The day is here. No, not the second round of the playoffs, but lottery day. By this evening, we will know the New York Rangers‘ pick in the 2026 NHL draft. If the team plans to kickstart the retool, a top-flight selection in this year’s draft would be a good way to start.
Here are the overall draft lottery odds:
Where New York might pick: There’s an 11.5 percent chance they get the No. 1 pick and a 11.2 percent chance for the No. 2 pick. Despite having the third-best odds, the No. 3 pick is actually the one the Rangers have the lowest chance of getting: 7.8 percent. They are most likely to get the No. 4 pick (39.7 percent) or No. 5 (29.8 percent). The blueshirts can’t fall below the fifth selection.
Scott Wheeler’s draft rankings. His top three remained the same — wingers Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg and defenseman Chase Reid — but it’s notable that center Caleb Malhotra has risen to No. 4. That last name should be very familiar to Rangers’ fans.
Asking this again. Since New York has two high picks in the upcoming draft, I was thinking of running a reader-selected mock draft where readers pick a team to make the selection. I will provide more information on how this might work, but that depends on whether we get enough interest.
Please let me know if you have any interest in taking a team in the mock draft.
Questions:, this offseason, once again, has more questions than answers as of this moment. I plan to again have the top-20 to 25 questions that we will take in what will be a very long offseason again. As part of that endeavor, I will be asking for your assistance again to provide me any questions you have. I will group some of those together thematically while others may just be a one-off received. Happy to go with more than 25 questions if we land there, as I presume most of you agree this extended offseason is a critical one for the team’s future and how long the “retool” lasts.
Please provide your questions as a comment. Send to me directly as a message or by email or text or twitter etc. Thanks in advance for your help.
