ohl priority selection returns to in-arena format in kingston, with surprise early picks
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toronto maple leafs centre john tavares and his son jace (right) greet kane cloutier on stage after the oshawa generals made the vaughn kings forward the first pick in the 2026 ohl priority selection. the league staged its draft at slush puppie place in kingston on friday, june 12, 2026. (photo by jan murphy/kingston whig-standard)
the 2026 ohl priority selection featured a surprise first pick, an assortment of celebrity guest stars and a few suspenseful twists and turns in kingston on friday night.
for the last quarter century, the league had conducted its draft of under-16 players in conference-call and online formats, but this year restored it as an in-arena event like the nhl entry draft.
the ontario hockey league recruited a few star names to spice up the mix at slush puppie place, including toronto maple leafs centre john tavares, nhl calder trophy winner matthew schaeffer of the new york islanders, and, for hockey hall of fame content, kingston native doug gilmour.
with the first overall pick, the oshawa generals selected kane cloutier of the vaughn kings u16s. cloutier was called up to the stage by tavares, himself a no. 1 pick of the generals. while cloutier was highly regarded, draft handicappers didn’t have him as the no. 1. mckeen’s hockey had the five-foot-11, 159-pound centre as the fifth-ranked prospect.
next up were the erie otters, who went even farther outside the box, picking colin kennedy, a centre from sault ste marie, ont., who played for the detroit little caesars u15s last season. the consensus ontario top 100 released by ohl last week had kennedy slotted eighth and mckeens ranked him ninth.
centre tanner adams, the top-ranked ontario-born player according to the scouting services, was snapped up by the brampton steelheads with the third overall pick. adams, a timmins native, played for the hill academy u16 team last season and racked up 29 goals and 48 assists in 51 games last season.
the top-ranked defenceman in the province, adrian sgro, went fourth overall to the sarnia sting. sgro was a teammate of cloutier with the vaughn kings last season.
the 20 first-round picks comprised 17 ontario players and three americans. the first american selected was max lappan, a defenceman from michigan who went to the niagara icedogs with the ninth overall pick.
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the event’s host team, the kingston frontenacs, had their former gm gilmour announce their pick and the selection of logan prud’homme, at 10th overall, drew a great roar and made for a study in contrasts — a centre from nepean, ontario, who played for upper canada college last season is, at six-foot-eight, almost a foot taller than gilmour.
likely the most surprising turn in the draft came with the next pick when the north bay battalion selected owen loftus, a goaltender from the don mills flyers. just one other goalie has been a first-round pick in the ohl priority selection in this decade (jack ivankovic who was selected seventh overall in 2024 by mississauga). loftus had been the top-ranked goaltender according to priority selection handicappers, but the consensus ontario 100 had him slotted at 61, a third- or fourth-rounder.
the priority selection will resume saturday at 9 a.m. with the second round. if no team passes up a pick, 300 players will be selected over the course of the two days.
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