With the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup wrapped up, the unofficial start of the 2026 NHL draft scouting season has begun. Junior teams kick off training camp in the next few weeks, NCAA players are settling into campus, and hockey season is right around the corner.

As was the case last year, certain players will dominate the conversation atop the class. Because of rule changes, we’re seeing players make the jump from Canadian major junior play to the NCAA. It will be interesting to track how those players develop — and the impact that older competition has on them.

NHL teams made it clear in the 2025 draft that big defensemen and skilled forwards with bite are valued at a high premium. There is no shortage of right-handed defensemen who will be in the top-10 discussion this season, and a few highly skilled forwards many teams will be tracking closely. These are the players worth familiarizing yourself with, especially if your team is not expected to be a Stanley Cup playoff contender this season.

Note: This list is in alphabetical order with the exception of the odds-on favorite to be the top pick in the 2026 draft in the first spot.

Gavin McKenna
LW, Penn State Nittany Lions (NCAA)

This is the obvious name on the list. The hubbub around his decision to play in the NCAA led “SportsCenter” — a testament to the star quality of this prospect.

McKenna was one of the best players in the Canadian Hockey League last season, and he will be one of the best — if not the best — players in the NCAA this season. Making the jump to Penn State, McKenna is a bring-you-out-of-your-seat offensive dynamo. A playmaker first, McKenna is usually the best player on the ice.

He draws defensive coverage, makes plays at full speed and turns every skater on the ice with him into a threat to score because of his elite puck-distribution skill. Expect him to be among the NCAA’s best players in transition, turning defenders into pretzels and playing in every key situation.

The NCAA will give McKenna the opportunity to add to his lean frame and learn to play against bigger, stronger opponents as he prepares to compete in the NHL next October. You could say he’s one to watch, but the reality is he is the one to watch in this class, and he will be all over the highlight reels.

Ethan Belchetz
LW, Windsor Spitfires (OHL)

A mammoth winger playing for the Spitfires, Belchetz’ 6-foot-5 frame will be impossible to miss. He has developed the ability to physically impose himself to impact the game, which was evident at the recent Hlinka-Gretzky Cup for Canada. He’s learning to use his body along the wall to protect pucks, bump players off balance and bully his way to the dangerous areas of the ice.

Given his physical package and willingness to engage physically, it is easy to understand why teams are excited about him. He’s a powerful winger with above-average puck skill and shooting ability. If he can add speed and bite to his play style, it won’t be surprising to see teams target him with a top-10 pick — the way they did with Brady Martin and Porter Martone in the 2025 class.

Viggo Björck
C/W, Djurgårdens (J20)

It is generally a good sign when you break scoring records and are moved out of your age group (Hlinka) to play in the World Junior Summer Showcase.

Björck fits the bill. He’s a highly skilled center who possesses quality playmaking ability. His creative playstyle showcases elite hockey sense, and he has the ability to control the game with a package of good acceleration, a quick release and above-average puckhandling skill. He’s strong on pucks, defensively sound and a projectable NHL center.

If he grows a couple of inches, there is a real chance he will hear his name called in the top five in June.

Tynan Lawrence
C, Muskegon Lumberjacks (USHL)

Coming off a Clark Cup MVP season in the USHL as a 16-year-old, Lawrence will be a fascinating watch in his final junior season. He’s committed to Boston University for 2026-27.

Having success as a young center in the USHL is no easy task, and Lawrence was more than up to it. He has excellent instincts on both sides of the puck, allowing him to thrive on the penalty kill and power play. I expect he will be in the top units of both for Muskegon this season.

Offensively, he has a smooth catch and release and can let pucks fly once he gets to the middle of the ice. He should be one of the top creators in transition this season with his ability to make plays at speed off the rush. Lawrence will be a key play driver for the Lumberjacks and will be tasked with winning his minutes offensively while playing sound defensive hockey. Scouts like his work rate and instincts, and there’s a path to being a top-10 pick if he dominates the way some believe he can.

