Prospect Info: 2026 Draft

[BMacs Burner]

Taking Suvanto/Morozov and Sokolovskii at 16 and 18 would be the lowest upside picks they could make.

Hopefully he's talking more about Lawrence/Command and Gustaffson or even trading up into the Bjorck/Verhoeff/Rudolph range.

Regardless I'd personally take Hermansson over every wing in the system not named Leonard.

 

[DWGie26]

If they move from 18 to say 26 do the odds of getting that difference maker go down that much? Especially in this draft, where IMO there are much fewer boom/bust prospects from like 14-45 than there typically are.

You could probably still pick up Bleyl or Villeneuve and have an extra 2nd/3rd to work with

This isn’t a bad move to trade down, but we need some more immediate impact. I don’t think trading into the top 10 is an answer either because 7+ probably isn’t playing in the NHL for 1-3 years. The big, skilled RD’s which i think would be intriguing to the Caps will be gone and still not play for 1 or 2 years in the NHL.

 

[kicksavedave]

Taking Suvanto/Morozov and Sokolovskii at 16 and 18 would be the lowest upside picks they could make.

Hopefully he's talking more about Lawrence/Command and Gustaffson or even trading up into the Bjorck/Verhoeff/Rudolph range.

Regardless I'd personally take Hermansson over every wing in the system not named Leonard.

I love Ross Mahoney, and he's done a great job for the Caps for a long time, but these latest quotes just seem like an HF poster stating the very obvious. "We'd like to go BPA, but we hope there's a center because we have a lot of wingers and hey, if we go defense, we'd prefer a big one because we have a good little one". This isn't news, its being polite to the interviewer. Of course I don't expect Mahoney to give away our draft board, but there's very little here to actually chew on. Which is the whole point I guess.

 

[trick9]

He did give away who we are picking. Best player available.

 

[kicksavedave]

He did give away who we are picking. Best player available.

Which is?

 

[Kazer]

I love Ross Mahoney, and he's done a great job for the Caps for a long time, but these latest quotes just seem like an HF poster stating the very obvious. "We'd like to go BPA, but we hope there's a center because we have a lot of wingers and hey, if we go defense, we'd prefer a big one because we have a good little one". This isn't news, its being polite to the interviewer. Of course I don't expect Mahoney to give away our draft board, but there's very little here to actually chew on. Which is the whole point I guess.

Thankfully, I'm inclined to believe it's the latter. You can basically say the same thing about last year going into the draft (top prospects going into draft 2025, minus Hutson and Protas, were all wingers), and they still took a winger with their top pick.

 

[trick9]

Which is?

History tells you the pick 16 is either the next Tom Wilson or Jakob Chychrun and the pick 18 is either Thomas Harley or Alex Tuch.

 

[CapitalsCupReality]

They'll use both.

I'll predict their big move to be signing Tuch.

This is how I’m leaning. If we’re lucky they move one for an acquisition. Two would signal a big pickup and I don’t see it in the cards right now.

Surprise us all BMac and GMCP.

 

[DWGie26]

This is how I’m leaning. If we’re lucky they move one for an acquisition. Two would signal a big pickup and I don’t see it in the cards right now.

Surprise us all BMac and GMCP.

Yeah, picks and prospects. Still save us a first rounder. Fine swinging big with a bunch of picks but i don’t think we’ll do that. We’ll keep some draft capital given we have no second or third.

 

[Threetrees]

Taking Suvanto/Morozov and Sokolovskii at 16 and 18 would be the lowest upside picks they could make.

Hopefully he's talking more about Lawrence/Command and Gustaffson or even trading up into the Bjorck/Verhoeff/Rudolph range.

Regardless I'd personally take Hermansson over every wing in the system not named Leonard.

There is no difference between Suvanto/Morozov and Lawrence/Command. They are all low ceiling bottom 6 centers.

And I am taking Lakovic over Hermansson 100%

Also, Sokolovskii has some of the highest upside on the draft. That’s the whole point of his rise.

 

[wickedwitch]

There is no difference between Suvanto/Morozov and Lawrence/Command. They are all low ceiling bottom 6 centers.

I watched Lawrence a lot last season and pretty strongly disagree.

 

[Threetrees]

I watched Lawrence a lot last season and pretty strongly disagree.

I watched him too. He doesn’t see the ice. Not a good playmaker. Can’t be a top 6 center in the NHL with a lack of playmaking.

 

[Cush]

McKenna edges Stenberg to finish atop TSN’s final draft ranking

Gavin McKenna is the winner - albeit by the slimmest of margins - in the race for No. 1 in TSN’s 2026 Final NHL Draft Ranking.

www.tsn.ca

 

[Holtbyisms]

I watched him too. He doesn’t see the ice. Not a good playmaker. Can’t be a top 6 center in the NHL with a lack of playmaking.

You're underestimating how difficult of a situation he has leaving the USHL jumping to the NCAA mid season on a awful team with no training camp. He's going to be a steal whoever gets him in the 10-14 range.

 

[qcal1427]

This isn’t a bad move to trade down, but we need some more immediate impact. I don’t think trading into the top 10 is an answer either because 7+ probably isn’t playing in the NHL for 1-3 years. The big, skilled RD’s which i think would be intriguing to the Caps will be gone and still not play for 1 or 2 years in the NHL.

I mean I would prefer more immediate help too, but so would every other team. If that move isnt there I think this is a good draft to move down in.

To be completely honest I think the only “high upside” plays after 14 are Villeneuve and Bleyl and you can get them later than 18.

 

[qcal1427]

I watched Lawrence a lot last season and pretty strongly disagree.

