NHL draft experts unanimously predict Leafs will select Gavin McKenna at first overall

“Oh. My. Gosh. Toronto, you did it. This is the guy who’ll sell jerseys and get fans to love the team again. He’s the most skilled player in the class, and most of the concerns around his game started to disappear after the World Juniors. Does Ivar Stenberg outperform him in the two-way sector? Absolutely. But in terms of raw, game-changing skill, nobody has what McKenna has in this class. He still needs to bulk up to truly succeed in the NHL, but an NHL coaching staff will help. You’d hate to be the team that passes on McKenna this year. Toronto, just make it happen.”

“The Maple Leafs’ new management group, led by general manager John Chayka, gets to start its tenure by selecting the most talented player in this draft class. McKenna (5-foot-11, 170 pounds) entered the season as the projected top pick and nothing he did this season changed that. After some bumps early while he adjusted to the NCAA level, the 18-year-old finished tied for fifth with 51 points (15 goals, 36 assists) in 35 games, including 33 points (11 goals, 22 assists) in 19 games after the 2026 IIHF World Junior Championship, where he helped Canada win the bronze medal. He’ll probably need a similar adjustment period to the NHL as he gets bigger and stronger, but he projects to be an elite offensive driver with his vision, hockey IQ and playmaking ability.”

“The Maple Leafs, who will pick No. 1 for the second time in 11 years, could use a forward with ice in his veins who is capable of pushing the pace within their top six, and McKenna is the most dynamic offensive playmaker of this class. He established nine team records during his freshman season at Penn State and finished second in scoring at World Juniors with 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) for bronze medal-winning Canada.”

“I think he is the best player in the draft,” said Button. “Now we start to think about the Toronto Maple Leafs and what was the biggest absence for Auston Matthews last year? It was the playmaking winger when Mitch Marner left to go to the Vegas Golden Knights. Well Gavin McKenna is a playmaking winger. … For Gavin McKenna, this could be a really good fit for him to come in and to be able to play with somebody as significant as Auston, that can carry play like Auston and take some of the burden off.”

“There’s value in the Maple Leafs taking one of the two top wingers because they’re both expected to sign and play in the NHL next season (there’s more of a waiting game for the D and Caleb Malhotra). I could see Chase Reid as a candidate here, knowing some of their scouts and the way incoming general manager John Chayka talked about building through the back end, but adding another premier winger and power-play playmaker to the mix makes too much sense.

I felt from the beginning that McKenna would be harder for a Canadian market to pass up on from an ownership/marketability/star power/fan expectation standpoint as well. Whether a team would ever be willing to admit that is one thing, but I think it’s a peripheral factor at play here. Adding McKenna as a potential winger for Auston Matthews doesn’t hurt the critical sales pitch there, either. And suddenly, the shape of the Leafs’ top six with McKenna, Matthews, William Nylander, Matthew Knies and John Tavares looks different again.”