Ryan Lin
D, Vancouver Giants (WHL)

He won’t bring you out of your seat with razzle-dazzle the way some players on this list will, but there is arguably not a more well-rounded defenseman in the draft. Lin is the type of player who often goes unnoticed because he doesn’t make mistakes.

He shuts plays down early with proper angles, a good stick and excellent reads. His hockey sense and decision-making are two of his best qualities, allowing him to make the simple play and start his team up the ice with a quality first pass. He plays in every situation, including the penalty kill and power play, and should be the engine of the Giants this season.

His offensive numbers don’t jump off the page, but with some development to his skating he has the potential to be an elite, two-way defender who dictates the game on both sides of the puck. Lin is going to play 30 minutes per game for Vancouver this season and have every opportunity to thrive offensively and defensively. If he grows a few inches — he’s 5-11 — it will only help his draft stock.

Mathis Preston
C/W, Spokane Chiefs (WHL)

One of the most exciting players to watch at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup, Preston is a crafty playmaker with smooth skating and elite hockey sense.

His offensive instincts constantly have him in the right spot at the right time, drawing defenders toward him before making a play that creates a high-danger chance for a teammate. He’s evasive, makes good decisions with the puck and uses his quick hands to execute with ease.

He’s going to be one the biggest offensive producers this season as a draft-eligible player. If he continues to develop his offensive toolbox, he’ll be a top-10 pick because of his ceiling as a high-end winger in the NHL. Given his late-July birthday, I would expect him to star at the U18 world championship next year if he’s not in the WHL playoffs. Wherever he’s playing, he will catch your eye with his highlight-reel skill.

Chase Reid
D, Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds (OHL)

Reid’s development curve has been fascinating to watch, and he will have every opportunity to lead the Greyhounds’ blue line this season.

The right-handed defenseman is a good blend of smooth mobility, high-end offensive instincts, quality transition play and enough raw talent to mold into a legitimate top-pairing defender. He will undoubtedly be of the OHL’s best defensemen this season and will be relied upon to play heavy matchups in key situations, producing offense.

It is rare that a defenseman produces a point per game in the Division I season, but Reid did, and it put him on a lot of NHL radars. If his defensive game keeps improving and he becomes elite on both sides of the puck in transition, he will be a hot commodity in the upcoming draft.

Ryan Roobroeck
C/W, Niagara Ice Dogs (OHL)

Roobroeck will be one of the most intriguing prospects to watch this season with many scouts wondering where he will play. He has a late-September birthday, so he’ll be in his third OHL season after leading Niagara in scoring in his D-I year.

The real question is whether Roobroeck will play at center or on the wing as he did in his first two seasons. At 6-4 with good skating, reliable special teams play and an NHL-quality shot, his value will significantly increase if he can prove his capabilities as a play-driving center. If he develops his playmaking in the middle of the ice to become more of a dual threat and more physically engaged, there is every reason to believe he will be a top-10 pick.

There is a lot of potential for Roobroeck, and it will be interesting to track where he is positioned and how that impacts his ability to drive the action.

Daxon Rudolph
D, Prince Albert Raiders (WHL)

Rudolph’s development took off in the back half of last season, and he should be the leader of the Prince Albert blue line this season.

With more opportunities, Rudolph is likely to put up offensive numbers with his ability to beat defenders and find open teammates for high-danger scoring chances. He’s a well-rounded player with good skating that allows him to defend the rush well with gap control. He has thrived when elevated to higher-leverage matchups, and it will be interesting to see how he owns that role for the entire WHL season in his draft year.

Teams will be watching closely to see if he can continue to control play on both sides of the puck and produce offensively as a right-handed blueliner.

Ivar Stenberg
LW/RW, Frölunda HC (SHL)

An ace in transition and with the ability to play both wings, Stenberg has turned heads regardless of the level at which he plays.

