2026 NHL Draft Lottery takeaways: Gavin McKenna's readiness, Caleb Malhotra's ascent and more

The conclusion of U18 worlds and the drawing of the NHL Draft Lottery means that draft season is officially upon us.After Tuesday night’s lottery, the order of the first 16 selections in the 2026 NHL Draft is now determined.League finals in junior hockey are about to get started, and men’s worlds in Switzerland won’t be far behind them. Then we’ll wrap up another year on the prospects calendar with the Memorial Cup in Kelowna, B.C., at the end of the month and then the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo in the first week of June before returning to Buffalo a few weeks later for the draft.Here’s everything I’m thinking about and hearing after the drawing of this year’s ping pong ballsA new Core Four in Toronto?You almost have to laugh.On Monday, the Toronto Maple Leafs were introducing two new heads of their hockey operations in a testy and uncomfortable news conference, and inheriting the potential loss of a No. 6 or No. 7 pick in this year’s draft to the Bruins as part of the previous regime’s decision-making. Now they’re sitting atop the draft.Advertisement