USHL scoring still incredibly underrated somehow …

 

[Threetrees]

You're underestimating how difficult of a situation he has leaving the USHL jumping to the NCAA mid season on an awful team with no training camp. He's going to be a steal whoever gets him in the 10-14 range.

Yeah I don’t buy that at all. He straight up just didn’t see plays that were there. Morozov, who himself struggles with playmaking, was in an equally hard situation but was a far superior player.

He gets viewed as a possible steal because of his name value and where he was ranked previously. In reality, he is falling for completely valid reasons.

Also “going to be a steal” is not a smart thing to be saying about any prospect outside the top 5. These are 18 year olds and their development is very volatile.

 

[stephenball]

It would be a dream for Lawrence to drop to us, although I’d give it like, a 2% chance. People are obviously concerned about his lack of production at BU, but by all accounts BU was just a trash fire last year. Their top scorers were Hutson and Eiserman, two talented second year players, both of them had production drops when in their second years they should have improved. Lawrence joined the shit show mid year, not exactly a good situation to adjust to (I remember even McKenna was being questioned at the beginning of the year when he wasn’t adjusting immediately to the new league). Before leaving the USHL he was scoring at a higher rate than his first year.

He’s not going to be a first line center, but I think he’s going to be a solid impact player in this league, and the Capitals would be lucky to have him.

 

[Threetrees]

It would be a dream for Lawrence to drop to us, although I’d give it like, a 2% chance. People are obviously concerned about his lack of production at BU, but by all accounts BU was just a trash fire last year. Their top scorers were Hutson and Eiserman, two talented second year players, both of them had production drops when in their second years they should have improved. Lawrence joined the shit show mid year, not exactly a good situation to adjust to (I remember even McKenna was being questioned at the beginning of the year when he wasn’t adjusting immediately to the new league). Before leaving the USHL he was scoring at a higher rate than his first year.

He’s not going to be a first line center, but I think he’s going to be a solid impact player in this league, and the Capitals would be lucky to have him.

His playmaking was suspect even in the Ushl. He is a bottom 6 depth winger in the NHL. Nothing lucky about that.

 

[stephenball]

His playmaking was suspect even in the Ushl. He is a bottom 6 depth winger in the NHL. Nothing lucky about that.

I mean, I don’t even know who you want to be honest

 

[Holtbyisms]

Yeah I don’t buy that at all. He straight up just didn’t see plays that were there. Morozov, who himself struggles with playmaking, was in an equally hard situation but was a far superior player.

He gets viewed as a possible steal because of his name value and where he was ranked previously. In reality, he is falling for completely valid reasons.

Also “going to be a steal” is not a smart thing to be saying about any prospect outside the top 5. These are 18 year olds and their development is very volatile.

Seems like you're undervaluing him for the very same "name value" fatigue and don't like the prospect. Which is fine, to each their own. I'm in my 40s and watch more junior and AHL hockey than most people. Don't air quote me and talk at me like I'm a child or question my intelligence because you don't agree with my stance. That speaks volumes to me about how much knowledge you really have on the situation more so than what you said about the prospect.

 

[Threetrees]

[mod]

I mean, I don’t even know who you want to be honest

I want a high ceiling player. At our picks the best bets are defensemen and wingers.

Hopefully Gustafsson falls or maybe they like Lin, I’m not high on more undersized guys though. Maybe they even like Sokolovskii. I would accept any of those options.

For wings I would love if one of the higher rated wings like Cullen, Belchetz or Hemming fell. If not, I like Klepov Hermansand Hermansson as high upside plays.

All of the centers available at the Caps picks are low upside bottom 6 players most likely. If I had to choose I would take Morozov because of his size, college production, and elite defensive ability.

Don't air quote me and talk at me like I'm a child or question my intelligence because you don't agree with my stance. That speaks volumes to me about how much knowledge you really have on the situation more so than what you said about the prospect.

Think whatever you want I stand by everything I said. Lappy and Miro were supposed to be steals as well.

 

[SecretaryofDefense5]

I am not trying to be a dick but most people on here have little to no views of these kids. Call some of the more well known prospects guys clowns but you don’t have nearly the views they do of most of these players.

 

[Silky mitts]

I felt that way about Nate Danielson who went about where Lawrence is going to go

 

[trick9]

It would be a dream for Lawrence to drop to us, although I’d give it like, a 2% chance. People are obviously concerned about his lack of production at BU, but by all accounts BU was just a trash fire last year. Their top scorers were Hutson and Eiserman, two talented second year players, both of them had production drops when in their second years they should have improved. Lawrence joined the shit show mid year, not exactly a good situation to adjust to (I remember even McKenna was being questioned at the beginning of the year when he wasn’t adjusting immediately to the new league). Before leaving the USHL he was scoring at a higher rate than his first year.

He’s not going to be a first line center, but I think he’s going to be a solid impact player in this league, and the Capitals would be lucky to have him.

Take these comments with a grain of salt. Seems to be recycling the HP comments about Lawrence and they notoriously hate some players and Lawrence falls on that category.

I'm not Lawrence's biggest fan and doubt he'll be there for us anyways but some of these reports on guys like Lawrence and Hemming who had to jump mid-season to NCAA during their 17-year old seasons are highly flawed. Even with HP they give Hemming the benefit of the doubt from his NCAA play because he's so young and it was a really tough jump but they just completely ignore the very same thing with Lawrence. They conveniently forgot to mention that the NCAA season ended up in a really bad time for him when he was just building momentum and had 5 points in his last 5 games.

HP's ranking on Command is somewhat puzzling too. On their video they were laughing at how neither of them had good viewing from Command from start of the season until November, and after that they didn't see him for until April. Said he had good U18 but they were laughing at how this U18 tournament was one of the worst there ever has been because of no Russia or Belarus.