The Toronto Maple Leafs do not own a first-round pick in the 2025 NHL Draft but now we can look at what could've been, as the Chicago Blackhawks made their selection with the 25th overall pick.
With the draft pick that the Maple Leafs sent to Chicago for defenseman Jake McCabe over two years ago, at the 2023 trade deadline, the Blackhawks selected large Czech winger from the USHL's Muskegon Lumberjacks, Vaclav Nestrasil.
Now, we can put a name to a trade to round it all out. But what kind of player is the 6-foot-5 winger that scored 40 points in 57 games in the USHL? The Elite Prospects 2025 NHL Draft Guide digs into the details of his game.
"There’s not much Nestrašil can’t do. Every night, he plays with the same high level of energy. A punishing player who seeks
out big hits, skates hard after every puck, and knocks away pucks with well-timed swipes, he’s always noticeable without the
puck.
With possession, Nestrašil plays a high-skill, team-focused game. He works give-and-gos, drawing in the nearest defender
first to give his teammate more space. With full-reach handling skill, he pulls pucks off the wall and gets to the slot in one
motion, as well as carves through traffic off the rush.
The star of the show is Nestrašil’s playmaking. He doesn’t just have passing touch and vision but also adaptability and
creativity. He slips and hooks passes through defenders, often deceiving the defender first with a look-off or shot fake. The
creativity really blossomed in the second half, too."
--Elite Prospects 2025 Draft Guide
That seems like some sort of player that the Leafs could certainly use. Of course, there's no guarantee that he can even make it to professional hockey, but having a large winger that can work well with and without the puck is almost exactly what Toronto needs on its team at this very moment.
But on the other hand, McCabe has been more than serviceable as a top-four defenseman ever since he became a Leaf and it is the price you pay for a very good NHL hockey player.
The Leafs are no stranger to these sort of nights. Either it's an unprotected draft pick that they traded away and then turns into Tyler Seguin -- or they try to play coy and trade down from a late-first round, passing on Travis Konecny to then select Travis Dermott and Jeremy Bracco. Now, we have a name to the deal. Instead of just a faceless first-round pick, we have Vaclav Nestrasil as a player the Leafs could have drafted if they didn't acquire McCabe a couple years ago.
The Maple Leafs will actually get involved at the 2025 NHL Draft on Saturday, with six picks in the final six rounds and are first up at 64th overall in the second round.