{"id":657672,"date":"2026-05-08T12:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657672\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T12:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T12:08:14","slug":"ranking-mckenna-vs-recent-no-1-picks-malhotras-comparables-and-second-round-breakouts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/657672\/","title":{"rendered":"Ranking McKenna vs. recent No. 1 picks, Malhotra\u2019s comparables and second-round breakouts"},"content":{"rendered":"

My May 2026 NHL Draft rankings<\/a> are out, U18 worlds<\/a> and the lottery<\/a> are in the rearview. All of that makes for a perfect time for a mailbag.<\/p>\n

You submitted<\/a> nearly 100 questions. Here, I\u2019ve answered a bunch of the big ones, touching on high-upside second-rounders, Caleb Malhotra\u2019s comparables, Ivar Stenberg versus Leo Carlsson and Anton Frondell, Viggo Bjorck\u2019s projection, ranking Gavin McKenna versus the last 10 No. 1 picks and more.<\/p>\n

Note: Questions may be lightly edited for clarity and length. Similar questions are grouped together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rank Caleb Malhotra among the centers drafted in the previous three draft classes (2025, 2024, 2023). \u2014 Anonymous U.<\/p>\n

What are the ceiling and floor comparison players for Caleb Malhotra? \u2014 Aidan D.<\/p>\n

To answer the first question, based on where I was at on the players around the draft:<\/p>\n

T1. Connor Bedard\/Macklin Celebrini
T3. Adam Fantilli\/Leo Carlsson\/Michael Misa
T6. Will Smith\/James Hagens
8. Caleb Malhotra
T9. Anton Frondell\/Caleb Desnoyers\/Berkly Catton
12. Jake O\u2019Brien
T13. Brady Martin\/Roger McQueen\/Cayden Lindstrom\/Dalibor Dvorsky<\/p>\n

Who are the biggest upside swings teams could take with picks 20-64? \u2014 Tyrone R.<\/p>\n

Who are the second-round players that you could see outperforming expectations in the league? The high upside guys, if you will. \u2014 Gavin D.<\/p>\n

This is always a tricky question because skill\/point production upside and actual impact upside aren\u2019t always the same thing. From a pure talent standpoint, guys like Marcus Nordmark, Ryan Roobroeck, Xavier Villeneuve, Mathis Preston and Egor Shilov get the highest grades among the late-first\/second-round types. Still, those players are all flawed, and that\u2019s why they\u2019ll be available there even with their skills. There\u2019s also a very real chance that quote-unquote safer bets like Ryder Cali and Gleb Pugachyov could have higher upside in terms of NHL impact, even if they don\u2019t have PP1\/point upside. I\u2019m assuming these questions are looking at the skill guys and who, if they hit, could potentially play in a top-six\/offensive role, in which case those five names come to mind \u2014 but also come with some risk.<\/p>\n

How does Ivar Stenberg rank compared to Anton Frondell and Leo Carlsson in recent drafts? \u2014 Jared C.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m higher on Stenberg than Frondell. Frankly, I\u2019m a fair amount higher. Stenberg versus Carlsson is more interesting to me. Evaluators in the NHL would tell you Carlsson pretty quickly. I\u2019d probably have it a little closer. Both were on the older side in their class. Stenberg was more productive (0.79 points per game in the SHL versus Carlsson\u2019s 0.57 points per game) and had a better World Juniors (10 points in seven games on a gold medal-winning team versus six points in seven games on a fourth-place finisher). However, Carlsson is a better skater, bigger and a center, which wins out in a projection. It\u2019s Carlsson, but I don\u2019t think he\u2019s lightyears ahead per se.<\/p>\n

How do you rate Viggo Bj\u00f6rck\u2019s chances of becoming an NHL centre? And do you think he is capable of surpassing 60 points per season? \u2014 Rowdy V.<\/p>\n

I think he sticks at center. He\u2019s got the smarts and competitiveness that you look for in all centers, and I think he\u2019s strong enough on pucks that he\u2019s going to be able to stay in battles and in the mix with that competitiveness and still drive play even at his size. He was being used against the top lines of SHL teams late in his draft year as a teenager, and that helps me feel better about him sticking down the middle.<\/p>\n

Yes, I think he can be a 60-point player with continued development. That determination probably comes down to whether you view him as a PP1 or PP2 guy, and I think he\u2019s got the skill and offensive IQ to be the former.<\/p>\n

Can you rank the last 10 No. 1 picks and Gavin McKenna based on how they were rated pre-draft? \u2014 Tyler N.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It probably looks something like this, though Celebrini might have been viewed more in the Dahlin\/Hughes tier, and this may be what\u2019s happened since playing tricks on my memory.<\/p>\n

1. Connor Bedard
2. Macklin Celebrini
T3. Rasmus Dahlin\/Jack Hughes
T5. Gavin McKenna\/Alexis Lafreni\u00e8re
7. Matthew Schaefer
T8. Owen Power\/Nico Hischier
10. Juraj Slafkovsk\u00fd<\/p>\n

Of the players you included in the honorable mentions group of your May ranking, which ones were the most difficult to cut from the top 64 and why? \u2014 Shane B.<\/p>\n

My final 10 cuts were NTDP forwards Dayne Beuker and Victor Plante, Green Bay speedster Landon Hafele, Spokane\u2019s heavyset Chase Harrington, Sarnia\u2019s Beckham Edwards (who can really shoot it and I liked last year but had a disappointing season), Saskatoon\u2019s projectable fourth-liner Zach Olsen, Latvian center Olivers Murnieks, Swedish D Mans Gudmundson, UMass D Landon Nycz and overage D Ethan Mackenzie.<\/p>\n

If I were to pick one forward and one D out of that group, it\u2019d probably be Hafele and Mackenzie because of their skating.<\/p>\n

Could you compare the top five of the last four drafts? \u2014 Simon E.<\/p>\n

Using the top five picks in the previous three drafts and the top five players on my current list, based on where I was at on them all at the time of the draft:<\/p>\n

1. Connor Bedard
2. Macklin Celebrini
\u2014
3. Matthew Schaefer
4. Adam Fantilli
5. Gavin McKenna (2026)
6. Michael Misa
7. Ivan Demidov
8. Leo Carlsson
9. Ivar Stenberg (2026)
10. Will Smith
11. Arty Levshunov
\u2014
12. Chase Reid (2026)
13. Caleb Malhotra (2026)
14. Alberts Smits (2026)
15. Caleb Desnoyers
16. Anton Frondell
\u2014
17. Brady Martin
18. David Reinbacher
19. Beckett Sennecke
20. Cayden Lindstrom<\/p>\n

In hindsight, I was too low on Sennecke. I would also lower Levshunov into that third tier now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"My May 2026 NHL Draft rankings are out, U18 worlds and the lottery are in the rearview. All…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,575,85,2370],"class_list":["post-657672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nhl","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}