Of course, this will be far from an accurate prediction since we don’t even know where exactly Winnipeg will get their chance yet….as well as the fact that even the experts are having a difficult time deciding on the rankings for the next crop of prospects. So what chance does a random fan like me have? Well, that won’t stop me for moving on with my plan regardless….because I am not concerned about accuracy, rather focusing on the possibilities. Lets get started by first looking at the odds for the upcoming Lottery, which has been scheduled for May 5th (courtesy of Tankathon):
As the chart shows, it is only possible for the Winnipeg Jets to finish with the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 7th, 8th, or 9th selection in the 2026 Entry Draft, which is scheduled to take place in Buffalo on June 26th & 27th.
To further help us determine which prospects may be available for our club at each of those possibilities, I have grabbed the rankings from 5 of the multitude of prospect rankings out there. I opted to go with 3 of them from scouting sites, Dobber Prospects, Draft Prospects Hockey, & Smaht Prospects. The final two include one from the hockey site Daily Face Off and the final one is a consolidation of all the rankings available from Elite Prospects.
The following charts will show just how imperfect scouting is, as there isn’t one position in the top 15 that all the scouts agree on. Even when it came to the very top of the draft, the scouts couldn’t completely agree on the first 3 picks with there always being one of the 5 rankings offering an alternate choice. While Gavin McKenna (1st), Ivar Stenberg (2nd), Keaton Verhoeff (3rd) did get 80% of the votes, there still seems to be some wriggle room depending on how the individual teams’ scouting departments see things. The level of certainty drops even more from there on and by the time the 11th selection roles around, the 5 rankings below all are suggesting a different prospect has the most potential.
I’ll let you scan all the 5 varying opinions below for a bit before we’ll start looking at the individual players more intently to see what they might offer as a future NHLer and potential Winnipeg Jet.
Consolidated Rankings
Daily Face Off Rankings
Dobber Prospects Rankings
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Läs mer https://www.arcticicehockey.com/2026-nhl-entry-draft-top-prospects/