If you’ve read anything on Spartan Avenue over the past week, it’s probably something pertaining to either Moneyball or the NHL draft. You can’t blame me, it’s just that time of the offseason when there’s nothing going on outside of baseball, Moneyball, and NHL and NBA draft storylines.
Luckily, Michigan State has been dominating NHL draft headlines because of how well it showed out over the weekend with five first-round selections and nine picks overall.
ESPN went as far as proclaiming that Adam Nightingale and the Spartan hockey program were one of the biggest winners of the 2026 NHL Draft which is a rare shoutout for a collegiate team. Usually when there’s a list of winners from a pro draft, it’s teams or players that were selected, not the programs that they represent.
The Worldwide Leader in Sports shared another post-NHL draft shoutout to the Spartans without even realizing it. ESPN’s Rachel Kryshak graded every team’s draft class and — wouldn’t you know it — the organizations that drafted Michigan State players graded the highest.
That’s right, Michigan State hockey can seemingly do no wrong these days and fans are hoping that extends into the 2026-27 season.
If you want a high draft grade, pick a Michigan State player
Obviously the high grades were not solely because of the Spartans selected, but it was interested to see that the teams that picked Michigan State players in the first or second round were the best.
- Anaheim Ducks (Nikita Klepov) — A
- Nashville Predators (Tommy Bleyl) — A
- Seattle Kraken (Chase Reid) — A-
- Calgary Flames (Jack Hextall) — B+
- Utah Mammoth (Ethan Belchetz) — B+
- Florida Panthers (Jonas Kemps) — B
- Vancouver Canucks (Brooks Rogowski) — B
- St. Louis Blues (Nicholas Bogas) — B-
The lowest-graded team that drafted a Spartan was the Boston Bruins who selected Cullen McCrate No. 216 overall in the seventh round.
The five teams that picked Michigan State players in round one all received B+ grades or higher. The rest of the draft picks’ teams received B/B- grades. If that doesn’t tell you that Michigan State hockey is being looked at in a favorable light by pretty much everyone these days, I don’t know what will.
Teams are often graded heavily on their first-round picks as well as some steals later in the draft. I think it’s safe to say that some Spartans drove some of these high grades up.
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