Nine NHL franchises have never held the first overall pick in the draft: Vancouver, Calgary, Carolina, Anaheim, Nashville, Minnesota, Vegas, Seattle and Utah. Vancouver has waited the longest, 56 seasons since entering the league in 1970, and the Canucks are the only club on that list that has actually owned a first overall pick. They traded it away without using it.
Toronto took Gavin McKenna first overall in 2026 after winning the draft lottery from the fifth-best odds, which was 8.5%. Details of the selection are in NHL.com’s draft report.
Every NHL team’s last first overall pick
Ordered by most recent selection. The draft began in 1963, so the table covers 64 drafts.
| Team | No. 1 picks | Most recent | Player |
|---|---|---|---|
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 3 | 2026 | Gavin McKenna |
| New York Islanders | 5 | 2025 | Matthew Schaefer |
| San Jose Sharks | 1 | 2024 | Macklin Celebrini |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 2 | 2023 | Connor Bedard |
| Montreal Canadiens | 6 | 2022 | Juraj Slafkovsky |
| Buffalo Sabres | 4 | 2021 | Owen Power |
| New York Rangers | 2 | 2020 | Alexis Lafreniere |
| New Jersey Devils | 3 | 2019 | Jack Hughes |
| Edmonton Oilers | 4 | 2015 | Connor McDavid |
| Florida Panthers | 2 | 2014 | Aaron Ekblad |
| Colorado Avalanche | 4 | 2013 | Nathan MacKinnon |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 3 | 2008 | Steven Stamkos |
| St. Louis Blues | 1 | 2006 | Erik Johnson |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 3 | 2005 | Sidney Crosby |
| Washington Capitals | 3 | 2004 | Alexander Ovechkin |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 1 | 2002 | Rick Nash |
| Winnipeg Jets | 2 | 2001 | Ilya Kovalchuk |
| Boston Bruins | 3 | 1997 | Joe Thornton |
| Ottawa Senators | 3 | 1996 | Chris Phillips |
| Dallas Stars | 3 | 1988 | Mike Modano |
| Detroit Red Wings | 3 | 1986 | Joe Murphy |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 1 | 1975 | Mel Bridgman |
| Los Angeles Kings | 1 | 1967 | Rick Pagnutti |
| Anaheim Ducks | 0 | Never | |
| Calgary Flames | 0 | Never | |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 0 | Never | |
| Minnesota Wild | 0 | Never | |
| Nashville Predators | 0 | Never | |
| Seattle Kraken | 0 | Never | |
| Utah Mammoth | 0 | Never | |
| Vancouver Canucks | 0 | Never | |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 0 | Never |
Credit goes to the club that made the selection, not to whoever originally held the pick. Relocated franchises carry their history, so Calgary includes the Atlanta Flames, Carolina includes the Hartford Whalers, Dallas includes the Minnesota North Stars, Colorado includes the Quebec Nordiques and the Winnipeg Jets here are the former Atlanta Thrashers. The 32 rows add up to 63 selections across 64 drafts, and the missing one is Dale Hawerchuk in 1981, taken by the original Winnipeg Jets, a franchise that became Phoenix, then Arizona, and is now dormant rather than relocated.
Which NHL teams have never had a first overall pick?
Nine: Vancouver, Calgary, Carolina, Anaheim, Nashville, Minnesota, Vegas, Seattle and Utah. The list splits cleanly in two. Four of them are old enough that the absence is remarkable, with Vancouver at 56 seasons, Calgary at 54, Carolina at 47 and Anaheim at 33. The other five are either recent expansion clubs or, in Vegas’s case, a team that has never been bad enough for long enough, having reached three Stanley Cup Finals in nine seasons. Nashville sits between the groups at 28 seasons.
Which NHL team has waited longest for a first overall pick?
Los Angeles, which last picked first in 1967 and has waited 59 years. The Kings used that selection on Rick Pagnutti, a defenceman who never played a game in the NHL. Philadelphia is second at 51 years, having taken Mel Bridgman in 1975, and that is also the only first overall pick in Flyers history. Detroit follows at 1986 and Dallas at 1988. The 1967 draft is worth a caveat of its own, because the sponsorship system then in force kept most of the best junior players out of the draft pool entirely, so a 1960s first overall selection is not the same asset as a modern one.
Who was the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft?
Gavin McKenna, taken by Toronto. The Maple Leafs finished 28th in 2025-26 and held the fifth-best lottery odds at 8.5%, then won the first drawing on 5 May 2026. San Jose won the second drawing and selected Ivar Stenberg. The pick very nearly did not stay in Toronto: it was top-five protected and owed to Boston, so a 56.2% chance existed that the Maple Leafs would fall out of the top five and hand it over. Winning the lottery kept McKenna in Toronto and pushed Boston’s conditional pick into a later draft.
Who have the first overall picks been over the last ten drafts?
Ten different players and nine different clubs, with Toronto the only repeat. In order from 2026 back to 2017: Gavin McKenna to Toronto, Matthew Schaefer to the New York Islanders, Macklin Celebrini to San Jose, Connor Bedard to Chicago, Juraj Slafkovsky to Montreal, Owen Power to Buffalo, Alexis Lafreniere to the New York Rangers, Jack Hughes to New Jersey, Rasmus Dahlin to Buffalo and Nico Hischier to New Jersey. Buffalo and New Jersey each picked first twice inside those ten drafts, in 2018 and 2021 and in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Nine of the ten went to a club that has either never won the Stanley Cup or has not won one since 2003, with Chicago the only exception.
Which NHL team has had the most first overall picks?
Montreal, with six: 1963, 1968, 1969, 1971, 1980 and 2022. The New York Islanders are next with five, and Buffalo, Colorado and Edmonton have four each. Montreal’s total is inflated by the era rather than by failure, because four of the six came before 1972 under rules that let clubs acquire the pick in ways no longer possible. The 1971 selection of Guy Lafleur is the clearest example, arriving after Montreal bought California’s first-round pick a year in advance and then traded a player to Los Angeles in a way that helped ensure California finished last.
Has an NHL team ever traded away the first overall pick?
Six of the 64 first overall picks were made by a club that did not originally own the selection, and the 1999 draft is the one worth telling. Tampa Bay held the pick and traded it to Vancouver. Vancouver then traded it on to Atlanta, in exchange for Atlanta agreeing not to select either of the Sedin twins, which let Vancouver take Daniel and Henrik at second and third. Atlanta used the pick on Patrik Stefan. So the one club on the never list that has held a first overall pick gave it up deliberately and got two Hall of Fame forwards for doing it.
