Ranking Every No. 1 Overall Pick in the NHL Right Now

Entering play on Thursday, the top-four scorers in the NHL were Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Macklin Celebrini, and Connor Bedard.

It is a great mix of established superstars who have been doing it for years, with multiple MVP awards and scoring titles between them (MacKinnon and McDavid), and the next wave of young talent that is getting ready to establish itself as the league's dominant players (Celebrini and Bedard).

There is also a common connection between all of them.

They are all No. 1 overall picks.

It is the first time in NHL history that the top-four scorers in the NHL are all No. 1 overall picks.

So with No. 1 overall picks dominating the top of the leaderboard, we thought it would be a good idea to rank all 20 No. 1 overall picks currently active in the NHL this season and their current level of play.

That point at the end is the key point to remember: Their CURRENT level of play. This is not a ranking of their overall careers. It is not a ranking of what they have already accomplished or of potential future performance. It is a ranking of their current level of play right now, as we sit in late November of the 2025-26 season. At least try to keep that in mind before you get mad about seeing players in their early careers sitting ahead of future Hall of Famers.

So let's get to it.

20. Steven Stamkos, Nashville Predators (Originally Selected by Tampa Bay Lightning)

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Remember: This is current play. Not overall career. Stamkos is a Hall of Fame player. A multiple Stanley Cup champion. He is the second-greatest goal-scorer of his era.

But he is currently a shell of what he was at his peak.

Maybe he needs a change of scenery. Maybe a fresh start in a better situation and on a better team can get him back on track, at least a little bit. But after showing some serious decline during the 2024-25 season offensively, he is off to an even worse start this season, with only five total points in his first 20 games. Only three of those points have come at even strength, and he does not have an overly impactful defensive presence or a strong possession-driving impact away from the puck.

19. Owen Power, Buffalo Sabres

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Power is one of two Sabres players on this list, and he is clearly the lesser of the two. It is not that he is a bad player (he certainly is not); he is just not much of a difference-maker as a No. 1 overall pick.

At least not yet.

He is still only 22 years old and is, at the very least, a very good, very viable top-four NHL defenseman. He is mostly just stuck on a bad team, in a bad situation, and has not really had a true breakout performance.

18. Patrick Kane, Detroit Red Wings (Originally Selected by Chicago Blackhawks)

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At his peak, Kane was one of the best players in the NHL and a key part of the Chicago Blackhawks' 2010s mini-dynasty. He is also one of the most productive American-born players of all time and a clear home run as a No. 1 overall pick. But again, we are not talking about career accomplishments here. We are talking about what these players are doing right now.

Kane is still an electric player on the power play, which is where almost all of his value comes from anymore.

His even-strength production, however, has taken a big hit in recent years, and he is a near-zero defensively when he does not have the puck on his stick. His flaws are severe, and he is a very one-dimensional player at this point in his career.

17. Alexis Lafreniere, New York Rangers

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There are many reasons the Rangers' rebuild has reached a plateau and not yet taken them to the next level. Their inability to develop all of their high draft picks and young forwards is high on the list.

They selected Lafreniere and Kaapo Kakko with top-two picks in back-to-back years, and instead of them becoming franchise cornerstones, Kakko was traded to Seattle for pennies on the dollar. At the same time, Lafreniere is a good but not great player. Will he ever get there? Does he need to go elsewhere to do so? Not all No. 1 overall picks develop at the same pace, and sometimes it takes a few years for them to reach their potential.

But Lafreniere is 24 years old, in the sixth year of his career, and has never topped 60 points or 30 goals in a season, and has done so only once, topping 50 points and 20 goals.

If he were going to become a superstar, you would like to see more signs of it by now.

16. Taylor Hall, Carolina Hurricanes (Originally Selected by Edmonton Oilers)

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Hall was an MVP with the New Jersey Devils and a legitimate top-line star with the Edmonton Oilers, even if they never fully appreciated what he did there and surrounded him with bad teams.

He's no longer that MVP-level player and has settled into a nice secondary option with Carolina. He is outstanding for the role the Hurricanes have him in right now. He can still contribute, he can still provide some offense, but he is just not the focal point of an offense anymore.

15. Juraj Slafkovsky, Montreal Canadiens

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Slafkovsky has not put up significant numbers in his career, but he's shown he's at least a 50-point player who can drive possession and play an excellent two-way game. He's an outstanding player, even if not a star.

