team next season. Adam Valentini will be joining the Wolverines next season rather than the Rangers.

The Toronto native is projected to be a late first-round pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, but his prospect ranking could rise following his performance with Team Canada at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup. He finished the tournament with four goals and nine points in five games, after scoring 17 goals and 39 points in 58 games with the USHL’s Chicago Steel.

Moving from the OHL to the NCAA will be a significant risk for Valentini. If he performs well against much older competition, he could find his way into being a late lottery selection. Still, if the transition goes poorly, Valentini could fall out of the first round altogether. Furthermore, with the Wolverines having one of the youngest rosters in the Big Ten Conference next season, there’s no guarantee the team around him can lift him if he falters.

Other snapshots:

  • According to a post on his LinkedIn, and shared by Ty Anderson of 98.5 The Sports Hub, former NHL enforcer Shawn Thornton is moving on from his position with the Florida Panthers. Despite not sharing the next role of his career, Thornton had been working as the Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations for the Panthers for the last four years. Without speculating too much on his next chapter, it’s realistic to think that Thornton has found another role in hockey operations elsewhere.
  • In a new interview with Daria Tuboltseva of RG Media, Carolina Hurricanes Alexander Nikishin spoke at length about his preparation for what’s expected to be the first full season in the NHL this upcoming year. Up to this point, Nikishin only has four postseason games under his belt from the 2024-25 Stanley Cup playoffs, but he did play the entire regular season with the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg. In the interview, he spoke about how seriously he’s taking his preparation for the upcoming campaign, saying, “I want to train properly. My first NHL experience was a lesson – I realized what I need to work on. Now it will be easier because I already know the guys, the staff, the locker room, how practices go. I can’t wait for the season, but preparation is the key. I want to be as useful for the team as possible, without being the weak link.“
  • A few weeks ago, reports emerged that Nashville Predators defenseman Spencer Stastney considered retiring last summer. Similarly, a new interview between Rasmus Kågstrom of Hockeysverige and defenseman Adam Wilsby indicates that the latter was considering a return to his native Sweden rather than continue his pursuit of an NHL role. As things turned out, Wilsby spent most of his time playing for the Predators last season and has a decent chance to make the team out of training camp this September. In the interview, Wilsby was quoted as saying, “Of course, I started thinking about where I would take the next step. At the same time, I felt like I wasn’t quite done with the US yet. I felt like it would either work out, or I would probably end up going to Europe. It’s great that it paid off.“

Morning Notes: Red Wings, Stenberg, Funck

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The biggest training camp storyline for the Red Wings will be who begins the season as their top line left wing next to Dylan Larkin and Lucas Raymond. They’ve had a revolving door there for the first four years of the latter’s career, and it doesn’t look like that will be changing anytime soon.

To that end, Max Bultman of The Athletic explored that topic today. Their most frequent linemate last season was youngster Marco Kasper, but with his development more apt in filling a much-needed second-line center role for the Wings, that’s where Bultman anticipates him staying to open the season.

If not Kasper, it’s a rather uninspiring list for a unit expected to be Detroit’s most productive. The leading contender might be a swap of who Kasper replaced down the middle late last year. Veteran Andrew Copp has played exclusively down the middle since signing with the Wings three years ago, but could slot in on Larkin’s wing to “bring some of the same heaviness and defensive elements Kasper did to that line,” Bultman writes.

Copp is arguably the leading contender because of Detroit’s relatively quiet offseason, leaving them with uninspiring top-line options in the likely scenario they keep wingers Alex DeBrincat and Patrick Kane as their second-line anchors. Other names in the mix, Bultman writes, will be free agent pickup James van Riemsdyk and the towering young Elmer Söderblom. The former was more productive last season with 36 points in 71 games for the Blue Jackets, but only averaged 12:24 per night.

Here’s more from around the hockey world today:

  • It’ll take a miracle to unseat phenom Gavin McKenna from first overall on anyone’s draft board by the time next June rolls around, but the No. 2 slot is still up for grabs. While the consensus preseason opinion there is big-bodied defender Keaton Verheoff, Scott Wheeler of The Athletic opines that his average skating gives the edge to Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg, whom he opines is a slam-dunk first-line winger. His production in under-20 play with Frölunda last season jumps off the page – 53 points in 27 games – and he just won a bronze medal at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup while contributing a tournament-leading four goals and 10 points in five games. He’s primed for a full-time role in the pros in the SHL this season, but his early birthday for the class (Sep. 30) means he’s further along in his development than most of his peers.
  • After being drafted out of his native Sweden, Avalanche defense prospect Linus Funck is making the jump to North America. The 2025 fourth-rounder will suit up for the OHL’s London Knights this season, the team announced. The 6’3″, 186-lb righty had a 5-23–28 scoring line in 48 games for Luleå’s U-20 squad last season but was not part of Sweden’s contingent for this month’s Hlinka Grezky tournament.

Snapshots: Lawrence, Wassilyn, Schneider

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2026 projected top-10 pick Tynan Lawrence was a high pick in the QMJHL Entry Draft one year ago by the Chicoutimi Saguenéens, leading to speculation he may jump there for his draft year. That doesn’t appear to be the case, per Jonathan Hudon of Le Quotidien, who relays Lawrence is expected to remain with the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks for 2025-26 instead.

Lawrence, a late birthday for the class who turns 17 next weekend, is a 6’0″ center currently pegged to go in the No. 6-No. 10 overall range in preseason rankings. The New Brunswick native has played in the United States since 2022, when he opted to head to renowned prep school Shattuck St. Mary’s to continue his development. He joined Muskegon last season, posting 54 points in 56 regular-season games before guiding the Lumberjacks to a Clark Cup championship, posting 18 points in 14 playoff games to be named MVP as a 16-year-old rookie in the high-end junior league.

He would have been a big get for Chicoutimi and joined what looks like a stronger-than-normal class out of the QMJHL next season, but he’ll instead stay south of the border with a commitment to Boston University for the 2027-28 campaign still on the books (although that will presumably get moved up to the 2026-27 campaign).

Elsewhere from around the hockey world:

  • Sticking with next year’s draft, projected first-rounder Braidy Wassilyn is also a Boston University commit. There was some speculation he might join them as a 17-year-old freshman for the upcoming season but that won’t happen, according to Cam Robinson of Elite Prospects. The 5’11” forward will instead remain with the OHL’s Niagara IceDogs, where he had an 8-31–39 scoring line in 62 games last season.
  • Heading overseas, former NHLer Cole Schneider has signed with Italy’s HC Bolzano in the ICEHL, the club announced. The 34-year-old American headed to Europe last summer after a lengthy AHL career, winning the Norwegian league scoring title with 64 points in 45 games for Storhamar. Schneider, who had one assist in six career games for the Sabres, also has 574 points in 776 career AHL games.

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