2026 NHL Draft tracker: first-round picks, trades and winners at Buffalo
Toronto used the No. 1 pick on Gavin McKenna, while Vegas’ first-rounders were rerouted to Montreal, Anaheim and Nashville in a trade-heavy opening night.
The first round in Buffalo was defined less by pure draft order than by how aggressively teams moved around it. Toronto opened the 2026 NHL Draft by taking Gavin McKenna first overall at KeyBank Center, but the opening 32 picks were already being reshaped by a string of pre-draft deals that pushed Vegas’ original first-round slots to Montreal, Anaheim and Nashville.
McKenna arrived as the class headliner after posting 15 goals and 36 assists for 51 points in 35 games at Penn State in 2025-26. He added 33 points in 19 games after returning from the world junior championships, a run that kept him at the top of boards built around upside, pace and skill. On draft night, Justin Bieber announced the Maple Leafs’ pick, and NHL.com’s live tracker noted that McKenna was selected by Bieber on behalf of Toronto. McKenna also paid tribute to his Yukon roots, giving the opening pick a distinctly Canadian backstory even as the draft’s center of gravity shifted across leagues and continents.
The deeper pattern was clear in the way teams valued range over uniformity. Pro Hockey Rumors described the class as divisive, with more upside on defense and wing than at center or goaltender, and the first round reflected that imbalance. San Jose, which won the second lottery draw, used its first-round picks on Ivar Stenberg and Keaton Verhoeff, continuing to load up on a young core that now stretches across skill positions and age groups. The live boards from ESPN and NHL.com showed a draft spread that included players from NCAA, CHL, SHL and other European leagues, underscoring how NHL clubs continue to widen their scouting footprint when the top of the class offers speed and variance more than certainty.
The trade market mattered just as much as the prospects. Montreal acquired No. 26 from Vegas for No. 28 and a 2027 third-round pick, while Anaheim moved up to No. 28 from Vegas by sending No. 29 and No. 117 the other way. Nashville jumped to No. 31 from Carolina for second-round picks Nos. 42 and 57, and San Jose landed No. 21 from Philadelphia for No. 27, No. 62 and No. 120. With 224 picks spread across all 32 teams and rounds 2 through 7 set for June 27, the draft board in Buffalo kept favoring clubs willing to treat first-round slots as trade currency rather than fixed assets.
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