Below is our pre-Hlinka 2026 NHL Entry Draft ranking for Euro-based skaters.

Going into the draft season, this class is led by three excellent forward prospects that currently have size as their only evident shortcoming.

Despite their size, we still project Viggo Bjorck and Vitkor Fyodorov as centers, because of their hockey sense and smarts. The Russian in particular already plays a detailed game with notable two-way acumen.

None of the three top forwards are going to attend the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Czechia and Slovakia, for different reasons.

#6-ranked Simon Katolicky is also missing the tournament after undergoing appendix surgery last month, while Tomas Chrenko and Adam Novotny are not eligible as late 07-born (like Ivar Stenberg). This means of our eight top-ranked prospects only two (Swedes Malte Gustafsson and Elton Hermansson) are going to play at the first event of the draft season.

From the #5 ranked prospect on, we have a tight group of about ten players.

Beyond that, there seems to be more depth than last year and hopefully this feeling will only be reinforced by the Hlinka tournament that is about to get underway, and grow further during the season.