A whole lot was made about the Toronto Maple Leafs winning the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery and selecting potential superstar winger Gavin McKenna with the first-overall pick. It's all we can think about over here as we dream about his potential next to Auston Matthews.
Teams from so many other teams wanted to get a hold of the 18-year-old forward and wished that it was their team instead that ended up winning the draft lottery. But the player himself didn't want that. He didn't want some team who is so dependent on the future. He is overjoyed that it was the Leafs who won the lottery and picked him.
Gavin McKenna is thankful to be a Leaf
In a recent interview with ESPN's Emily Kaplan, McKenna expressed his expectations heading into his rookie year as we are now just over a month away from rookie camp starting, which is quickly followed by the Leafs' own training camp.
While a whole lot of the interview was about what he might experience as a rookie, what was most interesting was about his reaction specifically to being drafted by Toronto and what sets them a part from other potential destinations.
"You see what Chayka is doing, you see the players he's bringing in, I think we obviously want to go on a run this year," McKenna said via ESPN. "So it's very fortunate for me to go to a team like that who's hungry and in that winning environment. It's pretty common that players who get drafted first overall go to a team who's tanking and it's not the case for me. I know I've gotten lucky."
That is maybe the strongest point that he can make and why it was so good for everyone involved (and not the other 31 teams in the NHL) that McKenna is a Leaf.
If he were to have ended up on a team that was sinking to the bottom of the league, deep in the middle of their rebuild, like the Vancouver Canucks or Calgary Flames or New York Rangers, McKenna would be in a terrible environment. He would get a whole lot of playing time, but it's not a team that he can experience a whole lot of positive things with. Maybe he can score 75 points and win the Calder Trophy since he averaged 23 minutes a night, but then he would be losing 7-4 every single night, as well.
In Toronto, there is an expectation to win and he is going to be playing on a line with some of the best forwards in the world right away (or at the very least, on the same power play unit). That is somewhere that a rookie can grow and learn and really become the best player he can be. If he were to be playing next to Morgan Frost for 84 games, that might not be the best spot for him.
McKenna has his sights set on the playoffs
While he doesn't want to expect too much from his rookie year, McKenna certainly has a goal in mind.
"For sure, make the playoffs. Hopefully go on a run there with the team that we got," McKenna said via ESPN. "And of course you want to win a Calder Trophy in your rookie season. I think if that happens, that's a pretty good year."
Those are some solid and realistic goals to have. They certainly are not the easiest, since the Leafs are not guaranteed a playoff spot, or to even be close to the playoffs, but that's something to strive towards. And even when it comes to the Calder Trophy, this is a strong crop of rookies headlined by Philadelphia Flyers' Porter Martone, Washington Capitals' Cole Hutson, Sharks' Ivar Stenberg -- just several top-end rookies who could realistically win it over McKenna.
It's always good to see such a driven player at just 18 years old.
And we agree, it's for the best that Gavin McKenna is a Toronto Maple Leaf.
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