Gavin McKenna changes the game for the Maple Leafs

BUFFALO, N.Y.

It was a moment that Gavin McKenna will probably never forget.

Justin Bieber, decked out in a red Team Canada jacket, striding up to the draft stage at KeyBank Center to welcome him Mr.

McKenna to the Leafs while Biebers song Yukon strummed in the background.

The welcomes kept coming.

Advertisement Moments after he pulled on a blue Leafs jersey with the No.

26 on the back, McKenna stood next to Bieber as the pop star and Leafs super fan threw to a video message, this one from the captain of the Leafs, Auston Matthews, drafted No.

1 overall himself in the very same building 10 years earlier.

Gavin chants erupted from the large contingent of Leafs fans in attendance.

This isnt what I imagined as a young kid, said McKenna, grinning constantly, a short while later.

Its so much better.

It was a rapturous introduction to the Leafs for someone who may end up changing the franchise.

McKenna is the unexpected grand prize for one of the most disappointing and chaotic seasons in franchise history; one that started with the team hoping to contend for a Stanley Cup but ended instead with the first playoff miss in the Matthews era and the firings of general manager Brad Treliving and head coach Craig Berube.

McKenna gives the Leafs a major shot of hope, for today and tomorrow.

How much he can impact a team with playoff aspirations next season as a teenager is a great unknown at this point.

The jump to the NHL is significant for any rookie, let alone one as small and light, if exceptionally skilled, as the 5-foot-11, 170-pound McKenna.

A similarly sized Jack Hughes, the top pick in the 2019 draft, managed only seven goals and 21 points in 61 games as an 18-year-old for the New Jersey Devils before eventually blossoming into the star who scored the gold medal-winning goal for Team USA at the 2026 Olympics.

Unlike Hughes, who joined a mediocre Devils team led in scoring by Kyle Palmieris 45 points, McKenna comes aboard a veteran Leafs squad that boasts a reasonably deep well of talent that should include Matthews, William Nylander, Darren Raddysh, Jake McCabe, John Tavares and Chris Tanev, among others.

Hughes most frequent linemates as a rookie were Palmieri and a past-his-prime Wayne Simmonds.

Advertisement McKenna could get a chance to play with Matthews right away and throw alley-oops to one of the leagues top goal scorers.

He wasnt shying away from that kind of opportunity either, calling it his goal to play with my captain.

Im gonna have to prove myself to be able to play with a player like that, McKenna said.

I think my game is obviously a playmaker.

Hes a shooter.

I think we can complement each other pretty well.

He might get an immediate shot, too, to bring some of his playmaking dynamism to a puffed up No.

1 power-play unit that figures to feature Matthews, Nylander and the big blast of Raddysh at the point.

The last two No.

1 overall picks, Matthew Schaefer and Macklin Celebrini, both popped right away for the Islanders and Sharks.

Matthews did too, of course, shattering any and all expectations with a franchise rookie record 69 points (including 40 goals, another Leafs rookie record) during his mesmerizing 2016-17 debut season.

Its unlikely that McKenna scales those heights next season, but it wouldnt be so surprising to see him deliver something like the 61 points that Mitch Marner and Nylander both managed as rookies.

Which would benefit the Leafs tremendously, on the ice and off it.

Its not often, if ever, that contenders, or teams that aspire to be contenders, get the chance to drop the No.

1 pick onto their roster.

Matthews, Marner and Nylander famously delivered on entry-level contracts.

And thats another potential bonus of injecting McKenna onto this particular Leafs team, desperate to contend again next season: If he takes off right away or even in years two and three of his ELC the Leafs will have a player who is outperforming his contract, perhaps greatly depending on how quickly McKenna adjusts to the bigger, stronger, faster and more talented players hell face in the NHL.

The better he is, the better the value.

Advertisement With that in mind, GM John Chayka can afford to overspend a little elsewhere on the roster.

Opting not to show his hand before the draft, Chayka described the Leafs choice at No.

1 as unanimous internally.

The Leafs GM said there was a real resolve around who he is and what his career means to him and his family.

Whatever McKenna gives the Leafs in the short term is gravy on top of the long-term promise and flexibility he offers for the uncertain road ahead.

McKenna is a boon to a Leafs team thats retooling or rebuilding.

If things go well next season, and Matthews decides to extend his contract next summer, the Leafs have a young sidekick for him and Nylander, and eventually, a successor as face of the franchise.

If, on the other hand, things dont go well again next season, and the Leafs have to begin a rebuild by trading away Matthews and Nylander, McKenna figures to be the player they can and will build around.

He is perhaps the only player on the roster who feels like a sure thing to be a Leaf beyond next season.

Its not hyperbole to suggest that winning the lottery, improbable as it was, could go down as one of the most important developments of the last 25 years for the Leafs and franchise history, potentially, if McKenna morphs into a superstar.

He represents a massive turn in fortune.

The pick was shaping up to be a source of regret to the Leafs, thanks to a 2025 trade deadline deal for Brandon Carlo, which had gone astray.

Had the pick not landed in the top five of the 2026 first round, the selection would have been sent to the rival Boston Bruins, on top of rising young centre Fraser Minten.

That they didnt just keep the pick, but won the lottery outright, despite only 8.5 percent odds, was a remarkable stroke of luck.

The Leafs will still pay a price for that deal, and the other one completed at that same deadline for Scott Laughton.

The Flyers and Bruins now own the Leafs top picks in 2027 and 2028.

Advertisement But at least they get McKenna, only the third player in more than 100 years of history that the Leafs have ever picked first overall, and the first since Matthews was selected a decade ago.

The Leafs were just starting something back then.

After selecting Nylander and Marner in 2014 and 2015, the Leafs, with Brendan Shanahan as the architect, were intentionally bad in the 2015-16 season that led to the lottery win that landed Matthews.

Matthews joined a young and exciting team that was definitively on the rise.

McKenna comes aboard as the Leafs are trying to hold onto something to Matthews, of course, and the chance of competing again for the playoffs and Stanley Cup in the near future.

There will be immense pressure on McKenna regardless.

Hes been followed closely for years, of course, as a projected top prospect.

The attention hasnt always been positive.

His Penn State season started slowly.

He faced criticism from scouts for his work ethic and play away from the puck, and slipped from the top spot in some projected draft rankings.

Then there was the alleged altercation in February that led to a felony charge for aggravated assault.

The charge was later dropped, but he still faces a misdemeanour assault charge and summary charges for harassment and disorderly conduct.

Even after all that, life in the Toronto spotlight will be unlike anything that he a small-town kid from Whitehorse, Yukon, as Chayka described him recently has endured.

Hell be insulated to some degree by the experienced players around him, including two previous No.

1 picks in Matthews and Tavares.

Hes been under the spotlight for the last few years.

Its not an easy thing to go through that as a 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kid, said Mark Leach, the Leafs amateur scouting director.

Hes done a good job.

Advertisement About an hour and a half before the unforgettable moment that began his journey with the Leafs, McKenna was led onto the draft floor by Dave Keon Jr., the son of the legendary Leaf and an NHL staffer who works at Scotiabank Arena.

Every so often he stood up and just looked around; keen, it seemed, to take it all in.

When the cameras were rolling, it continued from a phone call he could barely hear from Chayka and Mats Sundin, to Bieber and Matthews and onto the interviews that followed.

McKenna will begin where Matthews once did: as a beacon of hope for a franchise and its fans; the one who might just make their long-awaited championship dreams come true.

Im confident in myself and I want to do good, he said afterward.

Hopefully the fanbase falls in love with me and its a good time.

This article has been shared from the original article on theathleticuk, here is the link to the original article.