Rangers Hold Fifth Overall Pick, Dropping Two Spots In Lottery
The New York Rangers will hold the fifth overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, dropping two spots where they were originally slotted.
Video Transcript
Mike, what do you think of this opportunity for a player like McKenna who is draft eligible to play with, you know, actual NHL talent alongside of him?
Do you think it's gonna do much to really raise his stock or, or lower his stock?
I mean, at, at this point it feels pretty, pretty much set, but what kind of an opportunity do you think this will be for him?
Well, I mean, there's still some question whether I mean, most people in North America think he's the number one overall pick, although there's been some talk of Stenberg maybe over- overtaking him.
And it sort of reminds me what happened in 2016 because, you know, you had Auston Matthews and you had Patrick Laine.
They both went to the world championships, under, you know, before being drafted, and there was some doubt about Matthews.
You know, the Arizona kid is, how, how really good is he?
And he put on a show at the world championships, and I think was better than Laine A.
And I don't think there was any doubt that Toronto was gonna take him, but I think that was the final, the final check mark to say, "Okay, let's go with that guy."
So I think McKenna, if he has a good showing and he's gonna be playing with a lot of good players, you know, that's only gonna help his stock, and that's also gonna help some of the other players.
Like, you know, Morgan Rielly had a bad year in Toronto.
If he goes and plays in the world championships and plays well with the, with team with players other than his teammates, it's gonna show him or some other teams in the league that he's not as bad as a lot of Leaf fans have been saying about him.
