Rangers Excited About Chance To Add Cornerstone Piece In Top Five Of Draft

The New York Rangers will hold a top-five pick in the 2026 NHL Draft coming up on June 26.

The NHL Draft Lottery is set for May 5, in what will be a critical day for the Rangers’ organization. 

To close out the 2025-26 season, the Rangers finished 30th in the NHL league standings with a 34-39-9 record and 77 points, which means the Blueshirts have the third-best odds to land the first overall pick. 

At the May 5 draft lottery, the Rangers will have a 11.5% chance to get the first pick, 11.2% chance to get the second pick, 7.8% chance to get the third pick, 39.7% chance to get the fourth pick, and 29.8% chance to get the fifth pick. 

This draft will be a golden opportunity for the Rangers to land a potential cornerstone piece going into the future.

“It's exciting because we can potentially add a high-quality player that could potentially be a New York Ranger for a long time,” Mike Sullivan said. “And so from that standpoint, it's really exciting.”

We’ve seen a number of top-five picks in recent years make immediate impacts for their respective teams upon arrival, including Macklin Celebrini, Matthew Schaefer, Leo Carlsson, Beckett Sennecke, Ivan Demidov, and many more. 

“We’re excited it’s in the top five,” Chris Drury said of the Rangers’ 2026 first-round pick. “Will see on May 5 to where it is.”

The last time the Rangers held a top-five pick was in 2020, when the team selected Alexis Lafrenière first overall, while they drafted Kaapo Kakko second overall in 2019.