He looked like the best player at the world junior showcase as an underaged player after torching the J20 league in his 17-year-old season. He was two weeks from being draft-eligible in 2025 and is on the inside track to be a lottery pick in the upcoming draft.

Playing in the SHL in your draft year is no joke, and Stenberg has the skating, creativity and skill to thrive with Frölunda. His ability to make his teammates better by running a power play, facilitating offense in transition with speed along with elite playmaking and above-average instincts make him an attractive player. At this stage, he projects to be a top-line NHL winger, and he will only improve his value if he continues to develop his play off the puck.

Keaton Verhoeff
D, University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks (NCAA)

A 6-4, minutes-eating, right-handed defenseman with leadership qualities? You know that’s got the attention of the NHL scouting world.

There are some who believe Verhoeff will challenge McKenna for the top spot in the upcoming draft. On skill alone, that’s a tough case to make. But given Verhoeff’s size, ability to impact the game and the fact that he’s a right-handed defenseman, it would not be surprising if some teams felt that way.

He is a go-to player in every situation and should be a key member of the North Dakota blue line this fall. He makes a good first pass to exit the zone, his shot is NHL-caliber, and he has the hockey sense to facilitate offense in the zone.

Defensively, he’s further along than others in this draft class, and that will only improve against tougher competition in the NCAA. If he can improve his skating to match pace, defend in transition and quickly move to offense, he will be drafted in the top three.

NEWARK, Del. — Russ Crook has a shirt he likes to wear to Delaware football road games. He’s a lifelong fan and the current president of the Blue Hen Touchdown Club, but he knows the jokes, so he picked up the shirt a few years back when he saw it at the historic National 5 & 10 store on Main Street. It’s gray with a map of the state across the chest and the ubiquitous punchline delivered succinctly: “Dela-where?”

Yes, the state is small, though Rhode Island gets the acclaim that comes with being the country’s smallest. In popular culture, Delaware often translates as something of a non-place — cue the “Wayne’s World” GIF — and it’s widely appreciated by outsiders as little more than a 28-mile stretch of I-95 between Maryland and Pennsylvania that hardly warrants mentioning.

It’s a harmless enough stereotype, but Cook is hopeful this football season can start to change some perceptions. After all, in 2025, Delaware — the football program — hits the big time. Or, Conference USA, at least.

“Delaware’s a small state, but the university has 24,000 students,” Crook said. “Many big-time schools are smaller than we are. There’s no reason we can’t do this.”

When the Blue Hens kick off against Delaware State on Aug. 28, they will be, for the first time, an FBS football team, joining Missouri State as first-year members of Conference USA — the 135th and 136th FBS programs.

Longtime Hens fans might not have believed the move was possible even a few years ago, as much for the school’s ethos as the state’s stature. The university’s leadership had spent decades holding firm in the belief that the Hens were best positioned as a big fish in the relatively small ponds of Division II and, later, FCS.

And yet, just as the rest of the college sports world is reeling from an onslaught of change — revenue sharing, the transfer portal, NIL and conference realignment — Delaware decided it was time to join the party.

“Us and Delaware are probably making this move at one of the more difficult times to make the move in history,” said Missouri State AD Patrick Ransdell.

All of which begs the question: Why now?

Many of Delaware’s historic rivals — UMass, App State, Georgia Southern, Old Dominion, James Madison — had already made the leap to FBS, and the Hens’ previous conference, the Colonial, was reeling. Economic conditions at the FCS level made life challenging for administration. The NCAA was making moves to curb future transitions from FCS to FBS, and the school felt its window to make a move was closing.

“We had no choice,” Crook said.

And so, ready or not, the Hens are about to embark on a new era — a chance to prove themselves at a higher level and, perhaps, provide Delaware with a reputation that’s more than a punchline.