At least not yet.

His underlying numbers this season are tremendous, but they have not yet translated into goals and points.

It will.

14. Matthew Schaefer, New York Islanders

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Schaefer is the most difficult No. 1 pick to rank right now because his sample size of games is so small at this point.

Do you put him at the bottom just because he has only played 20 games?

That does not seem entirely fair because those 20 games have been absolutely incredible, and the type of thing that is pretty much unprecedented from an 18-year-old rookie defenseman.

If you had to win one game right now, you would want him on your team, given what he has shown.

But is that enough to put him closer to the top, given how the jury is still very much out on him?

If we are going by here and now this season, and given what Schaefer has done this season, it is really difficult not to put him relatively high on the list. He is playing like a No. 1 defenseman -- and a very good one -- and there is a lot to be said for that. But ... again ... it's just such a small sampling of games, and we do not know how the rest of this season is going to play out. Will he hit a rookie wall? Can he maintain this over 82 games as a teenager?

A closer-to-the-middle ranking seems like a fair placement.

13. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Edmonton Oilers

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Nugent-Hopkins is about as run-of-the-mill as you can get for a No. 1 overall pick.

He's definitely not a bust and has put together a solid career that now spans more than a decade in the NHL. He's topped 100 points and is the fourth-leading scorer from his draft class.

He's been really good, and still is really good.

But he also isn't a superstar, which is what you hope to get with a No. 1 overall pick. But sometimes the draft class just isn't built for that. The only true superstar taken in his draft class was Nikita Kucherov, going in the second round.

Along with solid point production, Nugent-Hopkins has become a very good possession-driving forward later in his career and has the flexibility to play both down the middle as a center who can run his own line and on the wing. There is value in all of that.

12. Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals

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The NHL's goal-scoring king is still playing and still able to make an impact in the right situations. Specifically blasting one-timers from his office.

He is not the dominant force he was even a few years ago, and his value right now is primarily driven by his ability to score goals. Fortunately for the Capitals, he is still pretty good at that, and after a slow start to the season, he is starting to find his stride again with seven goals in his past six games, including Thursday's hat trick against the Montreal Canadiens.

He is back on a 39-goal pace, but with the way he is still starting to fill the net, that number could rise significantly in the coming weeks.

He might be an extremely one-dimensional player at this point. But he is still a top-20 player in that one dimension. And that one dimension also happens to be the very object of the game -- put the puck in the net.

11. Aaron Ekblad, Florida Panthers

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When Ekblad is healthy, he is the best defenseman on a team that has been to three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals and won each of the past two.

There is a lot to be said for that. The biggest knock on him is that he tends to miss a lot of games, while his offense has started to drop off a bit over the past couple of years. He is off to an especially tough start this season offensively, with only one goal and five total points in his first 20 games. But a lot of Panthers are struggling offensively right now, given the absences of Aleksander Barkov and Matthew Tkachuk. He's still a good player and an important player for the Panthers.

10. Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils

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Hischier is not going to wow you on the stat sheet, and he's not going to make a ton of highlight reel plays, but what he is going to do is give you outstanding two-way play.

Every year, you know you can pencil him in for 65-70 points and the type of defensive play that is going to put him in the running for the Selke Trophy. That's a tremendous player.

Hindsight says that defensemen Cale Makar and Miro Heiskanen should have been the top two picks in this class over Hischier and Nolan Patrick, but Hischier has at least become an outstanding two-way player and given the Devils a very good top center.

9. John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs (Originally Selected by New York Islanders)

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The Maple Leafs brought Tavares back on what is looking to be an outstanding team-friendly contract. He might be in his age-35 season, but he is still an outstanding offensive player and has been one of the few bright spots on an otherwise disappointing -- and dull -- Maple Leafs team so far this season.

He is currently on a 105-point pace through the Maple Leafs' first 21 games. It would not only be the highest single-season point total of his career, but it would demolish all of his previous career highs.

He still has some juice. If only he could share it with the rest of his team.

8. Connor Bedard, Chicago Blackhawks

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The offense is arriving for Bedard. He took a little bit of a step backwards in his second season, but progress is not the same for every top pick. Development can take time. Especially when you're playing on an awful team with little help around you, the way Bedard was.

This season, however, everything is starting to come together for him offensively, and he's already up to 29 points in 21 games despite not really having any top-tier NHL linemates.

