The NCHC currently has the reigning national champions, the Denver Pioneers. The conference is bringing in a lot of 2026 draft picks, with a lot of them in the first round. So who are the names, and which teams have the most players drafted on day one?
The NCHC has seven first-round picks in the conference this season, with five out of the seven being from the 2026 NHL draft. Only three schools have players drafted on day one, with a large gap between the top spot and the second. The University of North Dakota leads the pack with four first-rounders, the University of Denver has two, and the University of Miami (Ohio) has one.
For North Dakota, they’re headlined by defensemen Carson Carels and Keaton Verhoeff. Carels was drafted sixth overall by the Calgary Flames, and Keaton Verhoeff was drafted ninth by the San Jose Sharks. Carels was in the WHL for Prince George last season, and Verhoeff played his draft year with North Dakota, where he looked to build off last year’s 20-point season. From the 2025 draft, they have another Flames prospect with Cole Reschny, who is the highest scorer coming back from last year’s squad. 2024 first-round pick by the New York Rangers, E.J. Emery, is going into his junior season and will be in another shutdown role next season, where it may be his last before going pro.
Although the University of Denver only has two first-rounders, they have the first defenseman taken off the board in 2026 with Daxon Rudolph, who was taken fourth overall by the Buffalo Sabres and lit up the WHL last season with the Prince Albert Raiders, where he had 78 points in 68 games. The second 2026 first-round pick was Ryan Lin, who was taken 21st overall by the Sharks, so it’ll be some time until he and Verhoeff team up.
The final school is Miami, which had Ilya Morozov drafted in the first round after playing his freshman season with the program, where he became the highest-drafted player out of the University of Miami. Morozov had 20 points in his freshman year, which was 6th on the team.
This conference is thin in first-round picks, but they arguably have the highest top talent out of all the conferences, with three players who were drafted top 10 this past year. This pool of players was filled with defensemen who will be huge additions to their teams in search of a National Championship.
