More Than 100 Current or Future NCAA Players Selected

BUFFALO, N.Y. – In a historic weekend for college hockey, 109 current or committed NCAA Division I players were selected during the two-day 2026 NHL Draft at KeyBank Center, the most since the NHL went to its current seven-round draft format in 2005.

It also represented the most NCAA selections since 1990, when 109 were chosen in the NHL’s then-12-round draft.

Ninety of this year’s 109 picks came Saturday during rounds two through seven after a record 19 players had been chosen during Friday’s opening round.

• NCAA Selections in the 2026 NHL Draft

An impressive 36 different NCAA schools had at least one player or recruit selected this weekend – up from 27 one year ago – led by Michigan State with nine. That tied Minnesota (2007) for the largest draft class ever by one school. Boston University, UMass, North Dakota and Penn State were next with eight selections each, while Boston College, Denver and Providence each had six.

The 20 current or committed college players taken during Saturday’s fourth round were an all-time record, toppling the 19 chosen in Friday’s first round:

NCAA-Affiliated Picks by Round
1st round: 19
2nd round: 16
3rd round: 12
4th round: 20
5th round: 14
6th round: 13
7th round: 15

Also of note:

• The 2026 NCAA selections included 59 forwards, 40 defensemen and 10 goalies.
• The geographic breakdown of those players featured 51 from the United States, 39 from Canada, five from Russia, three from both Czechia and Finland, two from Latvia, and one each from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Norway, Slovakia and Sweden.
• Most of the NCAA-affiliated players drafted in 2026 will be incoming freshmen during either the 2026-27 or 202-27 seasons. However, 11 players who played college hockey last season were selected: Dartmouth D Cooper Cleaves (MTL), Western Michigan F Bobby Cowan (NYI), Boston College F Oscar Hemming(CBJ), Arizona State F Lincoln Kuehne (NYI), Boston University F Tynan Lawrence (STL), Penn State FGavin McKenna (TOR), Miami F Ilia Morozov (BUF), UMass D Landon Nycz (STL), Providence G JohnParsons (WPG), Michigan F Adam Valentini (UTA), and North Dakota D Keaton Verhoeff (SJS).
• Thirty-one of the NHL’s 32 franchises drafted at least one current or committed NCAA player. Anaheim and Vegas had the most with six each, followed by Colorado (five), San Jose (five), Seattle (five), Toronto (five) and Vancouver (five).