The first round of the 2026 NHL Entry Draft will take place tonight at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, NY. Day 1 of the draft begins at 7 p.m. with ESPN doing the broadcast honors in the United States. Rounds 2-7 will take place tomorrow with NHL Network broadcasting the Day 2 coverage starting at 11 a.m.
After sending two first-round picks to Ottawa to bring Brady Tkachuk south earlier this week, general manager Bill Zito isn’t slated to make his first selection until early in tomorrow’s second round (40th overall), so barring a trade to get back into the first round, the Cats will simply enjoy the night and get back to business mañana.
Here is the order of tonight’s first round:
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- San Jose Sharks
- Vancouver Canucks
- Buffalo Sabres (from Chicago)
- New York Rangers
- Calgary Flames
- Seattle Kraken
- Winnipeg Jets
- San Jose Sharks (from Florida via Ottawa)
- Nashville Predators
- St. Louis Blues
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- St. Louis Blues (from Detroit)
- St. Louis Blues (from Washington)
- Los Angeles Kings
- Washington Captials (from Anheim)
- Utah Mammoth
- Buffalo Sabres (from Edmonton via San Jose)
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- Boston Bruins
- Vancouver Canucks (from Minnesota)
- Ottawa Senators (from Tampa Bay via Florida and Seattle)
- New York Rangers (from Dallas via Carolina)
- San Jose Sharks (from Buffalo)
- Montreal Canadiens
- St. Louis Blues (from Colorado via NY Islanders)
- Calgary Flames (from Vegas)
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Ottawa Senators
Panthers Draft Outlook
After opening with its own pick (40th overall), the Panthers will make their next selection (48th overall) rather quickly in the second round, using the pick they received from the Washington Capitals for Justin Sourdif.
According to The Athletic’s James Mirtle, it’s paramount that the Cats hit on those selections.
Florida is all in on the present, having now traded their next four first-round picks after the Brady Tkachuk deal. No one will be surprised if they have a massive bounce back to respectability in 2026-27, especially if everyone is healthy, and the draft isn’t a key focus for the organization. Given the age of this roster and the players heading to UFA in 2027, however, the Panthers need someone who can help in their contention window, which means ASAP. It’s possible they can find that at picks 40 and 48, but they’ll have to really ace those selections.
The Cats won’t step to podium again until early in the fourth round when they make the 98th overall pick, which they got from the Chicago Blackhawks as part of the Seth Jones/Spencer Knight trade.
Florida next two selections will come in the sixth round (168th overall and 181st overall). The first pick is their own while the second pick was originally Philadelphia’s and acquired in Thursday’s trade for Garnet Hathaway.
The Panthers will close out the draft by making a seventh-round pick (217th overall), thanks to the trade that sent defenseman Jeff Petry to the Minnesota Wild on March 5.
So, what happened to the Panthers’ other picks?
As I mentioned above, the Cats’ pair of first-rounders went to the Senators, with Ottawa flipping the ninth overall pick to the San Jose Sharks for William Eklund. The Senators still maintain possession of the 25th overall selection.
Florida’s third-round pick (72nd overall) also belongs to Ottawa as the result of the trade that brought Vladimir Tarasenko to Sunrise on March 6, 2024.
The Cats fourth-round pick (104th overall) will be taken by the Sharks as the result of a trade on March 6, 2025, that sent Nico Sturm and a seventh-round pick in 2027 to Florida.
Their fifth-round selection (136th overall) was traded to the Flyers in the aforemention deal for Hathaway.
Florida’s seventh-round pick (200th overall) belongs to the Blackhawks as the two clubs swapped choices on June 28, 2025 with the Cats getting Chicago’s seventh-rounder that year in return for this pick.