TORONTO — What a distinction a day makes.
Whereas this daring new period of Toronto Maple Leafs hockey — co-led by GM John Chayka and chief advisor Mats Sundin — opened with one among fashionable sport’s most strained administration unveilings Monday, followers of the membership have been rejoicing 24 hours later.
On Tuesday, all the frustration and disillusionment of this tortured group’s best year-over-year falloff gave method to one thing contemporary and provoking and all too uncommon this season.
The Maple Leafs don’t all the time play the NHL Draft Lottery. However after they do, they win.
“Nicely, you want some luck,” Chayka stated, between leprechaun smiles. “And we obtained it tonight.”
Ending 2025-26 on a seven-game dropping skid and tanking to twenty eighth place within the NHL standings, the Maple Leafs have been observing a 58.5 per cent likelihood of falling out of the draft’s prime 5 and surrendering their first-overall decide to the rival Boston Bruins — a caveat of 2025’s Brandon Carlo–Fraser Minten commerce.
The Leafs’ odds of profitable the draft lottery — which they did 10 years in the past, the final time they missed the playoffs — have been a scant 8.5 per cent.
These odds shrunk to 4.5 per cent after the primary two of 4 lottery balls obtained sucked up by Gary Bettman’s Magical Ping-Pong Ball Sucker-Higher.
Then the luck of St. Patrick struck twice. Toronto drew exactly what it wanted on the flip and the river to take the pot.
The mixture that unlocked the 2026’s first-overall draft decide and pierced the clouds with a ray of golden daylight: 7–2–11–12.
“I’m extraordinarily comfortable for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ fan base,” stated Sundin, a first-overall decide himself in 1989. “It’s nice to get the primary decide. Nice evening. Nice lottery.”
An “elated” Chayka has barely had an opportunity to catch his breath.
He’s nonetheless ready to sit down down together with his captain and his head coach. Heck, he hasn’t even met together with his director of newbie scouting, Mark Leach, and an inherited scouting employees that might be making the No. 1 decide.
Employed beneath skepticism from numerous league corners, the brand new GM obtained put by way of the media wringer Monday and pulled out a four-leaf clover Tuesday.
“Second day of the job,” Chayka stated. “We’ll get collectively, we’ll undergo the whole lot, as we must always, and be tremendous diligent and ensure we all know the whole lot.
“There’s all the time plenty of diligence once you’re selecting first total and ensuring you nail it.”
Neither Sundin nor Chayka tipped their hand as to which blue-chip prospect they’re leaning towards deciding on on June 26 at KeyBank Heart in Buffalo — the identical website the place the Maple Leafs scooped up a fresh-faced Auston Matthews in 2016.
“Thrilling participant,” Chayka stated of McKenna. “I’ve tracked him for a variety of years now. And the ability degree, the creativity, the puck means, after which his shot and launch are all fairly particular. So, good bundle.
“I do know there’s plenty of ardour for lots of gamers, together with Gavin.”
Equally, Sundin has been monitoring Stenberg in Sweden.
“Ivar has had a powerful season, from the Junior World Championships,” Sundin stated. “So, it’s going to be actually nice to comply with them most likely within the World Championship this yr.
“Sturdy draft. So, it’s going to be fascinating these totally different gamers now figuring out it’s a first-overall decide. So, plenty of work forward for us.”
That’s an understatement.
Tuesday’s windfall spells go time.
Toronto can in poor health afford to tank once more in 2027 or 2028, as these first-round draft picks are actually dedicated to Philadelphia (through 2025’s Scott Laughton commerce) and Boston, respectively, with none safety.
Certainly the addition of an NHL-ready winger will go a great distance towards intriguing a conflicted Matthews, energizing a downtrodden dressing room, and reengaging a disgruntled fan base
“I don’t suppose it modifications the imaginative and prescient or the technique. However definitely when these items occur, it might probably change course and timelines,” Chayka stated.
“It’s a fortuitous bounce.”
The hockey gods might be smiling down on all these Leafs followers making an early-summer street journey and pointing their automobiles westbound on the ol’ QEW.
With a fast pit cease to get together in Buffalo.
