Maple Leafs Analyst Drops Strange Take on Tanking Season for Gavin McKenna

The vibes are about as low as they can get when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs right now. Year one without Mitch Marner was supposed to change the culture and result in the other big boys taking control of the team for the better. Instead, it’s been a mess, as the team has no identity, is giving up goals and grade-A chances left, right, and center, and now dealing with several injuries to key players.

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While their 8-8-1 record doesn’t signal such disarray, some of the results have hidden poor play, and one Maple Leafs analyst is already sick and tired of what he’s seen through 17 games.

JD Bunkis had this to say on Leafs Talk following the 5-3 loss to Boston:

“I’m formally announcing that I’m just a member of Team Tank. Get into the bottom five, try to get McKenna. We’re 17 games in, I’m Team Tank, I’m Team Tank all the way. Go get the Yukon boy, go get the stallion, go get the chosen one.”

The 17-year-old McKenna is the consensus number one prospect in the upcoming 2026 draft, currently playing college hockey for Penn State, where he’s tallied 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) through his first 12 games.

Maple Leafs Tanking for Gavin McKenna Is a Risky Play

Bottoming out to land McKenna or any of the other highly touted prospects in this year’s draft is not something Maple Leafs fans envisioned being a part of their thought process in mid-November.

Toronto does not have its own 2026 first-round pick thanks to the trade at last year’s deadline to acquire Brandon Carlo from the Boston Bruins. That is, unless they somehow end up with a top-five pick given their protection status, which, even with their current struggles, feels far-fetched.

If the Leafs tank and then try to trade for a first-round pick, it would cost a lot to get into a lottery position.

There’s also the possibility that they finish among the bottom five in the league standings and fall out of it via the luck of the draft lottery, which is the worst-case scenario.

All of the current struggles and negativity aside, the Maple Leafs have too much talent to tank, and we’ve seen that even at their worst, it props them up to at least play .500 hockey. Things would seriously need to come off the rails for this group to actually find itself in the bottom five by the end of the season.

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