2026 NHL Draft Grades: Auditing the five picks, getting hyped for a defender Dallas will need during Wyatt Johnston's prime, and updated rankings
Another faller??
I tend to repeat myself so just pretend I’m capable of original thoughts for the time being. I’m not speaking with a hysterical voice but I am a little hysterical when I say the following: for the love of all that is holy, let go of the mindset that the draft is some mercurial far-flung future where the players are the equivalent of flying cars and terraforming (back when our sci-fi imaginations were creative instead of just about the internet Gone Wrong). Roope Hintz, Jason Robertson, Jake Oettinger, and Miro Heiskanen made the jump just when Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin still had some juice. Now the new core is in their prime with the emerging core of Wyatt Johnston, Logan Stankoven, Thomas Harley, and Mavrik Bourque taking shape. Development may take time, but cycles happen in the blink of an eye.
The next core is always around the corner right when you need them. That, of course, assumes the Dallas’ amateur scouts have done their job. Johnston made his debut in 2022. Since then, Dallas hasn’t had many picks. In fact, they haven’t had a single draft where they had all seven picks. Because of that contention window, this is pretty standard. You give up Win Later assets for Win Now assets, and the cycle repeats itself. However, losing draft capital doesn’t mean mortgaging the future; it just means narrowing it for a time.
Since 2022, the Stars have added some blue line help. Tristan Bertucci and Aram Minnetian currently lead the way. Both are solid depth defenders already plying their trade in the AHL, and both have high floor profiles as pillars of defensive support. On the forward side, there is Emil Hemming, Cameron Schmidt and Brandon Gorzynski. And they all offer something different; Hemming as the two-way shooter; Schmidt as the dynamic creator; and Gorzysnki as the modern day power forward. As for goalies, while they don’t have a lot of young prospect with high potential, they do have Remi Poirier. Drafted in the sixth round in 2020, he’s been excellent with the Texas Stars, and could see some playing time in the NHL this year.
Enter 2026. When I wrote my mock draft, I assumed they would go heavy on defense given some of their broad patterns. Instead they went with a clean, symmetrical mix of everything, drafting two left-shot defenders, one left winger, one center, and a goalie.
Spoiler: for a team with only five picks, most of which were in the late half of the draft, I liked what they did. Like last year with Schmidt, they managed to strike gold with a faller, with the rest being an eclectic mix of interesting flyers at key positions. So: how did they do?
