The Toronto Maple Leafs won the first-overall pick in the 2026 draft lottery, giving the club the No. 1 selection for the first time since 2016. It will be just the third time in franchise history that Toronto drafts first, and one of the five options under consideration is Gavin Mckenna.

Mckenna, a Whitehorse, Yukon product, is the kind of talent that can change the direction of a season before he ever plays a game. The winger scored 129 points in 56 games for Medicine Hat in the WHL in his final year there, then followed it with 51 points in 35 games as a freshman at Penn State. He finished strong in college, picking up 33 of those 51 points in his final 18 games, a stretch that added to the case that he belongs near the top of the board.

Toronto’s last two No. 1 picks brought Auston Matthews and Wendel Clark to the organization, a reminder of how rare and important this kind of lottery win can be for a team. This one arrives after the Maple Leafs missed the post-season for the first time in a decade, and it comes as the club heads into 2026-27 with a new general manager and a new head coach.

Sportsnet has described McKenna as a safer option for Toronto, while scouts remain split on whether he or Ivar Stenberg is the true top talent in the 2026 class. That divide matters because the Maple Leafs are not simply choosing a player; they are choosing the face of a reset at a moment when the front office, now led by new general manager John Chayka, is trying to change the direction of the franchise.

The decision will come on June 26, and the pick carries more weight than a typical top selection because Toronto has both the draft capital and the pressure that comes with it. For the Maple Leafs, the lottery win is the opening to a new era. The question now is whether they use it on the safest elite scorer available, or on the option they believe can become the best player in the class.