OHL Steelheads draft 17th overall pick, Tanner Adams

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  • Christine HiltonSeptember 12, 2026 09:41 AM ET

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      Kristen Shilton is ESPN’s NHL reporter.

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The Brampton Steelheads of the Ontario Hockey League acquired the rights to forward Tanner Adams from the Sudbury Wolves for 17 draft picks in a blockbuster trade Friday night.

Brampton’s haul includes 15 OHL priority draft picks. In addition, through the OHL’s compensatory draft process, the Steelheads also received the fifth overall pick and a second-round pick (projected to be the 43rd overall pick) in the 2027 OHL Draft.

Adams was selected by Brampton with the third overall pick in the 2026 OHL Draft. He was the league’s unanimous No. 1 pick before the draft, but Adams was only interested in playing for the Wolves.

Adams, 16, was born in Porcupine, Ont., and played minor hockey in Timmins, Ont., about a three-hour drive from Sudbury. Adams is a skilled center and a standout star for Caledon Hill Academy’s U16 AAA team, scoring 88 points in 52 games before the Steelheads cut him.

He did not enter June’s draft, and it is believed he and his family would have preferred Adams to play closer to home in Sudbury than elsewhere.

While the Wolves missed out on drafting Adams, they signed another top forward, Kash Kwajah, with the fifth overall pick.

“We are excited to bring Tanner to Sudbury. He is a leader and an elite individual,” Wolves general manager Rob Papineau said in a statement. “His passion for joining Sudbury and being a Sudbury Wolves means everything to him. Adding Cash to our team after being able to draft him makes this our best draft in the last decade. Our staff believes they are the two best players in the draft, so it’s great to have them both join our team.”

The Steelheads now have an overwhelming number of draft picks to build their roster for years to come, even if it doesn’t include Adams.

“We were really hoping that Tanner would be with us in Brampton, but that seems less and less likely as time goes on,” Steelheads general manager James Richmond said. “I think we did the right thing with our players and our hockey club. Now let’s move forward and try to leverage some of those assets and build with a trade or two.”

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