{"id":33604,"date":"2026-05-06T01:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/33604\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T01:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T01:26:13","slug":"toronto-maple-leafs-win-nhl-draft-lottery-and-the-no-1-pick-in-the-2026-nhl-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/33604\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Maple Leafs win NHL draft lottery and the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

John Chayka speaks at a press conference he was announced as general manager and Mats Sundin is introduced as senior executive advisor of hockey operations of the Toronto Maple Leafs at Real Sports Bar & Grill on Monday in Toronto.Michael Chisholm\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Toronto Maple Leafs have won the lottery for the first pick in the NHL draft, a significant victory that could change the trajectory of the storied franchise at a critical time.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs got some lottery luck Tuesday night, a little more than 48 hours after hiring John Chayka as general manager and bringing back franchise legend Mats Sundin to serve as a hockey operations advisor. <\/p>\n

Chayka and Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and CEO Keith Pelley got some harsh questions at Monday\u2019s introductory news conference, but it was all smiles at Toronto\u2019s facility after getting the No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m extremely happy for the Toronto Maple Leafs fanbase, of course,\u201c Sundin said. \u201dCertainly this is really going to help when you\u2019re looking into the future and try to help this team and what we\u2019re looking for the future for the Toronto Maple Leafs, so it\u2019s great to get the first pick.\u201d<\/p>\n

Penn State\u2019s Gavin McKenna and Swedish winger Ivar Stenberg are rated as the top North American and European prospects by NHL Central Scouting. McKenna has been considered the prospective top choice for quite some time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve kept track of him for a number of years now, and the skill level, the creativity, obviously the puck ability and then his shot and release is all pretty special,\u201d Chayka said. \u201cA good package, and it\u2019ll be good to get with the scouts and talk through it all, but I know there\u2019s a lot of passion for a lot of players, including Gavin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cathal Kelly: John Chayka’s tenure with the Maple Leafs begins under intense scrutiny<\/a><\/p>\n

The most immediate question for the Leafs under new management is the future of their captain and best player Auston Matthews, after the organization missed the playoffs for the first time in his career. It\u2019s the first time they\u2019ve won the lottery since taking Matthews with the No. 1 pick in 2016, and the draft is back in Buffalo where they made that selection.<\/p>\n

They had the fifth-highest odds of winning the lottery, at 8.5 per cent. Vancouver had the highest odds at 18.5 per cent and has never had the first pick in the draft. Toronto would have had to transfer its pick to Boston to complete a trade last year for Brandon Carlo had it not been in the top five.<\/p>\n

The Bruins and Philadelphia as a result will get the Leafs\u2019 first-rounders in 2027 and \u201828. There is some uncertainty as to which order, and deputy commissioner Bill Daly called it a complicated situation that would need to be worked out.<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks won the second pick. With yet another top-five pick, GM Mike Grier and his staff can augment a young group already led by Macklin Celebrini and including Will Smith and Michael Misa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s lots of options there,\u201d Grier said. \u201cThere\u2019s centres, there\u2019s `D,\u2019 there\u2019s wingers, so to have the opportunity to add another very talented player to our young core is very exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: John Chayka speaks at a press conference he was announced as general manager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33605,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[164,224,238,214,212,239,17,211,230,231,227,213,210,235,171,234,143,222,249,215,216,229,225,226,219,240,220,244,245,247,242,246,94,243,217,142,233,113,232,241,223,236,48,237,228,221,218,248],"class_list":{"0":"post-33604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-alberta","9":"tag-arts-news","10":"tag-bc","11":"tag-breaking-news","12":"tag-breaking-news-video","13":"tag-british-columbia","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canada-news","16":"tag-canada-sports","17":"tag-canada-sports-news","18":"tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","19":"tag-canadian-breaking-news","20":"tag-canadian-news","21":"tag-economy","22":"tag-education","23":"tag-environment","24":"tag-federal-government","25":"tag-foreign-news","26":"tag-globe-and-mail","27":"tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","28":"tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","29":"tag-government","30":"tag-life-news","31":"tag-lifestyle","32":"tag-local-news","33":"tag-manitoba","34":"tag-national-news","35":"tag-new-brunswick","36":"tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","37":"tag-northwest-territories","38":"tag-nova-scotia","39":"tag-nunavut","40":"tag-ontario","41":"tag-pei","42":"tag-photos","43":"tag-political-news","44":"tag-political-opinion","45":"tag-politics","46":"tag-politics-news","47":"tag-quebec","48":"tag-sports-news","49":"tag-technology","50":"tag-toronto","51":"tag-travel","52":"tag-trudeau","53":"tag-us-news","54":"tag-world-news","55":"tag-yukon"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}