Behind Gavin McKenna, a Loaded 2026 Blue-Line Class: Verhoeff, Reid and Carels for Dynasty Builders

Gavin McKenna's grip on the No. 1 slot in the 2026 NHL Draft has been settled for months, but the more interesting question for dynasty and keeper-league builders is what comes right behind him. The answer this year is unusual: a deep, defenseman-rich tier headlined by North Dakota's Keaton Verhoeff, with OHL blueliner Chase Reid and Carson Carels close behind. With the draft set for KeyBank Center in Buffalo on June 26-27, the back half of the top 10 looks like a run on right-shot defensemen, and that has real implications for how prospect managers should set their boards.

A defenseman-heavy second tier

The McKenna tier is a tier of one. The consensus framing has him as the most heralded prospect since Connor McDavid, and the projected No. 1 to Toronto, so the draft's intrigue starts at No. 2. From there, the class skews toward the blue line in a way most years do not. NHL Central Scouting's final North American rankings placed several defensemen in the top handful of skaters, and mock drafts have repeatedly slotted blueliners into the early picks.

Verhoeff is the headliner of that group. The North Dakota standout has been ranked as high as the top three on various boards and No. 4 among North American skaters by Central Scouting, and what separates him is that he is not the pure shutdown type his size suggests. Scouts describe a creative, offense-driving game from the back end, including double-digit goals from the point in his NCAA season, and the most-cited NHL comparables attached to him have been names like Drew Doughty and Alex Pietrangelo. For a draft-eligible defenseman, that offensive profile is exactly what dynasty formats prize.

Why the position matters for dynasty

In fantasy hockey, defensemen and forwards are not interchangeable assets, and the scarcity math runs in the blue line's favor. Most rosters require multiple defensemen, and the supply of blueliners who produce points, especially power-play points, is thin relative to demand. A defenseman who can quarterback a power play and chip in even-strength offense holds value that a middle-six forward simply does not, because the replacement level at the position is so much lower.

That dynamic is why a defenseman-heavy draft class is a gift to dynasty managers who are paying attention. Verhoeff, Reid and Carels project as the kind of long-horizon assets that pay off precisely because elite scoring defensemen are hard to find on the waiver wire years down the road. The caveat is timeline: defensemen historically take longer to mature into NHL roles than forwards, so these are stash-and-wait picks, not win-now adds. Managers in deep keeper formats should price in patience.

Fantasy fallout

The practical board-setting takeaway is to separate fantasy upside from draft-slot prestige. In real-NHL terms, teams picking in the top five may simply choose the style of defenseman they prefer and trust they are getting a cornerstone either way, but for fantasy, the offensive profile is the differentiator. Verhoeff's projected power-play-quarterback ceiling is the most fantasy-relevant trait in the group, because power-play time is the single biggest multiplier of a defenseman's point totals.

For managers in single-season or shallow formats, none of these defensemen will matter for a while, and that is the point: do not reach for them at the expense of NHL-ready production. For dynasty and deep keeper managers, the order of operations is to value the projected role and power-play upside over the raw draft position. A defenseman who lands with a team that will eventually trust him on the top power-play unit is worth more than one drafted higher into a crowded blue line, even if the names look similar on a ranking sheet.

The Verdexed model take

Verdexed's prospect framework discounts forwards and defensemen differently because of how their values age and how scarce production is at each position. The model's view on this class is that the defenseman tier offers better risk-adjusted dynasty value than a typical draft, because the depth at the position pushes quality blueliners later than they would normally go, letting patient managers acquire scoring-defenseman upside at a relative discount.

The actionable read: in dynasty rookie drafts, the model favors taking the best projected offensive defenseman available over a comparably ranked forward once the elite forward tier is gone, specifically because of positional scarcity and the multiplier effect of power-play deployment. Verhoeff is the cleanest expression of that logic in this class, but the broader principle, prioritize scoring defensemen when the class is deep at the position, is the edge worth internalizing for any builder.

Betting and futures angle

There is a real-team read embedded in a defenseman-deep draft, and it matters for long-horizon futures bettors. Clubs picking in the top 10 that draft for the blue line are signaling a multi-year build around their back end rather than a quick offensive fix, and that choice shapes how those rosters trend over the next several seasons. A rebuilding team that adds a potential top-pairing, power-play-driving defenseman is investing in the kind of asset that historically anchors contention windows, even if the payoff is years away.

The specific angle is to note which lottery and near-lottery teams come out of Buffalo with cornerstone defensemen versus those that chase forwards. Blue-line development is slower and less linear than forward development, so the futures impact is delayed, which means the market will not price it for a while. For bettors thinking in multi-season terms, the teams that quietly stockpile scoring-defenseman upside in a deep year like this are the ones whose long-range outlooks are improving faster than their current odds suggest. That is a patient bet, but a deep defenseman class is exactly the environment that rewards it.

What's next

The immediate catalyst is the draft itself on June 26-27 in Buffalo, where the back half of the top 10 should clarify just how heavy the run on defensemen becomes and which teams land which blueliners. The destinations matter for dynasty value, because organizational depth chart and eventual power-play opportunity will shape these prospects' fantasy ceilings as much as their talent. After the picks are in, the work for managers is to track development environment and projected power-play role rather than draft slot. The actionable takeaway is simple: in a defenseman-rich year, lean into the position's scarcity, target the offensive profiles like Verhoeff's, and be willing to wait for the payoff.