“We talk about doing things for the 302 all the time,” interim athletic director Jordan Skolnick said, referencing the area code that serves the entirety of the state. “We want everyone in the state of Delaware to feel the pride in us being successful, and we want people to realize how incredible this place is. It’s not just a place you drive through on 95.”

BACK WHEN MIKE Brey was coaching Delaware’s men’s basketball team to back-to-back tournament appearances in the 1990s, he would often swing by the football offices to talk shop with the Hens’ legendary football coach Tubby Raymond, who won 300 games utilizing a three-back offensive formation dubbed the wing-T. Brey recalls pestering him once about the new spread schemes being run at conference rival New Hampshire by a young coordinator named Chip Kelly. Raymond was a beloved figure at Delaware, and he had helped mentor Brey as a head coach, but he was notoriously old-school.

Raymond huffed, dismissing the tempo offense as “grass basketball,” all style and finesse without the fundamental elements of the game he had coached for decades. The mindset was often pervasive at UD.

“It was in the bricks there,” said Brey, who went on to a 23-year stint coaching at Notre Dame. “Tubby had his kingdom, and nobody was telling him what to do. It was, ‘Leave us alone. We’re good. We’ve got the wing-T.'”

Brey’s contract in those days technically referred to him as a member of the physical education department, and he and his staff had to teach classes during the offseason on basketball skills. Despite Raymond’s retirement in 2001 and an FCS national title in 2003, not much changed. By 2016, when Skolnick arrived to work in the athletic department, a number of coaches were still considered part-time employees, and several programs had to source their own equipment.

But change was brewing.

Old rivals such as App State, Georgia Southern and JMU had left FCS without missing a beat. Delaware had often punched above its weight and churned out genuine stars such as Rich Gannon and Joe Flacco, but the chasm between the haves and have-nots in football was growing. It was clear the Hens needed to invest, though the goal then was to take advantage of the power vacuum among east coast FCS schools.

“I think a lot of people wondered if we’d missed the window,” Skolnick said. “But at that time, the goal was to win as many FCS national championships as we can and resource our teams to be able to compete.”

Delaware football did compete, earning a spot in the FCS playoffs in four of the past six seasons, but another national title eluded the program, and by 2022, with rival James Madison moving up to the Sun Belt, then-AD Chrissi Rawak began to test the waters of a jump to FBS.

The school partnered with consultants who studied the economics of a move, both for the athletic department, which stood to see a $3 to $4 million increase in annual revenue, and for the state, which could enjoy a 50% uptick in economic impact from football alone. Meanwhile, Delaware looked at each FCS school that had made the leap up to FBS in the past 10 years to see how the Hens might stack up. What did Skolnick say the school found? Programs that had already been investing, had a solid recruiting footprint and were committed to football had success.

“We started to check a lot of boxes,” Skolnick said.

There were concerns, of course. The landscape of college football was roiling, and the expense of running a successful program seemed to grow by the day. But the opportunity to generate more revenue was obvious.

In the playoff era, 10 schools have made the leap from FCS to FBS, and nearly all have tasted some level of success. Overall, the group has posted a .548 winning percentage at the FBS level, and seven of the 10 have had seasons with double-digit wins. James Madison, who went from an FCS championship to the Sun Belt in 2022, is 28-9 at the FBS level and enters the 2025 season with legitimate playoff aspirations.

That success, however, is the result of a decades-in-the-making plan, said former JMU athletic director Jeff Bourne. The Dukes kicked the tires on an FBS move as early as 2012 but held steady as the program grew its infrastructure and, when the time came to make a move in 2022, it was ready.

“Before we made that decision, we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could support it financially,” Bourne said. “You had to have the fan base and donor base grow, have our facilities in a place so we could recruit. Looking at it from a broad perspective, it made our move not only prudent but ultimately helped us be successful.”

Off the field, the move has proved equally fortuitous. In JMU’s final year at the FCS level, the athletic department had 4,600 total donors, according to the school. For the 2025 fiscal year, JMU had nearly 11,000. The Dukes have sold out season tickets for three straight years, and high-profile games, including two bowl appearances, have been a boon for admissions.

