NML’s 2026 MLP Draft Big Board – Men
We might end up writing something about the lack of care the MLP has put into its draft content, but that will be a post-draft thing, if at all. We had expected that the draft results would not be shared until Sunday. Earlier this evening, MLP posted on their socials (8:57 pm EST on X) that they WILL have a live draft show, which is the first time any such live coverage has been advertised. It would appear they literally decided on this today as they were previously only advertising the draft reveal show on Sunday.
Anyway, we hadn’t planned to post this until a little later on Friday morning, but we wanted to get it up before the EARLY 10am EST draft start time and now live coverage. Wow!
This is our men’s MLP 2026 big board. Our women’s board is here and breakdown of all the top teams and bottom teams going into the draft.
(1) Jonathan Truong – Truong has not had much in the way of big wins, but he has quality results that point to a guy who has real upside to him. He has fast hands and does a really good job creating offence out of the air off his backhand. His match with Wyatt Stone against Tardio/Johns highlighted what he might be capable of with more reps.
(2) Tama Shimabukuro – The results are trending up in all 3 disciplines. Size, his backhand counter and ability to create offense out of the air are tools that give us more immediate cause for concern. Basically every short player gets compared to Hayden Patriquin, but Hayden is a real outlier. The only other guys in the top 40-ish of men around Hayden’s heigh right now are Jaume Martinez Vich and Wyatt Stone. Nevertheless, we will forever be of the mindset that teams should be playing for first place, not for 6th place, and the 15-year-old has shown that his unconventional style is more than worthy of a shot at the top of this draft. It is always noteworthy when a player finds competitive results with partners who don’t sniff those results with anyone.
(3) Dylan Frazier – This may seem crazy to have Dylan at #3, but we are viewing this from the standpoint of whether Dylan Frazier can be your #2 male on a championship team. His men’s remains a step or two below the very top of the game, and the mixed is fine at best. Dylan is better right now than the guys above him on this board, but we’d rather take a shot on unknown talent than Dylan in 2026, if the goal is a championship at some point.
(4) Jack Sock – If you can find the right infrastructure to keep him accountable and focused, and squint hard, there is a world where Jack Sock could be a sneaky selection for a team with title aspirations. He can’t be your lead dog, but it would be interesting to see him on a team like Brooklyn or Orlando, if Orlando had better women. The doubles results have been trending up since the end of 2025.
(5) Armaan Bhatia – We wonder if Armaan’s recent slight uptick in results may stem from getting used to the level of play he is facing after coming over to the US full-time. He’s got the profile of a guy who can be a big-time player, but it remains to be seen whether he truly has big time upside.
(6) Will MacKinnon – It has been a concerning start to 2026 for Will MacKinnon, whose stock has to have gone down since January 1st. The Riley Newman partnership has been borderline disastrous and, partnership fit issues aside, one thing that stands out about Will when watching him is how much he misses. He’s new to the PPA, but he’s not super new to the sport, and the eye test on his miss rate is alarming. Combine that with his low energy and short-ish stature, and he would scare us as a guy to build a franchise around. Still, he has some high-end tools, and he has to be worth a flier for teams hoping to find their dude to build around.
(7) Tyson McGuffin – At this point in his career, Tyson is a ball-making, right side male who can play a decent mixed. Tyson’s refusal to make wholesale changes to his game might finally be starting to catch up to him in doubles. We’re just not sure what a roster with Tyson McGuffin as one of your starters gets you in 2026.
(8) Camden Chaffin – Cam is best known right now for his big singles breakout in Minnesota. However, he has some intriguing doubles skills, most notably soft hands and silky drops. As is the case with a lot of the junior players, he has a bit of a funky style, and it is harder to gauge where the physical development of these still developing juniors will end up. Upside is the name of the game for us and lands Chaffin at #8.
(9) Len Yang – A new PPA signee who just played his first event as a signed player last week, Yang’s best quality is likely his countering. Wyatt Stone is a name that comes to mind who is likely farther ahead in his development than Yang, but we’d be more inclined to see what Yang can provide versus Stone, who has been around the block.
(10) Wyatt Stone – He keeps getting better, little by little, and he may find himself in position to be a starter in this 20-team MLP landscape.
(11) John Lucian Goins – We liked Goins more as a prospect part-way through 2025, but the results have stagnated for him to a degree. He has very long strokes in doubles, which may be sub-optimal for long-term development. He also mentioned on Travis Rettenmaier’s podcast last year that he doesn’t watch any film of himself, which struck us sub-optimal as well. Goins fits well as a bench singles player, who has upside to get better in the doubles game and will hold up if needed in a pinch.
(12) Chris Haworth – It doesn’t feel like the doubles is ever going to be there for Haworth with his style of play, but he has to be near the top of the list for a few teams going into the second half of the draft. His singles is too good.
(13) AJ Koller – If you have 2 strong men’s singles players in your starting lineup, AJ Koller should be on your bench. He proved to be the ultimate hired gun in MLP over the past two years and should be on a roster in the right situation.
(14) Luca Mack –He showed out in singles with a controversial win over Zane Ford towards the end of 2025. He’s now signed to the PPA and looking to make some noise and had some good Houston Challenger results last weekend. We really like the idea of finding guys who have strong singles abilities and have shown doubles capability.
(15) Michael Loyd – The upside is fairly limited for Loyd, but he offers a baseline level of competence with singles ability to boot.
(16) Martin Emmrich – Emmrich is a lower-end AJ Koller. He only fits on the bench of a team that doesn’t need a singles specialist and would prefer to have a veteran glue guy who won’t look out of place on the doubles court. The lefty thing is awkward for a bench player in mixed.
