The 2026 Major League Pickleball draft was Friday morning, and there were a few surprises — as there is every year.

The St. Louis Shock set a league record by bidding $1.23 million for the No. 1 overall pick, and they selected Anna Bright. That means they will likely go into the 2026 season with the same starting four they had in 2025 — Bright, Kate Fahey, Gabe Tardio and Hayden Patriquin. The Shock were among the top teams throughout the regular season last year and ended up losing in the playoffs to the Columbus Sliders (the eventual champions).

St. Louis is one of the best teams on paper again this year, but a clear favorite to win the title emerged during the draft on Friday. The New Jersey 5s, who dropped Meghan Dizon from last year’s roster that finished runner-up to Columbus, out-bid the Dallas Flash for the No. 2 pick and selected Jorja Johnson, who was last year’s league MVP. The pick cost New Jersey $800,000 and gives them a dominant women’s doubles team (Anna Leigh Waters and Jorja Johnson) and two very strong mixed doubles teams (Will Howells and Noe Khlif are their likely men’s starters).

Below we break down all 20 team rosters, who they drafted Friday, and hand out some grades. You can find the full list of the 66 players picked in the draft here. 

Teams can still make trades leading up to the season-opening event on May 22-25 at the Pickler Universe in Dallas.

The post-draft trade window will open on Monday, March 2.

Major League Pickleball 2026 draft grades

NEW JERSEY 5s

Existing roster: Anna Leigh Waters, Will Howells, Noe Khlif.

Draft selections: #2 Jorja Johnson, $800,000; #58 Martin Emmrich, $2,000; #64 Lina Padegimaite, $1,000.

Grade: A+

We knew coming into the draft that they would likely be in the bidding for one of the top two spots, the only question was whether St. Louis and Dallas would out-bid them. St. Louis did (barely), but Dallas backed off once the price for the No. 2 pick got above $700,000. The 5s now have the best roster on paper and will be the pre-season favorites (barring a huge trade).

ST. LOUIS SHOCK

Existing roster: Kate Fahey, Hayden Patriquin, Gabe Tardio.

Draft selections: #1 Anna Bright, $1.23 million; #29 John Lucian Goins, $25,000; #30 Elsie Hendershot, $28,000.

Grade: A+

The goal was clear: Get Anna Bright back at all costs. They set a league record for the highest amount paid for a draft pick, but they accomplished the goal. They also picked up two young players on their bench would have a lot of upside — and Goins could help them right away in singles.

BROOKLYN PICKLEBALL TEAM

Existing roster: Hannah Blatt, Jackie Kawamoto, Rachel Rohrabacher, Riley Newman.

Draft selections: #7 Dylan Frazier, $170,000; #45 Matthew Barlow, $11,000.

Grade: A

They needed a men’s player to fill out their starting four, and they got who most believed was the best men’s player available in the draft in Frazier. Barlow is also coming off of a huge week at the PPA Tour Mesa Cup, where he made the semifinals in men’s singles and took down world No. 6 Roscoe Bellamy and world No. 1 Hunter Johnson in the process. With the new lineup rules, having a singles specialist like Barlow could be very important in Dreambreaker scenarios. This was a Top 5 team last year before Dekel Bar missed several events with an illness/injury, and I view Frazier as a comparable player to Bar, so I expect them to be near the top of the standings again this season.

TEXAS RANCHERS

Existing roster: Christian Alshon, Eric Oncins.

Draft selections: #4 Lea Jansen, $105,000; #22 Sahra Dennehy, $35,000; #33 Luca Mack, $26,000; #51 Ava Cavataio, $10,000.

Grade: A-

It’s unlikely that Texas would have been able to out-bid St. Louis or New Jersey or Dallas for one of the top two women available. Jansen was arguably the next-best option on the women’s side. As of now they probably are in a similar situation to where they were last year: Likely to make the playoffs, but unlikely to seriously contend for a title. Stay tuned, though — we don’t think this team is done making moves.

LOS ANGELES MAD DROPS

Existing roster: Jade Kawamoto, Catherine Parenteau, Max Freeman, Ben Johns.

Draft selections: #36 Gabriel Joseph, $18,000; #62 Paula Rives Palau, $2,000.

Grade: B+

Their starting four was pretty much set coming into the draft, so they didn’t have much work to do. They picked up one of the best singles players available in Joseph, which could make them even more dangerous in a Dreambreaker scenario than they already were.

ORLANDO SQUEEZE

Existing roster: Milan Rane, Lacy Schneemann, Federico Staksrud.

