With the 2026 NHL Entry Draft coming up this week, a significant amount of attention is being paid to which players teams at the top of the selection order might choose. While Penn State star Gavin McKenna remains the odds-on favorite to go to the Toronto Maple Leafs No. 1 overall, there is a significant amount of intrigue for the picks after Toronto’s. The New York Rangers have a massive opportunity in front of them with the No.5 pick, as they should be able to add a high-end young player to an organization whose present collection of talent skews older.
While most of the conversation surrounding who the Rangers might select has centered around the draft’s top blueliners, such as Chase Reid, Carson Carels, Keaton Verhoeff, and Alberts Smits, there remains a possibility New York could take a forward depending on how the draft board plays out. The draft’s consensus top pivot Caleb Malhotra is not expected to be available at No. 5, but The Athletic’s Vincent Z. Mercogliano and Peter Baugh reported that “the Rangers are intrigued” by Swedish pivot Viggo Bjorck, and the two “wouldn’t be stunned if they decide to take a swing” by selecting Bjorck. Bjorck, 18, lacks the kind of size most teams look for in pivots, but makes up for it with arguably best-in-class competitiveness and work ethic. He is considered to be a highly skilled offensive player as well, and scored 15 points in 42 games for Djurgardens IF in the SHL.
Other notes from around the hockey world:
- McKenna is widely considered to be not only the likely No. 1 pick, but also the draft’s most purely talented player. SHL winger Ivar Stenberg, the leading challenger to McKenna for the status as the No. 1 prospect of the draft class, is typically considered the closest to McKenna in pure talent. But surprisingly, one lesser-known name has also surfaced as one of the draft’s most purely talented players: Mathis Preston. In a survey of draft prospects conducted by The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler, Preston collected the second-most votes from his peers as the draft’s “most talented player” that voters had been able to play against. This is notable as Preston is not widely ranked near the top of the draft order by public outlets, most frequently landing in the later portions of the first round, and even into the second round in the rankings. There are some public-facing scouts that share these prospects’ high opinion of Preston, though, including Tony Ferrari of The Hockey News, who ranked Preston the draft’s No. 3 winger.
- Veteran forward Gage Quinney, a former longtime member of the Vegas Golden Knights organization, has officially signed a one-year contract with HK Sochi of the KHL. Quinney, 30, has had a stellar career as an undrafted forward. The former WHL champion with the Kelowna Rockets joined the Golden Knights organization in the summer of 2018, and would go on to play 326 games for their AHL affiliates from 2018-19 through 2024-25. He even made his NHL debut in Vegas during the 2019-20 campaign. Quinney’s best season came in 2022-23, when he scored 25 goals and 64 points as an alternate captain for the Silver Knights. He departed the organization after 2024-25, a year where he scored 36 points in 50 games, and signed with the Shanghai Dragons in the KHL. Playing for former Vegas head coach Gerard Gallant (who departed the organization mid-season) Quinney scored 11 goals and 32 points in his debut KHL campaign.