(17) Tyler Loong – Much like Tyson, the game is finally starting to catch up to Tyler to the point where his results are dipping significantly below his previous baseline. It might be silly to have him up this high, but he also could fit in on the bench as a solid veteran.
(18) Tom Protzek – He might be worth a roster spot if he can find a home where he is utilized as a right-side men’s doubles player. We continue to be aggressive in our view of Protzek but his skillset stands out as someone who can be separate from the pack.
(19) Rafa Lenhard – Another Challenger alumni, Lenhard fits the mold of good singles with doubles upside. We don’t have super strong opinions on a number of these guys, but these players make sense from a more theoretical team building standpoint.
(20) Adam Harvey – Harvey is similar to Crouch in that he has shown strong singles ability and there is reason enough to believe there is more doubles upside in his game. He’s worth a look on a bench as a double dip type of situation.
(21) Zane Ford – Ford looked like he might surpass Zane Navratil as the better Zane last year, but he plateaued with his results quickly. He’s an interesting talent who is very concerning from the standpoint of you never know what’s going on with his head. The talent is good enough to be drafted again. The off-court stuff might keep him off a lot of team big boards.
(22) Luc Pham – Yet another newly signed PPA player. He played with Tama Shimabukuro in Mesa and had a big upset win over Dylan Frazier in singles in Mesa. He might fit the mold of good singles, with some doubles upside.
(23) Braden Jacobson – We had two separate people highlight Jacobson as a breakout player in 2026 before the year started. He has a very aggressive game with one of the most unique twoeys out there. Again, he could be worth a flier in the second half of the draft.
(24) Marshall Brown – If you want some veteran doubles play with above average singles play on your bench, Marshall might be your guy. Dependable is what you’re going to get with him.
(25) Anderson Scarpa – A more dependable doubles but less capable, but still capable, singles player compared to Marshall Brown.
(26) Grayson Goldin – We wanted to highlight Grayson Goldin, who terrifyingly suffered two strokes recently and has been on the shelf as a result. He would be in the mix for one of these bench spots, but he might be off most team boards given his uncertain health situation. He has said he expects to be back on the court.
(27) Anouar Braham – Another Challenger guy who has worked his way up as a singles guy and some interesting doubles results.
(28) George Rangelov – There’s a bunch of these Challenger/Qualifier guys who are hard to differentiate at this point in their early careers.
(29) Chris Crouch – Another newly signed PPA guy, who worked his way up from the Challenge series. He has limited results and we have limited viewing of his game, but there have been some encouraging signs for him on the singles and mixed side (men’s not so much).
(30) Connor Mogle – Challenger singles guy with some quickly improving results.
(31) Matthew Barlow – He just made a semi-final run in Mesa and had a good win with Cam Luhring over Riley Newman and Will MacKinnon. We don’t know enough to have him higher, but the results alone are intriguing to warrant a bench spot.
(32) Austin Bricker – Bricker grinded a bunch of qualifiers before finally getting his signed PPA deal. His singles game doesn’t fit the mold of what we’d be looking for from that perspective. At the same time, if you’re a low spending team that has no shot at a tile, do you really care if your bench guy can play singles?
(33) Yates Johnson – He’d be a good guy to have around your team and he’s been showing some decent singles ability since fully being back from his injury.
(34) Gabe Joseph – Gabe has never sniffed an MLP court because he can’t play doubles well. However, he has to be on the radar for some teams as a singles specialist.
(35) Jace Morris – Another youth movement guy we haven’t seen play really. It’s quite possible there isn’t much difference between someone like Jace Morris and Austin Bricker.
(36) Andre Mercado – The teenager hasn’t really had a result outside of his fun Masters performance with Tama Shimabukuro, which indicates it was more of a Tama driven result than anything.
(37) Juan Benitez – Players seem to love Benitez, but the results don’t seem to love him as much.
(38) Brandon French – French keeps finding his way onto the rosters of teams with PPA affiliations even though his doubles is limited and the singles is okay at best. The trash talk is truly elite. Does someone else take a shot on him?
(39) Donald Young – His singles results have dipped in recent events. There are worse guys you could have around your team as a singles specialist.
(40) Rafa Hewett – The biggest question of the draft is whether the California Black Bears will run it back and round ‘em up, once again.
(41) Andrew Caldarella – Utah junior who also hasn’t been on the radar for us.
(42) Aryaan Bhatia – Brother to Armaan Bhatia. Again, he hasn’t been on the radar but thought he was worth mentioning.
(43) Mo Alhouni – The biggest hook in all of pickleball would have a chance of being drafted if, you know, he wasn’t the biggest hook in all of pickleball outside of Salmone Devidze.
(44) Collin Johns – Unclear why you would want him on your MLP roster, unless you wanted him to be your bench player coach. He can still play a decent right-side men’s doubles.
(45) George Wall – Recently signed Aussie.
(46) Lucas Pascoe – Another recently signed Aussie.
(47) Spartak Rahachou – Spartak has been in PPA main draws for quite a long time and it’s hard to remember the last time we actually saw him play. The singles is solid.
(48) Carlos Di Laura – Will Chicago pick him up as a bench player coach again?
(49) Danny Phillips – Honestly, Danny wasn’t on our board but we have added him as he was identified to us from someone who reached out after we posted our women’s big board. Utah junior, recently signed and brother of Alli Phillips.
(50) Alex Crum – There are plenty of singles guys who can’t play doubles and it seems unnecessary to use up a draft pick on a guy who is still rehabbing from knee surgery.
Agree or disagree? Let us know in the comments or email us at nmlpickleball@gmail.com! You can also follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook @nmlpickleball
