The St. Louis Blues had two selections in the first round of the 2026 NHL draft last night, and with the second choice, it was 18-year-old Maddox Dagenais, from the Quebec Remparts of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League. Dagenais is a standout center bringing some much-needed depth to the 2nd most important position in hockey behind the goaltender, where last season saw him notch 30 goals and 32 assists for 62 points in exactly that many games, making him an insanely consistent scorer. He also added 3 more of each for 6 points in 11 playoff games for the Remparts that season as Quebec made it to the 2nd round before being swept by the eventual champions, Chicoutimi.
Dagenais is ranked 17th overall by Elite Prospects and 15th by North American NHL Central Scouting, and won a silver medal at the 2024 U17 World Hockey Challenge with Team Canada. This past season was a big step up for Dagenais as he greatly improved his scoring totals from 26 points in 2024-25 to more than double in 2025/26 with 62 points. At the international level, Dagenais has so far played in 9 total games with Canada's U17 and U18 squads and had a quiet yet somewhat productive 2026 World Juniors campaign, logging a goal and an assist in 5 games.
Dagenais is a tall center, standing 6'4 and weighing in at 198, making him perfectly physical for a typical NHL center. One could even argue he's a budding NHL defenseman with that kind of build, and he brings some much-needed depth to a Blues team that currently has stars like Robert Thomas, Dalibor Dvorsky, and the recently acquired Mason McTavish, who was picked up in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks that same night. Dagenais could find himself somewhere on the Blues' center line in the middle part, possibly taking over from veteran D man Pius Suter if St Louis decides to ship the 30-year-old out for another selection or free agency pickup.
It's worth noting that Dagenais wasn't the only solid pickup by the Blues in the 1st round of this year's draft last night. Joining him from pick 11 is a fellow center, Tynan Lawrence, from a perennial college hockey powerhouse in Boston University, which has produced numerous NHL stars past and present, such as Charlie Coyle, Jack Eichel, Clayton Keller, Charlie McAvoy, Brady Tkachuk, Jordan Greenway, Trevor Zegras, Jake Oettinger, Lane Hutson, Macklin Celebrini, and a bazillion more!
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