The Toronto Maple Leafs got themselves a nice potential silver lining last night during the NHL’s ridiculous draft lottery.
Now, should the Toronto Maple Leafs lose to the lowly Columbus Blue Jackets in the play-in round, they will have a shot at the #1 overall pick.
Last night, in a bizarre turn of events, the NHL’s worst teams all missed out on the #1 pick, while the NHL awarded the top pick to a place holder team that is currently in the playoffs.
This means that one of the teams in the play-in round will win the first pick in the draft. It’s idiotic, it’s unlikely, it’s completely on brand.
Sorry Ottawa!
This year’s number one overall pick is Alexis Lafreniere out of the QMJHL.
A left winger and franchise player, Lafreniere is a 6′ 200 LBS 18 year old with the potential to eventually be the best player in the NHL after Connor McDavid and Auston Matthews.
Where the Toronto Maple Leafs actually get him, they would then be overrun in franchise players and have something approximating the best roster ever assembled.
They should still probably focus on this year’s playoffs (obviously) but wow! The NHL sure is a wacky league!!
Toronto Maple Leafs Odds
According to the Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn the Leafs have a 4.5% chance of winning the first overall pick. (The Place Holding team had a 2.5% of winning the lottery last night.)
First overall pick odds (lmao) pic.twitter.com/ucUsKW8z4Z
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) June 27, 2020
So if the Leafs were to lose to Columbus – which is extremely unlikely since Columbus best player, Oliver Bjorkstrand, would likely be the seventh or eighth best player on the Leafs – they would have almost a one-in-twenty shot at the top pick.
It’s quite the silver lining.
Sure, it’s unlikely to happen, but it’s still fun to think about. The Toronto Maple Leafs are already building a team that is a potential dynasty. If you add another franchise player to the team it’s going to be crazy.
It already doesn’t even seem fair that a team with Marner, Matthews, Tavares, and Nylander gets to add Nick Robertson and Rasmus Sandin to their lineup, so also adding Lafreniere would almost be overkill.
I don’t know about you, but it’s pretty fun for me to imagine a Toronto Maple Leafs line that features Lafreniere-Matthews-Marner, which would be the best line in the NHL by about 40000 miles.
Not sure how teams would deal with a secondary attack featuring Robertson-Tavares-Nylaner, but I would definitely like to find out.
The Leafs are probably going to dust the Blue Jackets, but if they don’t, there is at least a potentially awesome consolation prize in the offing.