On Tuesday, the Athletic's Scott Wheeler unveiled his newest top 100 drafted prospect rankings, and unsurprisingly, the names dominating the top of the list are players who haven't even made their NHL debuts yet. 

Gavin McKenna, taken first overall by Toronto, sits at the very top, while Ivar Stenberg, who went right behind him to San Jose, checks in at second overall. One of the more eye-catching results near the top belongs to a player who didn't even go where many expected on draft night. 

Chase Reid slipped to seventh overall to Seattle, yet Wheeler still has him rated as the No. 5 prospect in all of hockey, making him the third-best player to come out of the 2026 class in his eyes, trailing only McKenna and Stenberg. The rest of the top four is filled out by holdovers from last year's draft, Philadelphia winger Porter Martone at third and San Jose forward Michael Misa at fourth.

Winnipeg's footprint on the list is modest compared to some organizations, but the two names that did appear carry real significance for the franchise. The bigger story is where Viggo Björck ended up. 

The Jets took him eighth overall just two weeks ago, and Wheeler already has him inside the top ten leaguewide, ahead of several players who came off the board earlier in the same draft, including Carson Carels and Daxon Rudolph, along with other well-regarded 2026 first-rounders like James Hagens, Sam Dickinson and Michael Hage. 

For a player Winnipeg didn't necessarily expect to fall to them, that kind of placement suggests the Jets may have landed one of the steals of this year's class, and possibly one of the better selections the organization has made in years.

The other Jets name on the list, defenseman Elias Salomonsson, showed up much further down at 61st overall, but the company he's keeping there is notable in its own right. 

Wheeler has him rated above names like Tampa Bay's top prospect Sam O'Reilly, Toronto's top prospect Easton Cowan, and Detroit's Max Plante, this year's Hobey Baker Award winner, another sign that Salomonsson's stock continues trending in the right direction as he pushes for a full-time NHL role. 

With Björck already drawing praise and Salomonsson continuing to trend upward, the hope in Winnipeg is that quality can outweigh quantity, and that both prospects can make an immediate impact soon enough to help push a team already knocking on the door of contention over the hump.

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