BEING NO. 1<\/p>\n
Schaefer isn\u2019t the only previous No. 1 pick who understands the pressures of coming into the NHL with such high expectations. As such,\u00a0NHL.com\u00a0surveyed a number of former No. 1\u2019s about dealing with outside expectations and how they feel McKenna will handle them in the spotlight of Toronto.<\/p>\n
Macklin Celebrini, San Jose Sharks (2024)
\u201cThe attention makes it a blessing and a curse. When you\u2019re doing well, they\u2019re going to treat you like royalty. But also, every little mistake will be focused in on more and more. I trained with him this summer and got to know him a bit and don\u2019t think it\u2019ll affect him that much. And he\u2019s got a lot of guys there to help him through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Juraj Slafkovsky, Montreal Canadiens (2022)
\u201cThe pressure of being picked into a hotbed hockey market? I don\u2019t know. For me, I didn\u2019t really feel it because I couldn\u2019t understand (French) and what half the people were saying or writing about me. (Laughs). So I didn\u2019t know if it was anything bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Owen Power, Buffalo Sabres (2021)
\u201cI think for him, he’s obviously got the skill and the talent and the ability. So just go out there and, you know, really just have fun with it. I mean, he’s playing in one of the best places to play hockey, and I think he’ll be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jack Hughes, New Jersey Devils (2019)
“I think of all the places he could have gone, Toronto’s got to be one of the better spots. He’s got\u00a0(Auston Matthews) to lean on. I don’t think anyone understands where he is right now more than ‘AMats’ just because he was that guy. He’s been the first overall pick. He was the guy that had to take them out of the gutter. He was the guy that went through all those playoff series. That will be someone he can really lean on. Of course the microscope is pretty big in Toronto but there’s a reason he was the first overall pick. He’s a kid that can handle it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs (2016)
\u201cWe\u2019re obviously so excited to have him. He\u2019s a special player. He\u2019s a special person. It\u2019s awesome to get to spend some time with him (and) get to\u00a0know him. He\u2019s going to be an incredible player in this league. And he\u2019s going to do a lot of great things for this team, this organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers (2015)
\u201cHe’ll have his hands full in Toronto, but he seems like he’s prepared for it. He\u2019ll have a good support system there too, obviously with Auston (Matthews), and he’ll have lots of support around him, so he should be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
John Tavares, New York Islanders (2009)
\u201cFrom one game to the next, you see a massive improvement, and just how quickly can you get comfortable. \u200aThe hockey IQ, the puck play,\u00a0playmaking is exceptional. So that\u2019ll only continue to get better and better, and each checkpoint for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mats Sundin, Quebec Nordiques (1989)
\u201cIt’s a veteran team that he\u2019s coming into. Sometimes a No. 1 pick comes in and they\u2019re joining a team that\u2019s in a complete rebuild, a much younger team. So he\u2019s going to be able to soak lessons in from some really, really true professionals and great players. So that’s going to be great for him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wendel Clark, Toronto Maple Leafs (1985)
\u201cThat first year, or at least the time when you\u2019re 18 to 19 or 20, you\u2019re doing a lot of growing, not just as a hockey person but a person in general. So we\u2019re not expecting McKenna to come out and (dominate). I mean, if he does, awesome. But really, just come and grow and be part of the team and become a better hockey player and better person.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BEING NO. 1 Schaefer isn\u2019t the only previous No. 1 pick who understands the pressures of coming into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-913763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913763","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=913763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}