2026 NHL Entry Draft Could Be Legacy-Defining for BriseBois

(Photo by Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images)

The 2026 NHL Entry Draft starts this Friday, but for all intents and purposes, the Lightning’s draft starts Saturday. They enter the draft without a first-rounder for the seventh time in the past nine seasons (and their two actually selected first-rounders never played a game for the Lightning). That being said, the number one should mean a lot to those looking towards this weekend.

It’s the number of full-time NHLers Julien BriseBois has drafted in his seven years at the helm of the Lightning,

49 players drafted. Nine who have played in the NHL in some capacity (whether with the Lightning or not). The only one who has established themselves as a full-time NHL player: Gage Goncalves.

Some recent picks look promising, like 2024 5th-round pick Joona Saarelainen and 2025 4th-round pick Benjamin Rautiainen. Heading into this weekend, the Lightning don’t need a game-breaker. They need some stability in their draft process.

When the Bill Becomes Due

The Lightning have been a contender and a winner over the past 12 years for a multitude of reasons. One of them is keeping the contention window open with hidden gems late in the NHL draft: 

• 2014: Brayden Point in round 3

• 2015: Anthony Cirelli in round 3 and Mathieu Joseph in round 5

• 2016: Ross Colton in round 4

• 2017: Nick Perbix in round 6

Here's the problem. The window doesn't stay open forever, and Tampa is now feeling the draft on the other side of it.

The Lightning have lost in the first round four years in a row. The core that won those Cups is aging: Kucherov is 33, Hedman is 35, McDonagh is 37, and Vasilevskiy will be 32 when the season starts. 

Kucherov is still otherworldly; he just won his second Hart Trophy with 130 points. But you cannot ride a 33-year-old forever, and behind him the cupboard is nearly empty.

It Won’t Be a Snap of the Fingers

BriseBois isn't walking into Buffalo to grab Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg. Barring a trade, their first pick this year comes at pick 58.

This draft defines BriseBois's legacy because he has so little to work with. It's a test of whether the scouting and development operation can still find NHL players when it isn't handing out the table its lottery tickets every February. The dynasty was built on late-round magic, as discussed above. But every one of those hits came under the Yzerman regime, in 2015 or earlier. BriseBois hasn’t found the same type of magic.

If he can use a high second-round pick and a stack of fifth-rounders to unearth even one real contributor, the story changes. If the 2023-2025 classes (Ethan Gauthier, Ethan Czata, and company) start hitting, the whole story changes. And it would be very BriseBois to package those picks and trade up for a younger, cost-controlled body instead.

But if this draft comes and goes like the six before it, then the math becomes impossible to ignore. You cannot win-now forever when there's no later, and "later" comes at the draft table.

The Lightning’s pipeline is thin at all three levels, but the defensive core and the goaltending group are especially weak.

At the end of the day, the things that made Yzerman and BriseBois such a great team in the 2010s were Yzerman’s drafts and BriseBois’ trades. If BriseBois can continue packaging these picks and prospects into great players (Brandon Hagel, Conor Geekie, J.J. Moser, Sam O’Reilly), then the window will stay open. But eventually, every delicious meal comes with a check, and this bill is pretty long.