Draft selections: #8 Jack Sock, $105,000; #40 Alex Walker, $11,000; #52 Yates Johnson, $7,000.

Grade: B+

I had both Tyson McGuffin and Jonathan Truong ahead of Sock on my list of the best men’s players available, but I think for Orlando this pick makes a lot of sense. Sock has already made four quarterfinal or better appearances across all divisions in just two PPA Tour events in 2026. He had a good run with Pablo Tellez in men’s doubles at the Masters and also earned a silver in singles in that event. At the Mesa Cup last weekend, he and Lacy Schneemann made the quarterfinals in mixed doubles and took down JW and Jorja Johnson on their way. Sock also makes them one of the best Dreambreaker teams in the league.

PALM BEACH ROYALS

Existing roster: Tina Pisnik, Sofia Sewing, Dekel Bar.

Draft selections: #12. Tyson McGuffin, $65,000; #60 Tamaryn Emmrich, $2,000; #63 Grayson Goldin, $1,000.

Grade: B+

There weren’t a ton of top men’s players available in the draft, but Palm Beach got one of them in McGuffin. He has played with Bar in the past with decent results, and their starting four should make them a top-half team in the league in the franchise’s first season.

PHOENIX FLAMES

Existing roster: Jessie Irvine

Draft selections: #10 Jonathan Truong, $85,000; #16 Camden Chaffin, $35,000; #21 Judit Castillo Gargallo, $45,000; #38 Wyatt Stone, $18,000; #46 Alexa Schull, $11,000.

Grade: B

I’m of the opinion that Truong is better than both of the men’s players who were selected right in front of him, so from that perspective Phoenix got good value with their top pick. They went for more youth with Chaffin, Stone and Schull, showing that they are looking to build for the future.

COLUMBUS SLIDERS

Existing roster: Parris Todd, Andrei Daescu, CJ Klinger.

Draft selections: #3 Danni-Elle Townsend, $180,000; #42 Alli Phillips, $15,000; #50 Alex Crum, $9,000.

Grade: B-

The defending champs dropped Lea Jansen from the roster at the keeper deadline, so they needed a top women’s player to take her place. Interestingly, Jansen was available when they selected Townsend, so they made a decision not to run it back with the same roster as last season. Townsend’s next MLP match will be her first, but she has been putting up great results in PPA Tour Asia events over the past year. The Crum pick also gives them a strong singles player off the bench, although Daescu and Klinger have both been solid in Dreambreakers historically.

SoCAL HARD EIGHTS

Existing roster: None

Draft selections: #11 Meghan Dizon, $85,000; #13 Cailyn Campbell, $65,000; #14 Armaan Bhatia, $40,000; #17 Will MacKinnon, $40,000; #43 Rafa Lenhard, $14,000; #55 Naomi Phuong Nguyen, $4,000.

Grade: B-

Considering they were starting from scratch, they’ve done well to put together a roster that can win some matches. I still think their best-case scenario is fringe playoff contender, but that’s an improvement from last season.

CALIFORNIA BLACK BEARS

Existing roster: Layne Sleeth (kind of).

Draft selections: #15 Kiora Kunimoto, $45,000; #24 Chris Haworth, $30,000; #28 Mohamed Anouar Braham, $10,000; #35 Michael Loyd, $21,000; #37 Emma Nelson, $21,000.

Grade: C+

California was in a tough position coming into the draft. They needed three players to fill our their starters, and they haven’t traditionally been big spenders. So it’s hard to compete with teams like Columbus, St. Louis and New Jersey who are willing to spend millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars on draft position. That said, they made some bets on younger, up-and-coming players who could make them competitive a year or two from now. Sleeth was initially traded to Texas during the first offseason trade window, but that trade got reversed because of a mixup between the two teams/the league. There now seems to be an understanding that Sleeth will be traded for Sahra Dennehy, who Texas drafted with the No. 22 pick on Friday.

CHICAGO SLICE

Existing roster: Hunter Johnson, Zane Navratil.

Draft selections: #5 Ting Chieh Wei, $75,000; #6 Mari Humberg, $90,000; #32 Jalina Ingram, $35,000; #41 Tom Protzek, $17,000.

Grade: C+

They needed women’s players and they were aggressive in bidding for the No. 5 and No. 6 picks, but I would have gone with Meghan Dizon over either of the women’s players they selected. Even so, Wei and Humberg were both among the best women’s players in the player pool, and I like their bench selections.

