KELOWNA, B.C. — The 2026 Memorial Cup is in the books and with it so is the 2026 draft calendar. That means pencils are down and there’s no more hockey to be played.I spent the back half of the tournament in Kelowna. Here’s what I’m hearing on some of the big news items (Landon DuPont’s college decision, next steps for drafted prospects like Cameron Reid and Jack Pridham) as well as some notes on the draft eligibles.What I’m hearing on DuPont’s NCAA decisionCollege recruiters have mostly been letting Landon DuPont’s postseason run play out, but several of the programs you’d expect to be engaged on him have been throughout his 16-year-old season. He turned 17 on Friday, the same day he returned from injury, scored twice in the semifinal, and registered his 100th point of the year for Everett across the regular season, playoffs and Memorial Cup. It’s a poorly kept secret that he’s going to accelerate and play college hockey in his draft year next season. It’s just a matter of where. As soon as he catches his breath here, he’s going to have to decide on that destination. The sense I’ve had for the last while is that Michigan is the front-runner, and I don’t think that’s changed.Denver has expressed interest. They’re also in the mix for top 2026 D Daxon Rudolph, and already landed D Ryan Lin, but DuPont is DuPont, and he’s the big domino to fall. David Carle has expressed publicly and privately that he feels his name constantly being linked to NHL coaching vacancies has negatively impacted Denver’s recruiting over the last couple of summers, but the talk is just that, and he has been intensely focused on the Pioneers and preparing for another run at another national championship next season.I don’t think you can count out Michigan State, either. According to a college hockey source, MSU commit Tommy Bleyl is currently planning to return to Moncton in the QMJHL next season, which means the Spartans have one D spot they still need to fill. Some wonder if the NHL club that drafts Bleyl will encourage him to make the move to MSU next season, and the Spartans would love to have him, but, again, DuPont is DuPont, and he comes first in all of this and is viewed as a program-changer type not dissimilar to Gavin McKenna. Michigan State has the financial muscle, staff and team to make a compelling pitch, too.There has been some chatter about Minnesota, which is where Everett captain Tarin Smith is headed. I was initially hesitant about them because I didn’t think they’d have the financial package or the roster to stay in the mix, but it sounds like Minnesota has money to spend. New Minnesota head coach Brett Larson and Landon’s dad, Micki, are former teammates from their playing days.I’ve always come back to Michigan, though. I know they were in Kelowna this week, meeting with people around it. They need that true No. 1 D the most, and I’d wager they’ll go the furthest to make it happen. Their staff’s style of play would really mesh well with DuPont’s skill set, too, and with him they’d look like a Frozen Four contender again (they might even without him).Next steps for top drafted prospects The Memorial Cup is an emotional end to the junior careers for a lot of players, and some big ones will be or could be moving on this year.Kitchener’s No. 1 D and captain, Cameron Reid, a first-round pick of the Predators, was outstanding this week, producing in big minutes and finishing with a tournament-best plus-8 rating in just four games. Where he plays next year is very much “up in the air,” according to a source close to the player. With a potential management change coming in Nashville, there’s uncertainty around what the new brass will want to do with him. He’ll either go to college or sign and turn pro. Depending on how the particulars of the new rule potentially permitting first-round 19-year-olds to play in the AHL shake out, that could be an option for him. He just turned 19 in early April as well, so a return to a second World Juniors is likely in the cards for him as well. He’d be a big fish in the summer recruiting pond if the Preds decide that they think college is his best next step. Either way, it sounds like his junior career is over, and he won’t be back with Kitchener.Top Lightning prospect Sam O’Reilly was the best pound-for-pound player in junior hockey this season, and he finishes his junior career as one of the CHL’s most accomplished winners ever. Three OHL championships. Three Memorial Cup finals. Two Memorial Cups. One regular-season Most Outstanding Player award. One OHL Playoffs MVP. One Memorial Cup MVP. He was a point per game or better in all three of his Memorial Cups and finishes his 13 career games at the tournament with 17 points, the fourth-most in tournament history (Jean Pronovost and Taylor Hall hold the Memorial Cup scoring record with 19 points apiece). He was simply outstanding for the Rangers this year, finishing with 36 goals and 79 points in 50 combined regular-season, playoff and Memorial Cup games after the trade from London. But it’s the completeness of his game that defines him. He does it all. The biggest faceoffs. The toughest matchup assignments. Special teams. Five-on-five play-driving. Don’t be surprised if he’s in the Lightning’s opening-night lineup in October.Kitchener D Jared Woolley (Kings) and Everett center Julius Miettinen (Kraken) are among those who will make the jump to the AHL next year, while Kelowna’s Tij Iginla (Mammoth) is expected to compete for an NHL job, and others like Alex Huang (Predators/Harvard) and Maxim Massé (Ducks/UMass) are college-bound. Woolley scored a big goal on Sunday and was one of the top stoppers in the OHL over the last couple of years.On Jack Pridham, whose deadline to sign with the Blackhawks will come and go today, the sense I get is that he wanted an opportunity that the Blackhawks weren’t willing to promise him, and so the 2024 third-rounder will now try to find that somewhere else. He didn’t have a great finish to the OHL playoffs and saw his minutes reduced at times, but played well this week in Kelowna and scored his tournament-best fifth goal in the final. His skating and shot are his biggest assets.Quartet of draft eligibles finish strongThere were four draft eligibles of note playing the last hockey of the 2025-26 draft season at the Memorial Cup: Everett’s Matias Vanhanen and Brek Liske, Kitchener’s Alexander Bilecki and Chicoutimi’s Liam Lefebvre.Vanhanen finished the tournament with four goals and eight points in five games. He led the Silvertips in scoring this year and, after passing through the draft as a 5-foot-8 winger, is up above 5-foot-10 now. He’s a smart, playmaking winger who skates well and works.Liske has really grown on me over the course of the year and finished strong with 17 points in 18 playoff games (including a plus-25 rating!) after Smith got injured. He’s from small-town Manitoba (Beausejour, home to about 3,000) and is a two-way D who defends well, excels on retrievals and breaking pucks out, and is smart with the puck. Fun fact: His sister holds Manitoba’s U16 pole vault record as a 14-year-old and has aspirations to be an Olympian someday.Bilecki was the youngest player on this year’s Rangers team and averaged 17-18 minutes per game for them on the season, finishing with 43 points in 88 combined games across the regular season, playoffs and Memorial Cup for them. He would have scored more points on a lesser team, but his skating and good skill still shone through with the Rangers this year enough for him to get picked in the second or third round in this class. He’s still underdeveloped physically, too, and there’s a belief in his development runway and athleticism (he was a AAA baseball player until last summer). I liked him this week, and he made a big play on the opening goal of the final. Winning never hurts from an experience standpoint, either.Lefebvre’s Memorial Cup ended early in the semifinal after he was given a game misconduct for a staged fight. It was a fitting end to his year. He’s a big, strong, pro-bodied, physical forward who likes to mix it up and plays hard. He’s also got an NHL shot and plays a pro style. He might be the first of these four to get picked and could go as early as the second round. A Vermont commit, he’s an overager who made the jump from prep hockey to the QMJHL this year and, after a strong start in Rimouski, was Chicoutimi’s first-line right winger in their run to the Q title.All four players have been invited to the NHL Scouting Combine in Buffalo this week, and those invites are decided by NHL clubs and not NHL Central Scouting, so that places them each as in or around the top 100 (90 invited to the Combine plus the Russia-based prospects not attending) in this class.