1/12: The NHL has officially announced that Buffalo will host the 2026 NHL Draft on June 26th and 27th per NHL.com’s Adam Kimelman.
1/9: The NHL Draft could be returning to Buffalo, New York this year. The Buffalo Sabres have made an earnest push to host the First Round of the 2026 NHL Draft, sources told Mike Harrington of The Buffalo News. A potential return to draft day in Buffalo was first teased by broadcaster John Buccigross on Thursday.
Buffalo has hosted three other NHL Drafts. It became the third American city to serve as host in 1991, seven years after the NHL moved away from a yearly trip to Montreal. The Quebec Nordiques drafted centerman Eric Lindros first-overall in Buffalo, but the future Hall-of-Famer refused to sign with the club, prompting a trade to Philadelphia in 1992. Meanwhile, the NHL Draft didn’t return to Buffalo until 1998, when the Tampa Bay Lightning drafted Vincent Lecavalier with the top pick. By then, the league had begun traveling to a new city every year for the Draft, which kept the league from returning to Buffalo again until 2016, when Auston Matthews landed with the Toronto Maple Leafs at first-overall.
The 2026 Draft will be unlike any previously held in Buffalo, though. NHL general managers voted to decentralize the NHL Draft beginning last season. This format is more in-line with other professional sports leagues, like the NFL, and saw NHL management teams stay in their home city while draft prospects were greeted on stage by league personnel. The change in format was criticized by fans and media after the 2025 Draft wrapped up but NHL managers voted to uphold it headed into 2026.
That places a unique challenge on the next host to try and spark a format that landed flat last year. The heap of talent set for the first-round in 2026 could make that task a bit easier. The hockey world is in the midst of debating the first-overall chair after hopefuls Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg, Keaton Verhoeff, and Chase Reid dueled out at the 2026 World Junior Championships. Stenberg – a standout in Sweden’s top pro league – earned the last laugh of the tournament with a Gold Medal win. Whether that trend will continue through June – and into host city Buffalo – is yet to be seen.