The Battle of the 2026 NHL Draft Class in the NCAA This Season
The 2026 NHL draft was very stacked, and a lot of those players are migrating to the NCAA this season, so which first-rounders are in college hockey this season, and which team swooped up the most of these elite players?
Video Transcript
I don't know, the guy, who's the presumptive- Yeah 2027 overall pick who had four assists in the gold medal game.
That guy, I think his name is Dupont.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, I mean, I, I mean, he seems to be just a completely immense talent and, I mean, right now it looks to be the no doubt number one overall pick next year.
So, I mean, he obviously stood out.
Yeah.
And a c- great sign of things to come for the World Juniors too, 'cause I imagine Dupont's- Mm-hmm gonna be on that team.
And, you know, for Canada, which is, you know, definitely looking to rebound after some disastrous World Junior showings, you know, it is a great sign.
I'm gonna go with, a couple of Regina Pats, Liam Pugh and Maddox Schultz.
All this talk about players leaving major junior, going to the NCAA, hey, there's a reason to watch the Dub this season, and it's those two guys- who play together in Regina and, you know, showed a ton of offense.
So, I don't know if Maddox Schultz is good enough to be on that World Junior team because it looks like there's gonna be a lot of stacked forwards on the World Juniors, and he is, what, two years, you know, two years younger than everyone.
So- but just a, a definite, you know, like I said earlier, a sign of good things to come.
Maybe this is gonna show you, Mike, that, you know, this is gonna be Canada's season when it comes to international competition.
Yeah, yeah.
You know what I mean?
And, you know, I, I guess that nobody wants to mention that the US handed it to Canada at the Summer Showcase.
Yeah.
But, you know, it, you know, it's just competing memory there.
No one watched that.
Worth note, worth noting though that Team USA won the Hlinka last year, which was pretty shocking because they do not bring NTDP kids for the most part.
It's, it's usually, you know, kids from major junior, USHL, things like that.
So it's kids that aren't familiar with each other.
So that was a nice feather in their cap last time, but, absolutely demolished this time by a Canadian team that definitely had revenge on its mind.
And, yeah, it will be interesting to see what Maddox Schultz and Liam Pugh can do in the Dub this year, as they're both up for the 2028 draft.
One other name I'll mention, out of Slovakia, Tom Selish, had a great tournament.
A lot of goals, good size there, and, you know, we were kind of joking on online, his name really looks like Tom Selleck.
For, for all of us, who remember Magnum, P.I.
And, uh- I was gonna say, his nickname's gotta be Magnum.
His nickname's gotta be Magnum, P.I or Magnum, or Quigley Down Under, although I don't know if anybody ever saw that.
Uh- That was a good movie.
Was it?
I have no idea.
That, that was, strikes me as a VHS classic.
But we'll, we'll see if it stands up.
But Selish one to watch as well.
He had a great tournament for Slovakia.
