As per usual for this time of year, NHL Central Scouting has released their final rankings for the 2026 NHL Draft. See below for comments and notes.
Here's the list:
Here's the Full list:
Risers
Spencer Bowes - +150 (Previously Unranked)
Ben Wilmott - +94
Maksim Sokolovskii - +92
Eric Frossard - +83
JC Lemieux - +81
Parker Vaughan - +58
Alex Kostov - +44
Ryan Brown +41 (Previously Unranked)
Darian Anderson +39 (Previously Unranked)
Julian Brown -+28
Jaxon Cover - +16
Fallers
Jacob Xu -113 (Not Ranked)
Ben Reisnecker -95 (Not Ranked)
Elliot Arnett -93
Nathan Amidovski -61
Layne Gallacher -57
Rylan Singh -57
Shaan Kingwell -55 (Not Ranked)
Braidy Wassilyn -55
Matej Stankoven -53 (Not Ranked)
Ondrej Ruml -52
Callum Croskery -51
Colin Feeley -46
Colin Fitzgerald -41
Aiden O'Donnell -34
Carter Stevens -31
Alex McLean -30
Aiden Young -30
Wesley Royston -29
Beckham Edwards -23
Alessandro Di Iorio -22
Some Comments:
- I mean, I guess it's not shocking to see players on poor teams or disappointing teams among the largest fallers. NHL Central Scouting was particularly hard on the Guelph Storm, Owen Sound Attack, and Sarnia Sting players. But, it's also hard to deny the justification.
- Great to see Spencer Bowes and Maks Sokolovskii rewarded with big jumps. Hugely justified and both will be ranked aggressively by me in my final rankings.
- A little shocked to see Cali and Bilecki get limited love. Both were big second half risers for me.
- Definitely shocked to see Yevgeni Dubrovtsev left off the list. That's a big miss IMO. He's very worthy of a spot and is one of the most underrated draft prospects from this crop. He had a great second half for North Bay.
- Also surprised to see Sebastian Gatto and Parker Von Richter left off as re-entries considering how many other second and third year eligible players got love. Both had terrific developmental years.
- If we had to discuss one guy that I have much lower and one guy that I'll have much higher it would probably be Vladimir Dravecky and Rowan Henderson. Dravecky faded in the second half for me and I have a little trouble with his projection at this point, especially as a late born 2007. I was pretty surprised to see him not one of the big fallers. He's not usually the kind of defender NHL Central Scouting likes. And Henderson, the counting stats aren't there. And yeah, he's also a late born 2007. But there's just something about his game that is extremely projectable. Top notch speed. High energy. I think he'll be a guy who gets a lot better in the next few years. I don't think he's a top three round pick, but I don't think he's a draft after thought where Central Scouting has him. Could see him developing into a Jordan Martinook kind of player.
- I think it's really interesting to see that both Caleb Mitchell and Carter Hicks were left unranked by Central Scouting, but Hockey Canada saw enough from them to bring them to the U18's. I have to admit, I'm more on the side of Central Scouting here and I was pretty shocked to see both guys on the roster over some others available. Mitchell's skating ability obviously gives him a big advantage. And there's also no guarantee that both are on the final roster if other players become available.
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