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

What began as a runaway contest has ended in a photo finish.

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.

McKenna, Canada’s trailblazing major junior/collegiate superstar, prevailed over Ivar Stenberg, Sweden’s teen sensation, in a showdown of 5-foot-11 left wingers.

“However close it may be, Gavin McKenna deserves No. 1 billing this year,” said TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button. “He has that ‘it’ factor you want in a No. 1 draft pick.”

“The separating factor between McKenna and Stenberg is McKenna’s scoring upside,” said FloHockey’s NHL Draft & Prospect Analyst Chris Peters. “There is a sense he has the skill to be a 100-point winger at the next level.”

TSN and FloHockey’s Peters surveyed nine NHL scouts to form the bedrock of our consensus ranking. Button and Peters split one ballot between them, making it an even 10 ballots.

Penn State’s McKenna broke a mid-season dead heat with Frolunda’s Stenberg when the pair had exactly the same number of first, second and third-place votes.

McKenna’s tally for the final ranking was five No. 1’s, four No. 2’s and one No. 3, while Stenberg’s was three No.1’s, five No. 2’s and two No. 3’s.

The pre-season count was decidedly more one-sided when McKenna was a unanimous choice (10 out of 10 voters) as hockey’s premier prospect.

If McKenna and Stenberg go one-two in the draft Friday in Buffalo, it will be only the second time in modern draft history that wingers are taken in the top two spots. The only other time was in 2007 when Patrick Kane went first to Chicago and James van Riemsdyk second to Philadelphia.

McKenna piled up 15 goals and 51 points in 35 games, earning Big 10 scoring champion and freshman of the year honours along the way.

The Whitehorse, Yukon, native added four goals and 14 points in seven games for Team Canada at the 2026 World Junior Championship – a performance he called the turning point of his season.

Meanwhile, Stenberg had one of the best years ever by an 18-year-old in Swedish League history, collecting 11 goals and 33 points in 43 games – in part on the strength of an age group record-tying nine-game point streak.

McKenna and Stenberg weren’t the only players to receive No. 1 votes, reinforcing the tightness at the top of polling.

No. 3 Sault Ste. Marie right defenceman Chase Reid and No. 4 Prince George left defenceman Carson Carels also received nods for No. 1.

Djurgarden centre Viggo Björck completes the top five.

Filling out the top 10 are No. 6 Brantford centre Caleb Malhotra, No. 7 Latvian left defenceman Alberts Smits, No. 8 North Dakota right defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, No. 9 Prince Albert right defenceman Daxon Rudolph and No. 10 Boston University centre Tynan Lawrence.

Considering HV71 left defenceman Malte Gustafsson is slotted at No. 11, there’s a very real chance upwards of five or six blueliners could go in the top 10, which would be the highest such total since a record eight were selected in 2012.

Canada is represented by 12 players in the first round of 32 players - the most of any country.

Among the most intriguing of the other projected first rounders is No. 26 Medicine Hat right winger Liam Ruck, who led all 224 NHL Central Scouting-rated prospects with 45 goals in the Western Hockey League.

Ruck finished second in Canadian Hockey League scoring, surpassed only by twin brother and teammate Markus Ruck, a centre who compiled a CHL-high 108 points - four more than Liam.

Markus missed out on first-round status in our polling but did earn a place among eight honourable mentions who round out our top 40 prospects.

Of note, fully half – exactly 20 - of the first 40 are 6-foot-2 or taller and there are no goalies ranked in TSN’s first round for the fifth straight season.

A reminder, though, that two netminders went in the 2025 top 32, Russian Pyotr Andreyanov (No. 20 to Columbus) and Canadian Joshua Ravensbergen (No. 30 to San Jose).

TSN’s Final Draft Prospect Ranking