It sure feels a new era is upon the Maple Leafs and their fanbase. (Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images, Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)
The Toronto Maple Leafs will select first overall in the 2026 NHL Draft.
As the clock ticked down, Leafs fans hoped and prayed for the No. 12 to come up and there were scenes of euphoria as it indeed did. Mats Sundin, recently hired to the front office, appeared to be the good luck charm as he represented the franchise at the draft and was naturally all smiles as Toronto won the lottery.
After a tumultuous season that has only become more tense with the firing of Brad Treliving and hiring of John Chayka as the team’s new general manager, as well as people reading the tea leaves behind Auston Matthews’ recent comments and a possible willingness to depart, the results of the draft lottery have shot fans’ emotions to the moon.
With their pick of the litter, 18-year-old Gavin McKenna is projected to be the top overall selection as a six-foot, 170-pound winger from Whitehorse, Yukon. He is currently attending Penn State and made his international debut for the Canada Under-18 team at the 2024 World U18 Championships. At the tournament, he led Canada to gold with 10 goals and 10 assists in seven games, setting a new Canadian record for most points at a single U18 event.
Sundin will also likely have his say over another kid projected to go in the top three, Ivar Stenberg, who is also from Sweden.
Unsurprisingly, there are several hockey fans who root for other teams that believe the lottery was rigged. The Vancouver Canucks finished with the worst record in the league, by far, and had the best odds but will now select third in the NHL draft.
The Calgary Flames also had better odds than the Leafs with the fourth-best odds but instead dropped to the sixth overall pick. The Winnipeg Jets will select eight.
What makes this lottery result all the more stunning is that there was a very real possibility the Leafs could have ended without a first-round draft pick at all. At the 2025 trade deadline, Toronto traded Fraser Minten, a first-round pick, and a fourth-round pick to the Boston Bruins in exchange for defenceman Brandon Carlo.
The first-round pick was top-five protected for 2026, meaning that falling out of the top five in the draft lottery would have meant the pick going to Boston. The Bruins entered the lottery with a 58.2 percent chance of nabbing the Leafs’ pick.
If the Maple Leafs’ pick is inside the top 10 next season, the pick goes to either the Bruins or the Flyers. Whichever team doesn’t receive the 2027 pick will receive an unprotected first-round pick in 2028.
Amusingly, there were also fans who wanted to poke fun at the generally wretched state of the Leafs and made jokes about how projected top overall selection Gavin McKenna will be unhappy with the draft lottery outcome.
The 2026 NHL Draft will be held on June 26, 2026.