So, when Conference USA approached Delaware with a formal invitation to join in November 2023, the choice seemed obvious.

“It was pretty clear that, as a flagship institution in our state, we wanted to be aligned with schools that look like us,” Skolnick said. “We want to align our athletic aspirations with our academic ones. Academically we’re one of the best public institutions in the country. Athletically, we’ve had all these incredible moments of success — but they’re moments. They’re spread out. So we felt like this was an opportunity to bring all of it together in a way that will show people — the best way to give people a lens into how special Delaware is, is for our athletic teams to be really successful and create more visibility.”

Brey remembers reading the news of Delaware’s decision to make the jump, and he couldn’t help but think back to his conversations with Raymond nearly 30 years ago. This had been a long time coming, he thought, and yet it still seemed hard to believe.

“I was shocked,” Brey said. “Little old Delaware is finally going for it.”

THERE ARE AMPLE lessons Delaware and Missouri State administrators have learned in the past few months as they’ve worked to ramp up staffing and budgets and add scholarship players for the transition. But if there’s one piece of advice Skolnick would share with other schools considering a similar process, it’s this: Find a time machine.

Delaware announced its intention to jump to FBS in November 2023. Just weeks earlier, the NCAA, in an effort to stem the tide of FCS departures, made changes to the requirements for moving up that, among other things, increased the cost of doing so from $5,000 to $5 million, and Delaware would be the first team to pay it.

That was not a budget line the Blue Hens had accounted for, meaning the school had to raise funds to cover that cost on a tight timeline.

“We had six months to do it,” Skolnick said. “Fortunately, we had people who were really excited about this transition.”

Ransdell took over as AD at Missouri State in August of 2024, just months after the Bears announced their plans to move to Conference USA, and he inherited a budget that wasn’t remotely ready for FBS competition.

“We had to change some things, do some more investing,” he said. “We weren’t really prepared to be an FBS program with the budget I inherited.”

In other words, the buzzword at both schools is the same as it is everywhere in 2025: revenue.

But if budgets have to be stretched with a move up to FBS, there are benefits, too.

Ransdell said Missouri State has sold more season tickets than any year since 2016, buoyed by a home game against SMU on Sept. 13.

Delaware had faced hurdles selling tickets in recent years, thanks in part to a slate of games against opponents its fans hardly recognized. That has changed already, with ample buzz around future home dates with old rivals UConn, Temple and Coastal Carolina. Crook said membership in the booster club is up 10-15% after years of steady declines. This season, Delaware travels to Colorado, and Crook said a caravan of Blue Hens fans will tag along.

On the recruiting trail, Delaware coach Ryan Carty said the conversations are completely different than they were a year ago, and the Hens have been able to add a host of new talent. The Hens’ roster includes 14 transfers from Power 4 programs this year, including Delaware native Noah Matthews, who arrived from Kentucky.

When Matthews was being recruited out of Woodbridge High School, about an hour’s drive down Route 1 through the middle of the state, he never heard from Delaware. It’s not that his home-state school didn’t want him. It’s that, no one on staff believed the Hens had a shot to land a guy with offers in the SEC.

Four years later though, Matthews is back home, and there’s nowhere he would rather be.

“I wanted to come back and show people, this is what Delaware does,” Matthews said. “We can play big-time football, too. After this year, they’ll know exactly who we are.”

For all the hurdles to get their respective programs in a place to compete at the FBS level, the costs are worth it, Ransdell said.

Need proof? Look no further than Sacramento State, a school that has all but begged for an invitation from the Pac-12 or Mountain West, even dangling a supposedly flush NIL fund with more than $35 million raised. And yet, no doors have been opened for the Hornets.

Still, the old guard around Delaware might not be so easily swayed.

