Recent trades display how teams don’t value 2026 draft highly

The start of the week leading to the 2026 NHL Draft has unquestionably been one of the more chaotic 72-hour stretches in recent memory. Big names like Brady Tkachuk, Jordan Kyrou and Bowen Byram are all finding new homes, as hopeful contenders made big swings in adding talent for next season and beyond.

Lost in all of the madness is the plethora of draft picks that were dealt. In the three days, a first-round pick in this year’s draft was moved six times, with the No. 9 pick being moved twice. In total, a selection in the 2026 draft was moved eight times.

While first-round picks are usually held to a certain standard of capital, the belief that the majority of the top prospects in this year’s draft class aren’t NHL-ready now shows how many teams don’t value the 2026 draft. After Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg, you’d be hard-pressed to find a young player who is going to make an impact with their club in the near future.

On Wednesday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Steven Ellis joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to discuss why the number of picks traded recently shows how teams aren’t holding this weekend’s draft in high regard.

Steven Ellis: if anything, I’m surprised there has actually been trades, because it seems like that’s something that just doesn’t typically happen at this point in the draft. That being said, I’m still looking at this and thinking teams don’t really like this draft. I think you’re happy if you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs, you’re probably thrilled if you’re the San Jose Sharks at number two. Beyond that, I don’t think a ton of teams are looking at this draft in a high view anymore, and it’s not too surprising, I don’t think there’s as many high-end talents as people were hoping, and that’s just kind of the lay of the land here. So, every time I’ve been asked, like, do you expect trades in the top-10, I always default to no, it just doesn’t happen. Then it happened a lot in the last two days, which was shocking.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…