Rangers among show-stealing teams on wild opening night of NHL Draft
The New York Rangers were one of the show-stealers Friday on the opening night of the 2026 NHL Draft in Buffalo.
After sitting out the whirlwind of trades leading up to the first round, general manager Chris Drury made two potentially franchise-altering moves within a span of about 15 minutes. Not long before the Blueshirts announced that they were taking Latvian defenseman Alberts Smits with the No. 5 overall pick, word began to circulate that they’d acquired high-scoring forward Pavel Dorofeyev from the Vegas Golden Knights.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman officially announced the deal just before the Calgary Flames selected WHL defenseman Carson Carels at No. 6.
In Smits, the Rangers got perhaps the most NHL-ready defenseman in the draft. He played against men in Finland and Germany in 2025-26, as well as for Latvia at the Milan-Cortina Olympics and the IIHF World Championship.
Director of player personnel/amateur scouting John Lilley said the Rangers picked Snits over Chase Reid, who many felt would be the Rangers’ pick if he fell that far because “We have a process that we go through and build a list throughout the course of the year, and there were a lot of great options. Picking at five. Alberts, to us, was the top player out of that grouping. Very excited to get him into our pipeline.”
But that selection was soon overshadowed by the Dorofeyev deal, one that the Rangers are counting on to boost their struggling offense. The Blueshirts got a 25-year-old forward who scored 35 and 37 goals in the past two seasons. The price: the No. 26 pick in the first round that the Rangers obtained from the Carolina Hurricanes in last year’s K’Andre Miller trade; the No. 92 pick, the last of the Blueshirts’ four third-rounders; and the Rangers’ first-round choice in 2028 (top-10 protected).
Dorofeyev, a restricted free agent who also scored 12 goals during Vegas’ run to the Stanley Cup Final, agreed to a seven-year, $77 million contract ($11 million average annual value, according to PuckPedia) that will keep him on Broadway well into the 2030s.
But the Rangers’ maneuverings were far from the evening’s only highlights.
Rangers share spotlight at eventful 1st day of NHL Draft
To no one’s surprise, the Toronto Maple Leafs took forward Gavin McKenna with the No. 1 overall pick. The choice was announced by one of the Leafs’ biggest fans – singer Justin Bieber, who said he’d rooted for them “since I was a little boy.” Bieber’s greeting of “Mr. McKenna, we would like to draft you to the Toronto Maple Leafs” figures to go down in draft lore.
Two picks later, the Vancouver Canucks selected center Caleb Malhotra – whose dad, 1998 Rangers first-round pick Manny Malhotra, was recently named Vancouver’s coach.
Manny, who was hired June 1, told NHL.com did not want to know what the Canucks were going to do with the No. 3 pick because to him this was not about the team or the player he’s getting; it was about his son and a momentous occasion for the family. “It’s for him, it’s all about him.” he said.
Last year’s No. 1 overall pick, defenseman Matthew Schaefer, was also on hand. He announced the New York Islanders’ first-round pick, Swedish defenseman Malte Gustafsson, interviewed McKenna and chatted with ESPN’s Leah Hextall, looking very much like an 18-year-old with a TV career in his future.
Nor were the Rangers the only team making draft-night deals.
The Blueshirts opted to use their draft capital on Dorofeyev rather than Anaheim Ducks center Mason McTavish after being one of the teams linked to him in pre-draft scuttlebutt. With the Rangers out of the picture, the St. Louis Blues, who began the night with four first-round choices after a couple of deals this week, sent two of those picks (Nos. 15 and 29) to Anaheim for McTavish, who was selected No. 3 overall in the 2021 draft. He had 17 goals and 41 points in 75 regular-season games last season and has five more years on a contract with an average annual value of $7 million.
The Utah Mammoth made a trio of trades, sending forward J.J. Peterka to the Boston Bruins for the No. 23 pick in the first round this year and the Florida Panthers’ first-rounder (top-10 protected) in 2028. Utah then dealt two picks, Nos. 19 in the first round and a third-rounder (No. 83) to the Los Angeles Kings for the 17th pick, which they used to take forward Ethan Belchetz. The Mammoth followed by wheeling the No. 23 pick to the Detroit Red Wings for goaltender Sebastian Cossa, the No. 15 pick in the 2021 draft who has yet to establish himself in the NHL. The Red Wings grabbed forward JP Hurlbert.
The Philadelphia Flyers added picks by sending their first-rounder, No. 21, to the San Jose Sharks for picks No. 27, 62 (second round) and 120 (fourth round). The Sharks added defenseman Ryan Lin to an already-large draft haul that included the No. 2 pick, forward Ivar Stenberg – one of a record seven Swedes chosen in the first round.
Vegas flipped the No. 26 pick it got from the Rangers to the Montreal Canadiens for the No. 28 choice and a third-rounder in 2027. The Golden Knights dropped another spot, to No. 29, and picked up a fourth-round pick (No. 117) by sending the 28th selection to Anaheim.
In the ninth and final draft night deal, the Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes sent their first-rounder (No. 31) to the Nashville Predators for two second-round choices, Nos. 42 and 57. Nashville took defenseman Thomas Bleyl, who became the fifth Michigan State commit selected in the first round.
In all, 18 of the 32 first-rounders were used by teams that didn’t originally own the pick. The 26th and 28th picks went through four teams before a fifth club used them.
