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NHL 2026 Draft Lottery in NJ: Vancouver Leads Odds

5/5/2026

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Summary

NHL Draft Lottery

The NHL will hold the 2026 Entry Draft lottery in Secaucus, New Jersey, on Tuesday, May 5, 2026.
Vancouver has odds of 18.5% for the No. 1 pick, Chicago 13.5%, New York 11.5%.
The lottery draws the two spots and allows a team to move up ten places.
Top prospects include forward Gavin McKenna (Penn State) likened to Clayton Keller, forward Ivar Stenberg (Frolunda HC) to William Nylander, and defenseman Carson Carels (Prince George) to Zach Werenski.

Summary

Analysts Rank Prospects

Analysts use an “NHL floor” system that assigns each prospect a role from “Top four” to “Bottom six.”
The “NHL floor: 88%” metric shows roughly 88% of drafted players are expected to appear in an NHL game at least once.
Floor categories like “Depth defenseman,” “No. 5 defenseman,” “Middle pair,” “Middle six,” “Third line,” “Fourth line,” and “Non-NHL” indicate the lowest chart position or likelihood for each prospect.

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NHL Draft Lottery

The NHL will hold the 2026 Entry Draft lottery in Secaucus, New Jersey, on Tuesday, May 5, 2026.
Vancouver has odds of 18.5% for the No. 1 pick, Chicago 13.5%, New York 11.5%.
The lottery draws the two spots and allows a team to move up ten places.
Top prospects include forward Gavin McKenna (Penn State) likened to Clayton Keller, forward Ivar Stenberg (Frolunda HC) to William Nylander, and defenseman Carson Carels (Prince George) to Zach Werenski.

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