LAS VEGAS NIGHT OWLS

Existing roster: Brooke Buckner, Liz Truluck, Chao Yi Wang, Roscoe Bellamy, Blaine Hovenier.

Draft selections: #31 Braden Jacobson, $30,000.

Grade: C+

They used their only pick in the draft to bet on the 16-year-old Jacobson. We probably won’t know for a year or two whether that was a good decision or not.

ATLANTA BOUNCERS

Existing roster: Kaitlyn Christian, Jay Devilliers, Jaume Martinez Vich.

Draft selections: #20 Daria Walczak, $45,000; #34 Donald Young, $24,000; #61 Keilly Ulery, $2,000.

Grade: C

If they had been willing to spend more to get one of the Top 5 women in the draft, they would have had a good chance to finish in the upper half of the league and potentially be battling for a No. 5 or No. 6 seed in the playoffs. Walczak is a solid player, but I don’t think she’s going to have the same impact that a player like Jansen or Dizon could have had for about $50,000 more.

BAY AREA BREAKERS

Existing roster: Mya Bui, Pablo Tellez.

Draft selections: #18 Len Yang, $35,000; #26 Ella Yeh, $10,000; #48 Genie Erokhina, $11,000; #49 Luc Pham, $9,000.

Grade: C

They are one of several teams that opted for younger, unproven players over established veterans. Yang (22), Yeh (15) and Pham (22) have all emerged on the pro tour in the past year and have a lot of upside, but other players they could have picked were more proven comodities. But given that they are coming up from the Challenger Level, it’s hard to blame them too much for looking for young players who could be pillars for the team in future years.

UTAH BLACK DIAMONDS

Kept: Allyce Jones, Etta Tuionetoa, Connor Garnett

Draft selections: #9 Tama Shimabukuro, $125,000; #39 Victoria Di Muzio, $17,000; #59 Tyler Loong, $2,000.

Grade: C

If they want to win now, they might actually be better off starting Loong over the 14-year-old Shimabukuro, although neither of them have strong mixed results. It’s clear they are trying to build for the future by picking Shimabukuro, though, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they were active in the next trade window and picked up some more youngsters in the process.

FLORIDA SMASH

Existing roster: Martina Frantova, Cason Campbell, Travis Rettenmaier

Draft selections: #23 Genie Bouchard, $20,000; #47 Zoey Weil, $10,000; #53 Chris Crouch, $5,000.

Grade: D

As one of the teams coming up from the Challenger Level, there wasn’t much chance Florida would be able to compete right away. Friday’s draft solidified that. Bouchard has been having great singles results over the past 6-8 months, but the doubles results still haven’t followed.

MIAMI PICKLEBALL CLUB

Existing roster: Alix Truong, Yuta Funemizu.

Draft selections: #25 Nico Acevedo, $10,000; #27 Estee Widdershoven, $10,000; #44 Clayton Powell, $11,000; #54 Aiko Yoshitomi, $4,000.

Grade: D

In true Johnny Goldberg fashion, he went off the board to select several under-the-radar players for the minimum amount. This is very much a wait-and-see situation with Acevedo and Widdershoven.

CAROLINA HOGS

Existing roster: Ava Ignatowich, Angie Walker, James Delgado, DJ Young.

Draft selections: #65. Brandon French, $1,000; #66 Isabella Dunlap, $1,000.

Grade: F

They spent the bare minimum and got the last two picks in the draft. The lone bright spot for this team is their men’s doubles pair, who should at least be a fun watch. But with this roster they are destined to finish near the bottom of the league standings.

DALLAS FLASH

Existing roster: Tyra Black, Augie Ge, JW Johnson.

Draft selections: #19 Callie Smith, $50,000; #56 Ivan Jakovljevic, $4,000; #57 Samantha Parker, $5,000.

Grade: Incomplete

After dropping Jorja Johnson at the keeper deadline (which was somewhat controversial), it was clear that Dallas was going to try to bid for one of the top two draft slots to get her back. They were heavily involved in the bidding, but ultimately lost out to New Jersey for the No. 2 pick — and they selected Johnson. After that, I suspect Dallas wasn’t very interested in grabbing any of the other women’s players available and is instead angling for a trade to either get Johnson back or another top women’s player. Everything this franchise has done to this point has indicated that they are willing to spend big bucks to be competitive, and while Smith is a good women’s player, I don’t think she makes them a serious contender for the title this season. So I’m keeping an eye out for a trade that involves Smith and a significant amount of cash in the coming days/weeks.