His two-way play and play away from the puck are still a work in progress, but the offense is legit, and he's one of the biggest reasons for Chicago's solid start.

7. Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks

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Celebrini did not arrive in the NHL with the same level of hype as Bedard did, but he absolutely should have. Not only does he score like Bedard, but he's already a better defensive player and is absolutely relentless both away from the puck and at getting the puck back through battles along the boards. He's just an absolutely fierce, supremely talented player who is going to be one of the best players in the NHL for a long, long time.

If the Blackhawks and Sharks can ever build their teams into something, the Bedard-Celebrini matchups (and debates) are going to be a nice follow-up to the two decades of Crosby and Ovechkin arguments.

It's probably not quite on that level. But still a nice sequel.

6. Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres

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Do not let the stink of the Sabres franchise distract or distort your view of Dahlin as an individual player. He is sensational, a clear No. 1 defenseman, and at 25 is just now entering what should be the prime of his career.

The fact that Buffalo is incapable of doing anything with that is another black eye for ownership and management, because having a defenseman this good on your roster should be the foundation of at least a playoff team.

Instead, all the Sabres have done is jerk him around with different coaches, different systems, different messages, and a consistently bad team that's never even really been close to contending. Despite all of that, he's still found himself in the Norris Trophy discussion the past three seasons while being a 65-70 point defenseman. While he only has one goal in 17 games to start this season, he is still on another 68-point pace over 82 games. The Sabres also outshoot and outchance their opponents with him on the ice.

They don't when he is not on the ice.

5. Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils

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If only the Devils could keep him on the ice.

And now it is not just hockey-related injuries that are sidelining him.

When he is on the ice, Hughes is a dynamic offensive star who completely changes the vibe around the Devils and dramatically raises their ceiling. He could seriously compete for scoring titles and the MVP award if he could just play a full 82-game season.

He has not really had the opportunity to do that in his career just yet.

It has to be frustrating for both him and the Devils, because when he plays, his impact is noticeable.

4. Sidney Crosby, Pittsburgh Penguins

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Offensively speaking, Crosby absolutely still has the goods. He is still a No. 1 center with the puck, still a game-changer, still a relentless worker in the dirty areas, and still a tremendous captain and leader.

He's still scoring at 90-point levels as he gets into his late 30s and approaches his 40s. And given the way he is still going and the shape he is in, there is nothing to suggest he will not still be doing this into his 40s.

As great as he still is offensively, his defensive game has taken a big hit in recent years, which has to bump him down a little right now.

His run as the best player in the world might have come to an end. But he's still fairly high on the list and can still take over games. His presence is why it was always going to be difficult for the Penguins to be the high-lottery team so many people thought they would be this season.

Botton line: 87 still wins games.

3. Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs

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Some things about Matthews' start to the season should be somewhat concerning for the Maple Leafs, specifically that he has -- so far -- been only very good, not great. But it's also a small sample size, and now he is dealing with an injury that has kept him out of the lineup.

Even so, there is enough of a track record here that you should have the expectation that he can -- and will -- get back to being the elite offensive player he has been throughout his career. He's as dangerous a goal-scorer as there is in the NHL right now.

2. Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche

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The gap between No. 2 and No. 1 on this list isn't very big. It is a very fine line between the two of them, and you would not be wrong to argue that MacKinnon should actually be the person at the top of the list. He is just an absolute runaway freight train when he gets rolling through the neutral zone and is a dominant player all over the ice.

He enters play on Friday leading the league in goals and points and is the best player on the best team in the NHL. He's a monster offensively and an MVP contender every year.

1. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers

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McDavid's entrance into the NHL was built on so much hype that multiple fan bases around the league were actively cheering against their own teams late in the season to position themselves better for the draft. It turned out to be Edmonton that won the draft lottery to get him.

Like I said with MacKinnon, the gap between these two players is not all that large. They are clearly the two best offensive players in hockey, and both wow you with their numbers and the way they rack them up. One-man highlight reels every night.

When trying to split hairs between two great players, the tiebreaker for me is simply the fact that McDavid is doing his thing on a team with an absolutely horrendous supporting cast, both in terms of scoring depth and goal-prevention (defense and goaltending).

This Oilers team, as constructed, has had no business playing in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. It has no business having even nine wins and 23 total points in the standings this season. It is a testament to McDavid's ability to drag this team behind him that they have done that.