2026 NHL Draft: Canucks, Blues, Sharks Among Teams Who Could Trade First-Round Picks
With the 2026 NHL draft just weeks away, here are a few teams that could look to trade their first overall pick or picks.
Video Transcript
We're getting closer and closer to the NHL draft, and that means there's intrigue all around.
Obviously, everyone's gonna be focused on who goes where and which players land with which teams, but one of the more intriguing things about the draft is it's kind of the start of the f- new season in the sense of getting your team ready for th- September and October.
Now, one of the most exciting parts of the draft is all the trades that are made on the draft floor or all the trades that are at least negotiated on the draft floor.
Now, this is one of the most exciting things because it gives teams hope.
Does their team trade up?
Does their team trade back and collect a few extra picks, or do they trade a pick or two for an NHL player that can help them right away in the fall?
It's always really fun to watch and see how the action goes down, but I've i- identified five teams that could be looking to move their first round pick in an effort to improve their team, either in the future or immediately.
Starting with the Vancouver Canucks, they were the team that fell in the draft lottery.
Obviously, they were hoping for the first overall pick as, as they had the worst season in the NHL this year.
But they fell to third, and they could be looking to trade back from that third pick.
Now, it's an interesting pick because they have very much centered in on Caleb Malhotra as their guy, but with s- with a guy like Ivar Stenberg potentially there, could they have the opportunity to trade back?
Now, I don't think they'd trade back many picks, maybe two, three, four at the most, but they could look to trade back.
They also have the pick in the mid-20s from the Minnesota Wild.
That could be a really interesting trade chip if they wanna move back up into the first round and maybe get a couple picks that are a little bit closer together.
The Ottawa Senators are always a team in turmoil.
There's something going around them all the time, and this year it's the fact that they had their first round pick returned to them after getting it stripped in the Evgenii Dadonov situation.
The only thing is they're picking 32nd.
No matter who wins the Stanley Cup, Ottawa's gonna have the last pick in the round, and that means they're going to have a much less chance of h- getting a high impact player that can help them immediately.
That is, unless they trade for one.
Now, that could be a really interesting thing if somebody sees a player on the board towards the end of the first round that they really don't wanna wait till day two to grab because they don't want someone at the top of the second round to grab them.
They could go and trade up into the end of the first round and go and get that player.
That also gives Ottawa the opportunity to go and trade for an NHL piece, someone that can help them in the fall possibly.
It'll be really interesting to see how they do things at the end of the first round.
Other teams like San Jose and St. Louis have multiple picks, and they could easily be looking to maneuver around the first round, and it could be a really exciting draft day.
So check out my latest for thehockeynews.com as I look at a few teams that could be looking to trade their first round pick.
