{"id":651218,"date":"2026-05-06T09:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/651218\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T09:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T09:05:08","slug":"maple-leafs-win-2026-nhl-draft-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/651218\/","title":{"rendered":"Maple Leafs win 2026 NHL Draft Lottery"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Toronto Maple Leafs won the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday, giving them the first selection when the event kicks off June 26 in Buffalo.<\/p>\n

Toronto entered the lottery with an 8.5% chance of landing in the top spot.<\/p>\n

The San Jose Sharks won the second lottery to move up to No. 2.<\/p>\n

The Maple Leafs have picked first twice before, taking Wendel Clark in 1985 and Auston Matthews in 2016.<\/p>\n

The team finished fifth-last in the NHL this season with a 32-36-14 record, plummeting down the standings after winning the Atlantic Division in 2024-25. Toronto’s selection would’ve gone to the Boston Bruins to complete the Brandon Carlo trade had it landed outside the top five.<\/p>\n

Instead, the Leafs will now transfer unprotected first-round picks to the Bruins and Philadelphia Flyers in 2027 and 2028. Toronto will pick who gets the selection in 2027.<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Leafs introduced John Chayka as general manager and Mats Sundin as senior executive adviser.<\/p>\n

“Well, you need some luck, and we got it tonight,” Chayka said Tuesday, according to TSN’s Chris Johnston<\/a>. “It’s a monumental opportunity.”<\/p>\n

Chayka added<\/a> that he doesn’t yet know whom Toronto will take because he hasn’t had scouting meetings with his staff.<\/p>\n

The Sharks will pick in the top two for the third straight draft. San Jose selected Macklin Celebrini with the first overall pick in 2024 and Michael Misa at No. 2 last year.<\/p>\n

Gavin McKenna is NHL Central Scouting’s top-ranked North American prospect. The left-winger racked up 15 goals and 51 points in 35 games as a freshman at Penn State, and he notched 14 points in seven contests at the world juniors with Canada.<\/p>\n

Winger Ivar Stenberg, center Caleb Malhotra, and defensemen Keaton Verhoeff, Chase Reid, and Carson Carels are other contenders to go in the top five.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Maple Leafs won the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery on Tuesday, giving them the first selection when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651219,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-651218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}