Brey has kept a beach house in Delaware since his time coaching in the state, returning the past couple of years to serve as a guest bartender at the popular beach bar The Starboard to raise money for the Blue Hens’ NIL fund. This summer, he was strolling the boardwalk in Rehoboth Beach, chatting with the locals and getting a feel for how fans felt about this new era of Delaware football.

Most were excited, he said, but one — a longtime season-ticket holder — had a different perspective.

“On the first day of fall camp,” the fan told him, “we always knew we could play for a national championship in [FCS]. That’s not possible anymore.”

In other words, Delaware sold its championship aspirations for an admittedly more financially prudent place near the bottom of FBS. And who’s to say FBS football even remains viable as power players in the SEC and Big Ten move ever closer to creating “super leagues?”

“There very well could be a super league,” Bourne said. “There are signs that could happen. But I think when you look at it from the standpoint of your peer group, it’s to be competitive with them. There’s probably going to be a day where there’s a shake-up and you have some existing [power conference] schools that end up being more aligned with [Group of 6] than they are with the upper tier.”

Brey recalls his old friend Bob Hannah, the former Delaware baseball coach who had long been a progressive among the school’s traditionalists, wondering if the Hens might have been a fit in the ACC, had the school just pursued athletics growth in the 1970s and 1980s. The irony, Brey said, is these days, with even power conferences struggling to keep pace with the rapid change and financial strains of modern college sports, that doesn’t seem like such a long shot.

For Skolnick, that’s a worry for another day. Getting Delaware ready for its chance to shine on some of the sport’s biggest stages in 2025 is the priority. Delaware — the school and the state — hasn’t had many of these moments, and it’s an opportunity the Hens don’t want to miss.

“We’ve got to be ready for what we’re moving into, but everyone in college athletics is dealing with change,” Skolnick said. “That part is comforting. It’s more of an opportunity for us to do it our way. We’re too great of a historical and successful and traditional team to not be part of the conversation.”

SEATTLE — Mariners slugger Cal Raleigh hit his major league-leading 48th and 49th home runs in Sunday’s 11-4 win over the Athletics, setting a single-season record for catchers and passing Salvador Perez‘s total with the Kansas City Royals in 2021.

Raleigh’s record-breaking home run also marked his ninth multi-home run game of the season, passing Mickey Mantle (eight for the 1961 New York Yankees) for most multi-home run games by a switch-hitter in a season in major league history. The overall record is 11 multi-home run games in a season.

The switch-hitting Raleigh, batting from the right side, homered off Athletics left-handed starter Jacob Lopez in the first inning to make it 2-0 and tie Perez. Raleigh got a fastball down the middle from Lopez and sent it an estimated 448 feet, according to Statcast. It was measured as the longest home run of Raleigh’s career as a right-handed hitter.

In the second inning, Raleigh drilled a changeup from Lopez 412 feet. The longballs were Nos. 39 and 40 on the season for Raleigh while catching this year. He has nine while serving as a designated hitter.

Raleigh went 3-for-5 with 4 RBIs in the win.

Perez hit 15 home runs as a DH in 2021, and 33 at catcher.

Only four other players in big league history have hit at least 40 homers in a season while primarily playing catcher: Johnny Bench (twice), Roy Campanella, Todd Hundley and Mike Piazza (twice). Bench, Campanella and Piazza are Hall of Famers.

Raleigh launched 27 homers in 2022, then 30 in 2023 and 34 last season.

A first-time All-Star at age 28, Raleigh burst onto the national scene when he won the All-Star Home Run Derby in July. He became the first switch-hitter and first catcher to win the title. He is the second Mariners player to take the crown, after three-time winner Ken Griffey Jr.

Raleigh’s homers gave him 106 RBIs on the season. He is the first catcher with consecutive seasons of 100 RBIs since Piazza (1996-2000), and the first American League backstop to accomplish the feat since Thurman Munson (1975-77).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.