- McKenna and Stenberg headline a 2026 class with no clear-cut No. 1
- An NHL.com poll of 10 scouts handed McKenna a slim 7-3 edge
- Read below for the scouting breakdown and where each winger lands on June 26
There’s no slam-dunk top pick in this year’s draft, and the scouts know it.
With the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft a little over a week away, the fight for No. 1 has come down to two left wings: Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg. NHL.com polled 10 scouts on who they would take, and McKenna came out ahead 7-3. Close, and far from settled.
Craig Button, TSN’s director of scouting and a former NHL general manager, was asked to name a favorite and flat out couldn’t.
“I don’t know who’s better. I’m being very straightforward,” Button said. “There is very little, if anything, that separates these two guys. The thing is there’s no Macklin Celebrini or Connor Bedard in this draft. It’s not like that this year.”
McKenna spent his freshman year carving up the Big Ten at Penn State. He racked up 51 points in 35 games, a 1.46 clip, and saved his best for last with 33 points over his final 18. He also grabbed bronze with Canada at the World Junior Championship, where he finished second among all skaters with 14 points in seven games.
Watch McKenna rip his first college goal for a game-winner:
Stenberg took the harder road, holding his own against grown pros in the Swedish Hockey League. He posted 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 43 games for Frolunda, the fifth-most ever by an 18-and-under player in the SHL, behind names like Daniel Sedin and Markus Naslund.
Then he went out and won gold with Sweden at the World Juniors, tying for the team lead with 10 points and chipping in a goal and two assists in a 4-2 gold-medal win over Czechia.
Take a look at what Stenberg did during that gold-medal run:
The split shows up when scouts describe their games. One evaluator who leans McKenna pointed to the playmaking: “I just think McKenna has the vision, creativity, that makes others better.”
Another in Stenberg’s camp framed it as raw production: “Stenberg has that bull mentality. He does a lot on his own and is a huge scorer.” One small knock on McKenna keeps coming up, and it’s the maturity piece.
Most mock drafts still have the Maple Leafs taking McKenna first overall, and the kid has already said he’d be pretty pumped to land in Toronto. NHL Central Scouting’s John Williams put it bluntly: “If you’re going to pass him up in the draft, you better be really sure.”
We find out for real June 26, when the first round opens at KeyBank Center in Buffalo at 7 p.m. ET.
