Lancers add three more NHL draft picks on day two

Omaha added three more NHL draft picks to its franchise ledger as Zach Wooten, Bobby Cowan and Artem Prima were selected during day two of the 2026 NHL Draft at KeyBank Center in Buffalo. The trio pushed the Lancers to 85 NHL Draft selections since the club began play in 1986, keeping Omaha second among USHL teams and reinforcing the franchise’s place in the league’s development chain.

The Winnipeg Jets took Wooten in the fourth round with the 116th overall pick. Wooten played 13 games for Omaha in 2024-25, scored two goals and added three assists before being traded to Green Bay, then carried that momentum into Wisconsin hockey. His Lancers line included both goals in a Nov. 9 game at Muskegon, one of the clearest snapshots of the offense Omaha helped unlock before he moved on.

Cowan’s path ran through more stops. He skated for Omaha in his first junior season, then moved to Madison before finishing his freshman year at Western Michigan with 24 points in 39 games. The New York Islanders used the 205th pick in the seventh round on Cowan, giving the former Lancer a draft-day payoff after a college season that showed he could keep producing after leaving junior hockey.

Prima gave Omaha the strongest late-season return. The Utah Mammoth chose him 211th overall in the seventh round after he arrived in Omaha in late February and put together 14 points in 17 games. He recorded at least one point in 12 of those 17 games and strung together an eight-game point streak from March 13 to March 29. Prima also opened the year with Minot in the NAHL, where he posted 26 points in 28 games before his move to the USHL, a stretch that made him one of the weekend’s clearest development wins for the Lancers.

The draft weekend fit Omaha’s broader record. The program has won seven USHL league championships, produced NHL alumni such as Paul Stastny, Ryan Donato, Erik Haula, Patrick Wiercioch and Martin Hanzal, and has now seen at least one player picked in 33 straight NHL Drafts dating to 1991. Omaha’s 2026-27 schedule already points to the next chance to showcase that pipeline, with the season opening at the USHL Fall Classic on Sept. 16-19 and the first home games set for Sept. 25-26 against Des Moines.