The daily lead story on HockeyHotStove is powered by Benevolent Bakery, by SoShel beverages and by Smokiez vegan fruit choice, dedicated to quality and consumer education. Today’s topic: Who is the best defenseman in the 2026 NHL Draft?
When the term “best player available” is used during an NHL Draft it’s not an unbiased term. Last year, with Matthew Schaefer as the large consensus first overall pick, there were few dissenters. On the surface, sure, there are consensus first overall picks but after that it’s usually where the team has him ranked and what the team thinks of that player. They aren’t consulting Central Scouting’s rankings, or mine or anybody else, they look at their own boards.
Keaton Verhoeff is the best all-around defenseman. He is a can’t miss. Now, will he be the best offensive defenseman? No way. He’s a 6-4, right handed shot, who had the hardest season of any of the other defenseman by far. His Frozen Four play was steady, not gangbuster and not perfect. That’s all true but he’s 17 playing against 22-24 year old players too.
Why do I have Alberts Smits ranked above the better offensive defenseman? His IDGAF attitude about who he is facing on another team, like what he did in the Olympics, is the makeup of an NHL defenseman who will be hard to play against. To the point that some players won’t want to go into the corners with him when he reaches his peak. There is offense in his game, and he has a great shot from the point and is the most physical defenseman in a league that keeps getting bigger.
Chase Reid is a terrific defenseman and his playoff play has been terrific. He’s probably the best offensive defenseman in the draft and he has a good all-around game. He’s calm, poised, his shot gets on net and he’s an accurate passer. The fact that he will play for Michigan State next season will excite a lot of teams regarding his future development.
Daxon Rudolph and Carson Carels are the two defenseman who are wild cards in this draft. Both are 6-2, both are offensive defenseman. Again, either of them can be second off the board and it wouldn’t shock me. The top 10 will be littered with talented defenseman, I’m sure of that much at this point in time.
Who will your team select? Defense is at a premium, and I think three of these guys are top-pairing defenseman, and then Rudolph and Carels are terrific second-pairing defenseman on good teams but could play higher up on lesser teams. Not every team has a true #1 defenseman these days. Teams are finding it harder and harder to fill that void via free agency, and that’s why this draft is tailor-made for a team searching for that on their depth chart. In 2-3 years for most of them.
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