There is far from a consensus at the top of the 2026 NHL Draft. Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg highlight the top available forwards, but there are a handful of defencemen who are projected to be selected in the top-10.

Any of Chase Reid, Keaton Verhoeff, Alberts Smits, Daxon Rudolph or Carson Carels could be the first to hear their name in June’s draft. While every prospect will be happy to land with any NHL team, one Canadian defenceman in particular desires to land in his home country.

Carels joined Don Taylor and Rick Dhaliwal on Thursday on Donnie & Dhali and was asked about what it would mean to him to be drafted by the Vancouver Canucks:

“Yeah, I’d be really excited,” Carels said. “It’d be a good thing. I mean, I’m kind of hoping it’s a Canadian team that drafts me and we can get Canadian hockey back and try to bring a Stanley Cup back to Canada.”

Carels is a 17-year-old, left-shot defenceman, playing for the Prince George Cougars. The 6’2″, 194-lb blueliner had a massive draft year with the Cougars, where he scored 20 goals and 53 assists for 73 points in 58 games, with a plus-23 rating. Carels finished tied for second in points for the Cougars with undrafted 19-year-old Brock Souch, trailing only Washington Capitals 2024 first-round pick Terik Parascak’s 79 total.

In the postseason, Carels continued his impressive play, tallying one goal and nine assists for 10 points in 10 games. He had his playoffs cut short, however, after his Cougars lost their second-round matchup against the Penticton Vees 4-2.

The Cypress River, Manotiba native, represented and was named Captain of Team West at the 2026 WHL Top Prospects game. In CanucksArmy’s standouts of the game, Carels was the first player of note:

“Despite the loss, it was so evident that Carson Carels was the best player on the ice. He was dominant with the puck on his stick, weaving through traffic in the neutral zone. And when he didn’t have a running mate to pass to, he would dump the puck in and was first in on the forecheck, battling against East defenders – and often won his board battles.

“Considering the point totals and high-end draft pedigree, I was impressed with Carels’ physical play. He laid a lot of heavy, bone-crushing hits along the boards. He took a pair of penalties as well for his physicality: a boarding penalty on a big hit, and a goaltender interference penalty for running over the East netminder.”

Carels is projected to go anywhere in the top-10 range. Luckily for him, there are plenty of Canadian teams picking in that range: the Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, and the Winnipeg Jets.

The NHL Draft Lottery is set for Tuesday, May 5. However, he will have to wait until June 26 to see if one of those teams is in a position to select him and keep the Canadian defenceman in Canada.