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...
Kraken Prospects Just Made Seattles Roster Battle A Lot More Interesting
The Krakens preseason opener at Climate Pledge Arena gave the roster race an immediate jolt, and not just because it was a 4-2 win over Vancouver. With the regular season looming larger than usual in a shortened exhibition schedule, Seattle got a useful look at a wave of prospects who are pushing to be part of the conversation, and the pace of the game offered plenty of the kind of details coaches tend to track closely this time of year.
Jani Nyman, Logan Morrison, Ty Nelson and Jake OBrien were among the young players who made the night worth watching, helping turn an ordinary preseason game into an early test of depth. Joey Daccord also gave Seattle a steady foundation by turning aside all 14 shots he faced over two periods, and with power-play chances and noticeable plays coming on both sides, the bigger question now is how much this performance changes the shape of the next round of roster decisions. [Read more 🡒]
Kraken Prospects Have Little Time To Force A Tough Roster Decision
Training camp is underway for the Kraken, and with preseason games fast approaching, the organization is beginning to sort out which young players can make a real push for NHL minutes ahead of the 2026-27 season. This is the kind of stretch when prospects stop being names on a depth chart and start getting measured against the pace, structure and physical demands that come with the next level.
For Seattle, the opportunity is there, but the window is not a long one. As the roster takes shape, the coming exhibition slate will be the first real test of whether the clubs young challengers can do enough to create a difficult decision for management before the games start to count. [Read more 🡒]
Vince Dunn Is Still Crucial For Kraken But One Question Looms
Vince Dunn spent the 2025-26 season doing what the Kraken have come to expect from him: taking on a heavy workload and driving play from the blue line. He appeared in 81 games, finished with 44 points, and remained a fixture on Seattles top defense pair next to Adam Larsson, giving the club a steady presence in all situations while continuing to grow into one of its most important skaters.
The longer the Kraken lean on Dunn, though, the more they have to think about what comes next. His current deal runs through the 2026-27 season, which means Seattle has only a limited window before his future gets more complicated, and that makes his status a meaningful storyline for a team that still wants stability on defense. [Read more 🡒]