Maple Leafs land No. 1 pick in 2026 NHL draft lottery

Toronto turned an 8.5 percent shot at the top of the order into the No. 1 pick and used it on Penn State forward Gavin McKenna, the draft’s consensus top prospect. The Maple Leafs entered the 2026 Upper Deck NHL Draft at KeyBank Center in Buffalo with the most valuable card in a 224-pick field spread across 32 teams.

The lottery win on May 5 came one day after Toronto overhauled its hockey leadership, naming John Chayka general manager and Mats Sundin senior executive adviser of hockey operations on May 4. That sequence gave the franchise a rare opening to reset quickly after finishing second-to-last in the Eastern Conference with a 32-36-14 record and missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons.

Toronto’s top pick was its third first-overall selection, following Wendel Clark in 1985 and Auston Matthews in 2016. The club landed the No. 1 slot for the first time in a decade, and the lottery moved the draft order at the top while the rest of the sequence followed regular-season results and playoff outcomes.

McKenna arrived as the obvious target. He had committed to Penn State and spent his freshman season there, taking the NCAA route instead of the traditional major junior path. In 35 NCAA games, McKenna posted 15 goals and 36 assists for 51 points, production that reinforced why Toronto’s lottery win mattered so much to a franchise looking for a centerpiece rather than another short-term fix.

The selection also carried a certain spectacle. Justin Bieber announced the No. 1 pick at the draft, and McKenna acknowledged the fit by saying it would be “pretty fortunate” to go to Toronto. With the first pick in hand, the Maple Leafs had the chance to anchor their next phase around a young scorer whose development has already been tracked as a benchmark for where elite prospects are headed.