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Two days into their jobs, Toronto Maple Leafs top brass John Chayka and Mats Sundin were handed a gift — the No. 1 selection in next month’s NHL entry draft.
The Leafs won the league’s draft lottery Tuesday, dropping a franchise-altering decision onto a newly minted front office.
“You need some luck and we got it tonight,” said John Chayka, who was appointed Toronto’s general manger on Sunday.
“Long road ahead, of course. Lots of work to do still. But when you get a first overall pick it’s a monumental type of opportunity. I think it’s a really good draft, a lot of good players. And it’s an honour to pick one overall.”
Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg have emerged as the two leading options at the top of this year’s draft class.
Toronto entered the week at a crossroads after missing the playoffs and now turns to a new leadership group tasked with charting its direction — starting with the first overall selection.
The future of captain Auston Matthews remains the biggest question after the club missed the playoffs for the first time in his career. It marks the first time the Maple Leafs have won the lottery since selecting Matthews No. 1 in 2016.
The Leafs also had the top pick in 1985, when they took Wendel Clark, who was traded to the Quebec Nordiques for Sundin in 1994.
“The Toronto Maple Leafs is, in my opinion, the greatest hockey franchise in the world,” said Sundin, the Hall of Fame forward who was named Toronto’s senior executive adviser of hockey operations on Sunday.
“It’s definitely the greatest fan base. It’s supported not only in Ontario and Toronto but across North America. So I think it’s a great opportunity for whoever’s first overall to come in and represent the Toronto Maple Leafs.”
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. The Bruins and Philadelphia, as a result, will get the Leafs’ first-rounders in 2027 and ’28.
McKenna, Stenberg rated top prospects
The 2026 draft will be held June 26 and 27 in Buffalo, N.Y., with Penn State Nittany Lions men’s ice hockey forward McKenna and Swedish winger Stenberg rated as the top North American and European prospects by NHL Central Scouting.
McKenna, from Whitehorse, Yukon, tied for fifth in NCAA scoring with 51 points (15 goals, 36 assists) in 35 games this season. He was named Big Ten freshman of the year.
Stenberg, 18, had 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 43 games with Frölunda HC in Sweden’s top pro league, the SHL, the most by an 18-year-old there since Daniel and Henrik Sedin in 1998-99. He also helped Sweden win world junior gold with 10 points in seven games.
McKenna has been considered the prospective top choice for quite some time.
“Exciting player. I’ve been keeping track of him for a number of years now and the skill level, the creativity, the puck ability and then his shot and release is all pretty special,” Chayka said. “So it’ll be good to get with the scouts and talk through it all. But I know there’s a lot of passion for a lot of players, including Gavin.”
The Leafs had the fifth-highest odds of winning the lottery at 8.5 per cent.
“You don’t know what’s going to occur in these type of situations. But you do know that you need some luck. And it happened,” Chayka said.
“I don’t think it changes the vision or the strategy, but certainly when these things happen, it can change course and timelines, etc. But it’s not going to change how we think about things. It’s a fortuitous bounce.”
Vancouver, which finished last in the NHL with a 25-49-8 record, had the best odds to pick first at 18.5 per cent and has never had the top pick in the draft.
The San Jose Sharks won the lottery for the second pick, while the Canucks fell to third.
“This is a really strong draft. We really don’t know how the draft is going to fall,” said Jim Rutherford, Vancouver’s president of hockey operations.
“But whatever way it falls, we feel very strong that we’re getting a really good player. And whoever that player is, we’ll just have to wait and see. So with the disappointment with all the excitement that goes with picking No. 1, No. 3 is still going to be a great building block for the Vancouver Canucks.”
The Calgary Flames claimed the No. 6 pick on Tuesday, while the Winnipeg Jets claimed No. 8.
