{"id":664602,"date":"2026-05-11T20:54:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/664602\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T20:54:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T20:54:10","slug":"maple-leafs-warned-about-alex-ovechkin-level-nhl-draft-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/664602\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs warned about Alex Ovechkin-level NHL Draft mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maple Leafs warned about Alex Ovechkin-level NHL Draft mistake<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Not all draft classes are created equal, which is worth noting before discussing the 2026 NHL Draft choice that the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> have after winning the No. 1 overall pick in the lottery.<\/p>\n

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But one example that could prove instructive is 2004.<\/p>\n

That’s the year the Washington Capitals<\/a> took Alex Ovechkin<\/a> with the No. 1 overall pick.<\/p>\n

The Pittsburgh Penguins<\/a> got Evgeni Malkin<\/a> with the second pick.<\/p>\n

And then the Chicago Blackhawks<\/a> took Cam Barker<\/a>, a defenseman who ended up being quite underwhelming.<\/p>\n

Some Maple Leafs accounts on social media are pointing out that Toronto certainly needs defensive help, but that reaching on a defenseman could prove costly:<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0The Mitch Marner irony of Auston Matthews’ future with the Maple Leafs<\/a><\/p>\n

As that account’s name suggest, most Maple Leafs fans want Gavin McKenna.<\/p>\n

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McKenna is the young Canadian winger who was a star in the WHL before spending the 2025-26 season in the NCAA ranks at Penn State.<\/p>\n

The main reason to pass on McKenna would be to draft for need. And as that example above shows, passing up a potential star forward could certainly backfire.<\/p>\n

Obviously, in 2004 the first two picks were the right call.<\/p>\n

The Leafs will be hoping that in a couple decades, their first pick in this draft looks to have been the right choice, too.<\/p>\n

More NHL news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs warned about Alex Ovechkin-level NHL Draft mistake originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664603,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[10231,64,2368,63,320939,7520,59625,57860,6505,575,4785,85,2370,4791],"class_list":["post-664602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-alex-ovechkin","tag-au","tag-auston-matthews","tag-australia","tag-cam-barker","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-evgeni-malkin","tag-gavin-mckenna","tag-mitch-marner","tag-nhl","tag-pittsburgh-penguins","tag-sports","tag-toronto-maple-leafs","tag-washington-capitals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=664602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664603"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}