2026 NHL Draft: Best Players Available After Round 1
Will Mathis Preston, Adam Valentini, Casey Mutryn and other prospects who weren't selected in the first round of the NHL draft make everyone wonder why they weren't selected higher?
Video Transcript
The first round of the NHL draft has come to a close, and we had a ton of action throughout the day.
Gavin McKenna went to first overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
San Jose picked Ivar Stenberg second overall, and then got a haul by drafting Keaton Verhoff and Ryan Lind later in the draft.
And overall, it was a crazy day.
It was so much fun seeing so many trades being made.
There was a ton of action, both NHL players and draft picks going in trades all over the place.
There were so many players picked higher than we expected, and a number that went lower than we expected.
There were even quite a few players that arguably should have went in the first round that are falling to day two.
So who are the guys that are the best available for dr- day two?
The top two names pop off the board, Mathis Preston and Xavier Villeneuve.
Preston is an undersized forward who brings a ton of skill, plays with pace, but didn't really produce as much as we expected this year, having a bit of a down year.
He was traded in the middle of the year and got hurt once he got traded.
And his world under 18s were really good, but some people argued they weren't quite great.
With Xavier Villeneuve, he's this incredibly dynamic offensive presence on the blue line who easily could have been a top 15 pick if he didn't pr- have a bit of a hip issue that imp- impeded him all season long.
He was one of the most dynamic offensive defensemen in the draft class, and you could argue both of those players are two of the most purely skilled players in the draft.
And both of them went to day two.
It's gonna be interesting to see where they go.
We should hear their names called pretty early, but there's a number of other players that didn't go either.
Casey Mutron, Simas Ignavicius, and a number of others that were all gonna be really valuable picks on day two.
So check out the, my latest on thehockeynews.com as we look at the best players available for day two of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft.
