Inside The Islanders’ Options With The No. 13 Pick In The 2026 NHL Draft
The Islanders hold the No. 13 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. Here's a look at the organizational need, potential targets, and whether a trade could make more sense.
After serving as the New York Islanders’ good luck charm at the 2025 NHL Draft Lottery, Ken Morrow was back as their representative for the 2026 Ping Pong spectacle.
Although the Islanders, who sat with the 13th best odds at 2.0%, weren’t able to win the lottery for a second straight year — if they won, they would have selected third overall as the rule states a team can only move up a max of 10 spaces — Morrow brought bad luck to the cross-town rival New York Rangers.
The Rangers, who entered with the third-best odds at 11.5%, fell back two spaces and will now select fifth.
That’s baseball, Suzyn.
Hey, listen. Before we continue, I respect the work of draft gurus and prospect analysts. The reality is, it’s just an incredibly difficult thing to judge and get right now more than ever, with the addition of mental strength and personality tests during the interview process.
That doesn’t mean we aren’t going to talk about what happens in late June for the Islanders when they head to the podium at No.13 — or do they?
Diving in, folks, on this Wednesday.