The Maple Leafs Need to Think Long-Term With the No. 1 Pick
There’s a lot of noise already building around what the Toronto Maple Leafs should do with their No. 1 pick. Do they use it? Do they move it? Do they try to solve something more immediate on the roster? It’s one of those situations where, depending on who you ask, you’ll get five different answers in five minutes.
But the real question underneath it all is a simple one: what if the Maple Leafs are closer to a reset than people want to admit?
Right now, everything still feels like it’s in the “retool on the fly” category. Keep competing, tweak the roster, and hope the core pushes through. That’s been the approach for years. But hockey has a way of forcing decisions when you’re not quite ready for them. If Toronto were to stumble into the middle of the standings — say, sitting outside the playoff picture halfway through the year — things start to look a little different. Especially if Auston Matthews is uncertain about his long-term commitment.
That’s the part nobody really wants to say out loud, but it matters.
If Matthews doesn’t re-sign, McKenna suddenly looks a lot more important.
If you’re even entertaining the idea that Matthews might not extend, then you also have to think about what comes next. Because you don’t want to be caught flat-footed in that moment, trying to patch things together after the fact. That’s how teams drift for years. And that’s where a player like Gavin McKenna enters the conversation.
If the Maple Leafs are sitting in a position where change is already happening — whether they planned it or not — then drafting McKenna suddenly doesn’t feel like a luxury pick. It starts to look like the foundational piece for whatever the next version of the team will be. You’re not just drafting talent; you’re giving yourself a direction.
No one wants to replace Auston Matthews, but there's a big what-if.
That’s the key point here. It’s not about replacing Matthews or pretending you can flip a switch and move on. It’s about being prepared for different outcomes rather than reacting late.
Could the Leafs explore trades for the pick? Absolutely. There will be calls. But unless the return is something truly franchise-altering, it’s hard to ignore the upside of just taking the best young player available and building from there.
If things go sideways for the Maple Leafs, McKenna’s left standing.
Because if things do go sideways — and that’s always a possibility in this league — you’re going to want a cornerstone already in place.
And McKenna, at least on paper, looks exactly like that kind of player.