The 2026 NHL Scouting Combine is in the books. After spending the week in Buffalo, N.Y., gathering info, here’s my second and penultimate first-round mock for the 2026 NHL Draft.These are my best predictions for the first 32 picks after speaking with agents, scouts, team staff and those around many of the players over the course of the year, combining sourcing with my sense for team need, each amateur scouting department’s preferences and the consensus around the top prospects’ projected draft ranges.Throughout, I’ve also mapped out potential contingencies and likely considerations for certain teams.1. Toronto Maple Leafs: Gavin McKenna, LW, Penn State (NCAA)People around the league are more and more convinced it’s going to be McKenna for the Leafs, and nothing I heard in Buffalo this week steered me in another direction. I know they like Chase Reid, but the sense I get is it’s McKenna. After their staff visited Whitehorse, he’s now visiting Toronto post-combine.2. San Jose Sharks: Ivar Stenberg, LW, Frölunda (SHL)The Sharks are the team other teams are having the toughest time pinning down, and it feels like that’s intentional. They took six players to dinner in Buffalo. I think that tells you two things: 1. It’s a by-design smokescreen around who they’re zeroing in on, and 2. If they decide to move back, they’ll have a clear Plan B target. Creating uncertainty about who you’re after also helps pressure others to move up to make sure they get their guy. For all of these reasons, the Sharks are the most interesting team at the top of this year’s draft order.The clearest need is obviously adding a top-pair defenseman, but Mike Grier has also made one thing clear: the best player available is his focus at the draft. And I wonder if Stenberg is Plan A and the defensemen are Plan B in the event that they move back. I’m not sure of that, but that’s my hunch. If they do take a D here, the league seems to think that Carson Carels and Reid are more likely at No. 2 than Keaton Verhoeff, all of whom had dinner with the Sharks. Don’t rule out Carels just because he’s a lefty like Sam Dickinson, either.3. Vancouver Canucks: Caleb Malhotra, C, Brantford (OHL)I believe McKenna and Malhotra were atop the Canucks’ board before all of the changes. Adding the Sedins, Ryan Johnson’s promotion to GM and Manny Malhotra as head coach to the equation does add a layer of complexity, but I haven’t gotten the sense that it fully changes it. I’ve had people tell me that both Manny and Caleb do feel a little queasy about the prospect of the scenario, but I’ve also heard it’s not a hard-and-fast no for them, and Caleb said the right things at the combine about it (that it would be special and that they could both handle it the right way).Ultimately, if Malhotra’s their guy, the player is also likely to outlive the coach, and that has to be the priority. Then you figure out the messaging and navigate it all with your players and fans as honestly and transparently as you can. I do wonder, if it’s Malhotra, whether that makes two years at BU more likely than one, so that once he makes the jump, there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind, internally or externally, that he’s NHL-ready and there is less room for questioning the opportunity he’s given at that point. That may be the best timeline for the player, regardless, too.4. Chicago Blackhawks: Carson Carels, LHD, Prince George (WHL)If the Sharks take one of the D, I think there’s a good chance Stenberg is available here. He feels to me and others like the perfect fit for them to secure Connor Bedard a worthy first-line running mate of the future. If Stenberg and the three top forwards are gone, however, I’d anticipate the Blackhawks will take one of Carels or Reid here (Verhoeff isn’t their type). Their trip to visit Reid has now been publicized, but don’t overlook Carels here. They’re very close in the consensus, and while you’re not making a decision on a No. 4 pick based on the handedness of your roster, I don’t think it hurts that he could play opposite righties Artyom Levshunov or Sam Rinzel someday, either.5. New York Rangers: Chase Reid, RHD, Soo (OHL)I’ve heard the Rangers like Verhoeff and mocked him to them in my first mock, but I’m also starting to think there’s a chance Reid gets here, and if he does, I think they’d take him. The Rangers are the first of these teams that I think would give serious consideration to Alberts Šmits as well. He’s one of the closest D to the NHL, which I think matters for New York still, and he has some of the swagger they’ve been drawn to in the past.6. Calgary Flames: Alberts Šmits, LHD, Munich (DEL)I’m in the same place on the Flames as I was in my first mock: I keep coming back to the left-shot D (the Flames feel to me like Carels’ absolute floor, and then Šmits) and the centers (Viggo Björck and Tynan Lawrence). I’d heard they like Lawrence, but the sense I have coming out of Buffalo was that Lawrence is no longer viewed in the same light as the top D and Björck by the league. And while Björck is definitely their type, I do wonder about the size of their forward pool with Cole Reschny, Ethan Wyttenbach and Cullen Potter.It’s hard not to draw the line between Verhoeff and his longtime pal Reschny as well, but Šmits would give them a better foil to their talented up-and-coming righties.7. Seattle Kraken: Keaton Verhoeff, RHD, North Dakota (NCAA)The Kraken have used four top-10 picks on forwards, and this draft is tailor-made for them to finally invest in a stud D prospect. They’re promised to have at least two of the top five D available to them when they pick, and could have three if someone takes a swing on Björck early. In this scenario, it’s Verhoeff or Daxon Rudolph, both of whom they took to dinner in Buffalo. The Kraken were one of Verhoeff’s two dinners in Buffalo, and he would fill a clear need. He’s also teammates with Kraken prospect Ollie Josephson at North Dakota.8. Winnipeg Jets: Viggo Björck, C, Djurgården (SHL)Finding a future play-driving top-six center has to be a priority for the Jets, and increasingly, I think teams believe Björck is going to be that player. If it’s not Björck, or if he’s already been picked, attention probably turns to the remaining D (Rudolph in this scenario). They obviously have the two young Swedes in Elias Salomonsson and Sascha Boumedienne, but the former is a lesser prospect than Rudolph, there are doubts about the latter, and while the Jets could really use a top C, they could also certainly use a top D.