We're all super excited for the Toronto Maple Leafs to make their selection at the first-overall pick and potentially bring in the super-skilled Gavin McKenna into this team. But what if they don't? What if they trade the pick?
It seems like it's possible that new general manager John Chayka is going to be making that pick that they won at the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery, available in a trade. Talks are being had.
In the latest notebook of NHL rumours from The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun, he dropped a nugget that should surely get a whole lot of attention from Leafs fans. John Chayka is reportedly willing to listen to trade offers for the first-overall pick this June.
“Not that the Maple Leafs are intent on moving the No. 1 pick, but new general manager John Chayka also isn’t hanging up the phone if and when teams call. Why would he? If a team steps up in a meaningful way with the kind of package that helps the Leafs get back in contention, Chayka will at least listen, according to league sources”
LeBrun adds at the end that it appears unlikely that the Leafs will move on from the first-overall pick, but it is certainly a conversation worth having.
What could the Leafs get for the No. 1 pick?
First-overall selections rarely ever get moved. It might happen once a century where the team is in a certain situation where taking the top prospect available from that year isn't worth it and instead, will take some win-now, more-established NHL stars to commit to their current contention window instead of stretching it out.
That could, feasibly, happen for the Leafs.
If the St. Louis Blues ring up Chayka and offer a collection like Robert Thomas, Jordan Kyrou, and Colton Parayko, for the first-overall pick and maybe some other assets too. Don't the Leafs have to at least have that conversation? All three players would make this team better now and for the next few seasons compared to what Gavin McKenna could theoretically bring to the table. And if they want to convince Auston Matthews to stay, don't they need some win-now pieces? And even if Matthews goes, they might have a fail-safe option in getting two star forwards also.
That's a hypothetical scenario that we just completely made up, but something like that could theoretically happen with the Blues fully committing to a rebuild and the Leafs going the other way with locked-in stars.
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