Why teams are excited about 2026 NHL Draft prospect Malte Gustafsson 

We are a week away from the 2026 NHL Draft getting underway with the first round scheduled for next Friday night.

While Gavin McKenna going first overall to the Toronto Maple Leafs is looking more and more like a forgone conclusion, there’s plenty of intrigue on the board for the rest of the first round.

Daily Faceoff prospect analyst Steven Ellis just released his final top 120 rankings ahead of the draft, and one of the players he’s had moving up the board as the process has gone along is big Swedish defenseman Malte Gustafsson, who checked in at No. 14.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton were joined by Steven Ellis to discuss Gustaffson’s soaring stock a week ahead of the first round of the draft.

Carter Hutton: In your opinion, who’s the biggest risers that have drawn up in the past few months? I know Gustafsson is someone we’ve talked about.

Steven Ellis: And then you mentioned Malte Gustafsson. I think that’s one where it’s a lot of fun, because he really pushed himself up draft boards in the later stages. I think when you watch what he did at the U18, he showed a lot more skill than people were expecting. He ran the power play and he just felt like he was making smart decision after smart decision. He’s a big guy, tough to play against. You put that all together. This is a guy that, yeah, you know, didn’t put up a ton of numbers playing against SHL competition, but he still played a lot of games against pros and didn’t necessarily look at a place on a team that wasn’t super great defensively. You look at the minus-8, but that’s not nothing to be concerned about from a young defenseman playing a ton of minutes. And his own age group, he was dominant so often. I am a fan of Malte Gustafsson, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s off the board at eighth or ninth.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…