The 2027 NHL Draft picture is already starting to take shape, and the early line points west. A handful of teams look set to spend the season chasing the wrong end of the standings, whether they want that kind of attention or not. The prize is obvious: a shot at Landon DuPont next summer.
Chicago, Seattle, Calgary and Vancouver stand out as the four clubs most likely to be in the first-overall conversation.
The Chicago Blackhawks feel like a team stuck between phases. Connor Bedard will miss the first month or two of 2026-27 while recovering from a shoulder injury he suffered during offseason training, and even without him, the roster still has a lot of holes.
The forward group has talent, but it’s young and largely untested. Frank Nazar could take a step forward, while Roman Kantserov and Anton Frondell bring upside, though growing pains seem inevitable.
The real problem is on defense. Chicago has already tried leaning on young blue-liners, and the results haven’t been pretty.
Artyom Levshunov, the No. 2 overall pick in 2024, has struggled mightily in the NHL. Kevin Korchinski has had the same issue and, at this point, is leaning more toward being a draft bust than a legit NHLer.
Bowen Byram is now in the mix after being acquired and signed to a lucrative extension, but it still has to be seen whether he can carry the load as a No. 1 defenseman. With an over/under of 79.5, the Blackhawks could easily land below that number and wind up needing lottery help to get to the very top.
Seattle is a different kind of candidate. The Kraken aren’t trying to lose, but they also don’t look like a playoff team on paper.
They finished with 79 points last season and carry an over/under of 81.5 for 2026-27. The issue is star power, or the lack of it.
Matty Beniers remains an underrated defensive forward, but he still hasn’t broken out offensively. Berkly Catton has real potential, though he’s still probably another season or two away from becoming a top-six forward.
Outside of Jared McCann and maybe Jordan Eberle, the top nine is packed with middle-six types. That’s part of why Seattle has made big plays for Artemi Panarin and Jason Robertson in recent months.
Until they land a player like that, though, the draft may be their best path to a true game-breaker. Even without any intention of tanking, they could wind up in the top five - or even top three - by the end of the season.
Calgary’s outlook is just as uneasy. The Flames overachieved in 2024-25, then slipped back last season and now look headed for a rebuild stretch that could get rough fast.
Up front, the group may be the weakest in the league. Morgan Frost is coming off a 22-goal, 43-point season, but he’s not a first-line center.
Matvei Gridin looks promising, and Matt Coronato has upside, but that’s about where the comfort ends.
There’s more promise on the blue line thanks to Šimon Nemec and Zayne Parekh, though both are likely to take their lumps as they try to establish themselves as top-four NHL defensemen. Dustin Wolf gives Calgary at least one real reason for optimism.
He had a down season, but in 2024-25 he was one of the best goaltenders in the league, posting a .910 save percentage in 53 starts and keeping the Flames in the playoff hunt. Even so, the roster around him looks too thin.
Calgary could easily end up with the first- or second-best odds in the lottery.
Vancouver may have had the wildest season of the bunch. After opening the year with an over/under of 90.5, the Canucks collapsed to 58 points and finished last in the NHL. They traded Quinn Hughes before the calendar even flipped to 2026, and Adam Foote was gone after one year behind the bench.
Now it’s a new setup. Ryan Johnson is the new GM, and Manny Malhotra has been promoted to replace Foote as head coach.
That should help, but it won’t be enough to make Vancouver a playoff team. The Canucks may not be quite as bad as they were last season, yet they still look like a team that will spend plenty of time in the first-overall race.
If Malhotra can help develop players like Zeev Buium and Marco Rossi, that would be a positive. Getting Elias Pettersson back on track would matter even more. But the bigger reality remains the same: Vancouver is likely to be in the hunt for the best odds in the draft lottery.
There are a few wild cards, too, and they all reinforce the same point: the league’s worst teams may be concentrated in the West. In the East, the lowest over/unders belong to the Detroit Red Wings and New York Rangers at 86.5. Even so, it’s hard to see the Rangers, Red Wings, Boston Bruins or New York Islanders sinking all the way to the 70-75 point range.
Winnipeg is another team to keep an eye on. The Jets will likely trade Connor Hellebuyck in the next few weeks, and what they get back could reshape their place in the standings. They’re not worse than the four teams above right now, but that could change once Hellebuyck is gone.
The 2027 first-overall race won’t take long to heat up. Some clubs are already set up for a difficult year, and others may realize quickly that playoff hopes are slipping away. The sweepstakes for Landon DuPont should be on soon enough.
In Other News...
Flames Camp Cuts Already Hint At A Crowded Roster Battle
The first round of Flames camp trimming came quickly after practice sessions, a sign that the roster picture is already starting to narrow before the real battles get fully underway. Calgary moved four players to the AHL's Calgary Wranglers, a routine early step for players on AHL contracts who do not have to pass through the NHL waiver process.
Even with those assignments, the camp still has plenty of bodies in the mix. The roster now sits at 48 players when you include NHL and AHL contracts, a professional try-out and an unsigned draft pick, which leaves enough room for competition but not much margin for anyone trying to hang around on the edge. [Read more 🡒]
Flames Just Put Hunter Brzustewicz In A Tough Spot
Training camp has a way of sorting out the pecking order quickly, and for Hunter Brzustewicz, the first glance was not especially encouraging. The Flames split their opening groups into Team Red, which looks like the NHL side of the ledger, and Team Black, which is mostly made up of younger players and those headed for the minors. Brzustewicz spent last season getting into 34 NHL games, so being on the Black side of the divide is a notable step back in the early camp picture.
The reason for the squeeze is pretty clear. Calgary added Simon Nemec over the summer, and that only thickens the competition on the right side of the blue line. For Brzustewicz, it means the path back to a regular NHL job is a lot less straightforward than it looked a few months ago, and the next stretch of camp should say a lot about whether he can force his way into the conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Ottawas Season May Come Down To Which Ullmark Shows Up
Linus Ullmark is heading into a fresh season with a noticeably different vibe, saying he feels positive and recharged after a difficult year that included a mental health leave. Ottawa is clearly trying to give its goaltending situation more structure around him, adding Maciej Szwoch as co-ordinator of goaltending scouting and development while also setting up a timeshare in net with backup Samuel Ersson, who recently signed a two-year deal.
For the Senators, the early read on this season may hinge on which version of Ullmark they get on a night-to-night basis. There is reason for optimism in the way he is approaching camp, but there is still plenty of curiosity about how quickly the new support system around him translates into steadier play when the games start to matter. [Read more 🡒]