Three Skaters I'm Buying Before the 2026-27 NHL Season

This post is based on cards from my personal collection and players I’m personally targeting this season. I’ll update it as the season goes and my thinking changes.

A few years ago, Matthew at Uptown Cards — you might know him as Cool AF Cards on eBay and Instagram — told me something that changed how I collect. I was just getting back into the hobby, and I asked him how he decided what to buy every year. His answer, paraphrasing: pick one or two players before the season starts, and go all-in.

Not ten players. Not a spreadsheet of sleepers. One or two names you actually believe in, bought before anyone else is convinced.

What Happened When I Actually Did This

I picked Macklin Celebrini.

He’d just come off a rookie season that got cut short by injury, and he didn’t win the Calder — he finished third, behind Lane Hutson and Dustin Wolf. On paper, that’s a guy who didn’t quite live up to the No. 1 pick hype in year one. I bought in anyway.

Then 2025-26 happened. Celebrini played all 82 games, put up 115 points, broke Joe Thornton’s single-season franchise scoring record, and was a finalist for the Ted Lindsay Award — the NHL’s most outstanding player as voted by the players themselves, alongside Nikita Kucherov and Connor McDavid. In July, the Sharks made him the highest-paid player in NHL history, signing him to a five-year, $94 million extension carrying a record $18.8 million annual value. Cards that looked like a reasonable bet after year one sit in a completely different part of the market now.

That’s the whole lesson. The best buying opportunity is rarely the player whose breakout is already obvious. It’s the one you have a real reason to believe in before the league catches up.

So here’s who I’m picking this year.

The Players I’m Targeting

Porter Martone

Sixth overall in 2025, and he didn’t wait around for a normal rookie ramp. He spent his freshman year at Michigan State — 50 points in 35 games, only freshman named All-Big Ten First Team — then signed his entry-level deal at the end of March and jumped straight into a Flyers playoff push. Ten points in his final nine regular-season games, and he was a real difference-maker as Philadelphia snapped a five-year playoff drought and upset Pittsburgh in the first round.

He’s not a hidden name anymore after that stretch. But a full training camp, a full season, and no NCAA schedule in the way changes what’s possible. This is the season he stops being “the guy who helped down the stretch” and starts being a full-time NHL winger.

Michael Misa

Here’s the correction I made to my own thinking on this one: Misa isn’t a player about to have his rookie year. He already had it, in 2025-26, and it wasn’t the breakout everyone expected from a No. 2 overall pick. He played 45 games, scratched or hurt for a chunk of the rest, and finished with 21 points. Not bad — just quiet, and mostly because he never got a real runway.

That’s actually the case for him, not against him. It’s almost the same shape as Celebrini’s rookie year: real talent, limited opportunity, written off a little too fast because the counting stats didn’t scream superstar yet. Misa himself said it after the season — “I think we’re going to take another step this year.” San Jose is building something with Celebrini, Misa, and now Ivar Stenberg (more on him below) all in the same young core. If Misa gets the runway this time, the sophomore leap could be significant.

Beckett Sennecke

I’ll be straight about this one: I had Sennecke pegged as an under-the-radar pick, and the research proved me wrong before I ever wrote this. He wasn’t overlooked in 2025-26. He finished third in Calder voting after tying for the rookie goal-scoring lead and helping Anaheim make the playoffs for the first time since 2018. Matthew Schaefer won it — unanimously, that part I had right — but Sennecke was one of only three players in the league even in that conversation.

So the pitch on Sennecke isn’t “he’s about to arrive.” He already arrived. The pitch is that a 20-year-old who just had a finalist-level rookie year, on a young Ducks roster that’s suddenly a playoff team, is still priced like a guy waiting for his shot. He isn’t waiting anymore.

The Rookies I’m Watching

These three aren’t picks yet — they’re names I’m tracking heading into their first real NHL seasons.

Ivar Stenberg — drafted second overall in 2026, by San Jose. Yes, the same Sharks who already have Celebrini and Misa. Central Scouting ranked him the top international skater in his draft class (Gavin McKenna led the North American ranking), and he helped Sweden win World Junior gold with 10 points in seven games. If San Jose is building a young core around Celebrini, this is the next piece of it.

Cole Hutson — younger brother of Lane Hutson, the 2025 Calder winner. Cole made his NHL debut for Washington in March after John Carlson was traded to Anaheim, and his first few games — including a goal in his debut against Ottawa — offered an early glimpse of the offensive upside that made him such an intriguing college defenseman. Now I want to see what he does with a full NHL season and a larger role on Washington’s blue line in front of him.

James Hagens — seventh overall in 2025 by Boston, and a Hobey Baker Top 10 finalist after leading Hockey East with 47 points in 34 games at Boston College. He turned pro on an AHL tryout with Providence in March, signed his actual NHL entry-level deal a couple weeks later, and made his NHL debut in April — recording an assist in a win over Columbus as the Bruins clinched a playoff spot. My own read heading into camp: he’s got a real shot at time at both wing and center, could end up playing alongside speedy playmakers like Fraser Minten, and there’s a world where he sniffs first-line minutes next to David Pastrnak with real power-play time attached. That’s the kind of role that turns a promising rookie into a card people are chasing by Christmas.

Why I’m Writing This Down

Partly because Matthew’s advice was right, and I want a record of whether I’m applying it well or simply talking myself into players I already like.

It’s also the thinking that happens before I ever open CrackorKeep. First I decide which players and cards I believe belong in my collection. Then I use the tool to decide whether a specific copy is actually worth sending for grading.

I’ll revisit this after the season starts. If Martone, Misa, or Sennecke takes another step, I’ll update the post with what changed, which cards I bought, and whether my original reasoning still holds up.

Have a player you’re targeting for 2026-27? Send me a message . I’d genuinely like to hear the case for someone I’m not already watching.