Who Are the Most Recent First Overall Picks in NHL Draft?

The 2026 NHL Entry Draft is only one day away, and all eyes are on the Maple Leafs, who have this year’s first overall pick.

Toronto is expected to draft generational forward prospect Gavin McKenna with the top pick. McKenna just spent a year playing in the NCAA with Penn State. 

This is the first time in 10 years that the Leafs have had the first overall pick, with the last time being the pick that landed them team captain Auston Matthews. 

Here’s a look at the other recent first overall selections in the NHL Draft. 

Most Recent First Overall Picks in NHL Draft

2025: Matthew Schaefer, D, Islanders

Last year’s first overall pick selection was defenseman Matthew Schaefer. The Islanders earned the first overall selection despite having only a 3.5% chance to win the lottery.

Schaefer is a Hamilton, Ontario native and spent two seasons with the Erie Otters in the OHL. He had 22 points in 17 games played in his second year with the Otters in 2025. 

Schaefer was a favorite to be drafted first overall in last year’s draft and it paid off incredibly well for New York. 

He had 59 points in 82 games played last season and had a +13 plus/minus rating. That outing earned him a unanimous Calder Trophy win. He became the second-straight defenseman to win the award. 

Maybe more important for the Islanders, Schaefer helped them improve their record by nine points.

2024: Macklin Celebrini, C, Sharks

In 2024, the Sharks selected center Macklin Celebrini from the NCAA’s Boston University with the first overall pick. 

In the two years following that selection, Celebrini has become a surefire ‘future-face-of-the-league,’ a member of the 2026 Team Canada silver-medal winning Olympic team, and a Hart Trophy candidate in his second year in the league. 

Celebrini won the Hobey Baker Award, college hockey’s equivalent of the Heisman, in 2024. He had 64 points, 32 goals and 32 assists, in 38 games played with the Terriers. That BU team also appeared in the Frozen Four. 

In his first season with San Jose, Celebrini had 25 goals and 38 assists in 70 games played. He finished in second-place in the Calder Trophy race, losing to his former Terrier teammate Lane Hutson. 

Then in the 2025-26 season, Celebrini played in all 82 games and had 115 points. That performance gave him a fourth-place finish in the Hart Trophy race. 

Celebrini was also the leading goal scorer in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics, with five goals. He finished in second in points behind Connor McDavid. 

2023: Connor Bedard, C, Blackhawks

In 2023, Chicago selected Connor Bedard with the first overall pick. 

Before McKenna, Schaefer before him, and Celebrini before him, Bedard was the next sure-thing prospect to come out of the Great North. Sadly, however, Bedard’s professional hockey experience has been a little more like Dirk Diggler’s 1980s than Diggler’s 1970s. 

Bedard played with the WHL’s Regina Pats from 2020 to 2023. In his final year with the Pats he had 143 (!!!) points in 57 games played. 

In his first season in the NHL, Bedard had some injury problems, played in only 68 games, and had 61 points. He played 82 games his second season and had 67 points. Then this past season he had 75 points in 69 games. 

The Blackhawks have not made the playoffs or shown much improvement at all since drafting Bedard. They had a 26-49-7 record, had 59 points, and finished 8th in their division in the 2022-23 season, a record that earned them the right to the first overall pick. 

In the three years since they’ve finished 8th in their division each year and have only been able to improve by 10 team points. 

Celebrini’s lone major accomplishment since joining the NHL has been winning the Calder Trophy and appearing in the All-Star Game in 2024. But since then, he hasn’t appeared in another All-Star Game or been selected to a Canadian national team. 

This upcoming season has to turn out better for Chicago and Bedard.