NHL
James Hagens, Porter Martone and Sam Dickinson are among the NHL's top prospects. Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Erica Denhoff, Joseph Weiser, Ezra Shaw / Getty Images
Welcome to the 2026 edition of my ranking of the NHL’s 32 prospect pools.
This 31-day project includes evaluations of roughly 500 prospects (each club’s top 15 plus worthy honorable mentions). It will conclude with my annual top 100 drafted skaters and top 20 drafted goalie rankings. This page will update daily from March 9 to April 8 as we count down from prospect pool No. 32 to prospect pool No. 1.
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Each ranking will include reports on every ranked prospect, projections, timelines and team-specific tiers, as well as video and insight from sources where relevant. The evaluations and rankings are the byproduct of countless viewings (both on tape and in person) spanning years.
I’ve placed emphasis on upside more than proximity to the NHL. A player with top-half-of-the-lineup potential may rank higher than a player with NHL experience who projects lower, even sometimes in cases where the former is less likely to reach his ceiling than the latter. Teams that have consistently prioritized upside instead of playing it safe tend to grade higher overall. I believe that over time, teams that draft and develop for ceiling instead of floor will distinguish themselves in a hard-cap league built on parity. The league’s most precious resource is homegrown talent capable of making more than a marginal impact while cost-controlled, particularly when depth pieces are so readily available through trades and free agency. My rankings reflect that.
For more insight into my experience, my process, the things I look for and my potential biases and limitations, check out my guide to scouting.
Skaters: To be considered a prospect, a skater must be under 23 and not fully established with his NHL club. The latter qualifier is arbitrary. There, I trust my judgment for whether a player should be considered fully graduated more than any predetermined games-played cutoff. Preference for inclusion as an NHL prospect is more likely to be given to teenagers than 21- or 22-year-olds.
Goalies: To be considered a prospect, a goalie must be under 25 and not fully established as an NHL goalie. This age criteria is more reflective of the typical goalie trajectory, allowing for the continued consideration of a small number of 23- and 24-year-old goalies.
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Scott Wheeler covers the NHL draft and prospects nationally for The Athletic. Scott has written for the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, The Toronto Sun, the National Post, and several other outlets in the past. He's also the author of ‘On The Clock: Behind the Scenes with the Toronto Maple Leafs at the NHL Draft’. Follow Scott on Twitter @scottcwheeler
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