NHL mock draft 2026: Experts' picks with the real thing looming

It’s finally here: The 2026 NHL Draft, with some big names from college and around the world learning this weekend where they’ll land in the first round (on Friday night) and in Rounds 2 through 7 (on Saturday).

This means the end of mock draft season, in which most folks think Gavin McKenna is going No. 1 overall. And for that, we have the exercise below: As usual, we took all the NHL mock drafts and smushed them into a “consensus” draft, which paints a picture on where the experts think the stars of tomorrow will land.

Here’s a list of the mock drafts we used:

: LW Gavin McKenna, Penn State

Average: 1.0

LW/RW Ivar Stenberg, Frolunda

Average: 2.0

C Caleb Malhotra, Brantford

Average: 3.6

D Chase Reid, Sault Ste. Marie

Average: 4.4

D Carson Carels, Prince George

Average: 5.4

F Viggo Bjorck, Djugardens IF

Average: 6.4

Average: 7.0

D Keaton Verhoeff, North Dakota

Average: 7.8

Average: 8.2

Average: 10.2

D Malte Gustafsson, HV71

Average: 11.6

C Tynan Lawrence, Boston University

Average: 12.0

Average: 12.8

D Ryan Lin, Vancouver

Average: 14.0

Average: 16.8

Average: 17.4

Average: 18.4

Average: 18.6

Average: 20.4

Average: 21.4

Average: 21.4

C Maddox Dagenais, Quebec

Average: 21.8

W Elton Hermansson, MoDo

Average: 24.0

Average: 24.2

D Maksim Sokolovski, London

Average: 25.6

Average: 25.6

Average: 26.6

C Jack Hextall, Youngstown

Average: 28.8

Average: 29.0

Average: 29.4

D William Hakansson, Lulea

Average: 30.0

Average: 31.0

This article originally appeared on For The Win: NHL mock draft 2026: Experts’ picks with the real thing looming