It’s difficult to sum up just how much this changes things for the Maple Leafs. Most fans had made peace with the fact that newly-appointed general manager John Chayka and senior executive advisor Mats Sundin would have to watch their first-round pick go to their biggest rival and begin the impossible task of retooling a team that severely underperformed in 2025-26. If anything, fans were hoping that the Leafs would keep their pick and add a high-end prospect to a weak pool. Many had brushed the idea of winning the whole thing out of their minds, but 36 hours after the fact, the Leafs all of a sudden have a decision to make.
And, of course, the possibility of trading the pick has to cross the minds of the Maple Leafs’ front office. Sure, it would be risky, but if teams would be willing to offer a haul, they’d be doing themselves a disservice to not at least hear them out. This way, they could end up with one of those puck-moving defencemen and some additional assets.
I understand that most would tell you that the need for a top-pair defenceman trumps bringing in another elite forward. Hell, we just made it through nine years of the ‘core four’ where every exciting regular season was followed by a crushing playoff defeat and endless discourse about why investing all your money into your forward group is a flawed plan.
Here’s the flipside to that. If the Maple Leafs didn’t have their first-round pick this season, they would be headed into the offseason with the tasks of not only revamping their defensive corps, but finding a winger to play with Matthews. Brad Treliving’s plan of adding a bunch of depth players and ‘spreading the wealth’ per se to replace Mitch Marner didn’t work, and putting off this concern would mean another year of sticking Max Domi on the top line. McKenna would be able to jump into the Leafs’ top-six instantly, and while there would certainly be some growing pains, they would be able to take advantage of the entry-level contract. In turn, they’d be able to invest any money they would have planned to use on a top forward on the defensive corps, instead. And all that jazz about the core four? Marner is gone and John Tavares isn’t making $11 million anymore. At best, it would be a core three.
Adding McKenna would also give them some insurance up front should anything happen with Auston Matthews at the end of his deal, although, the idea of playing with McKenna for the rest of his career has to be a tempting thought.
The reality is that with the first-overall pick in front of them, the idea of rebuilding should be moot, and adding McKenna to the fold gives them an opportunity to continue contending even as younger teams like the Montreal Canadiens and Buffalo Sabres arrive on the scene. It would be great to add a young future top-pair defenceman, but McKenna is a lot closer to being a star forward right now than somebody like Reid or Carels is to being a star defenceman. The Leafs need help on the back end now and would be better served trying to sign somebody like Darren Raddysh this offseason in favour of drafting a young defenceman and either watching them return to college for a year or throwing them into the fire on what’s currently a pretty dysfunctional defensive corps.
The reality is that when you consider the circumstances (ignoring the fact that we wouldn’t be here had Treliving kept their first-round pick), the Leafs are going to be walking away with a talented prospect that they weren’t expected to have one way or another. Regardless of it’s McKenna, Stenberg, or one of the defencemen, they’re going to be bolstering their prospect pool in June. But in spite of that, they can’t overthink this decision.
Leafs management, don’t overthink this one. You’ve got a future star forward who can be the perfect playmaker for Matthews and perhaps get him back to his 60-goal form for pennies on the dollar, at least for the next three years, which is now a rejuvenated contention window. Make the right call, and take the best player available.
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