NHL opening rosters include 12 teens, 433 Gen Z players
Five first-round picks from the 2026 draft are among the 723 players on the league’s opening-day lists.
The NHL named 723 players to its 2026-27 opening-day rosters on Tuesday. Of those, 433 — 59.9 per cent — are Gen Z, down from 61 per cent last season, according to the league's roster breakdown. Canada accounts for 306 players and the United States 192.
Twelve teenagers made the lists, including five 18-year-olds selected in the first round of this year's draft: Gavin McKenna with Toronto, Ivar Stenberg with San Jose, Alberts Smits with the New York Rangers, Viggo Bjorck with Winnipeg and Nikita Klepov with Anaheim. The NHL says this is the first time since 2016-17 that at least five players from one draft class have made their teams' opening rosters the following season.
Brent Burns, 41, is the oldest player on an opening roster. The Colorado Avalanche defenceman made his NHL debut on Oct. 8, 2003; 90 players on today's rosters were born on or after that date. Corey Perry and Alex Ovechkin are also 41, while Evgeni Malkin is the only other 40-year-old expected to play this season.
Players born outside North America make up 31 per cent of the opening rosters. Sweden leads that group with 75 players, and the league lists 16 birth countries in all. Chicago has the youngest roster, averaging 26.4 years.
Twenty players on the lists have yet to make their NHL debuts. The league identifies Anaheim forward Judd Caulfield and Dallas goaltender Remi Poirier as the oldest of that group.
