The Maple Leafs Must Now Pay for a Huge Mistake

The Toronto Maple Leafs spent years treating the draft like an afterthought, and it finally caught up with them in the ugliest way possible. Look at the roster that cratered last season. Outside of Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Morgan Rielly, the only other skaters the organization drafted were Matthew Knies, Nick Robertson, Easton Cowan, Joseph Woll, and a re-acquired Dakota Joshua. That’s it.

For a team that lived in the playoffs for nearly a decade, the return on years of high picks was embarrassingly thin. When you take a look at the Montreal Canadiens, by comparison, it’s far different. The Habs rolled out 13 or 14 of their own draftees and still had a deep AHL/NCAA/KHL pipeline sitting behind them.

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The Maple Leafs Dilemma Didn’t Happen Overnight

That bare cupboard didn’t happen overnight. It was the direct result of two disastrous deadlines under Brad Treliving’s previous regime. In 2025, they shipped out two first-rounders and two prospects for Scott Laughton and Brandon Carlo. Twelve months later, Laughton was flipped for a conditional third. Assets out the door for rental-level help that never moved the needle. The cumulative damage left Toronto looking at maybe one first-rounder over a three-year stretch at one point.

The new regime under GM John Chayka at least recognized the problem. Winning the lottery and taking Gavin McKenna first overall is the biggest single injection of high-end talent this franchise has seen in years. Knies remains a genuine bright spot from the old regime, and a few other young pieces are still around.

But one franchise-altering prospect doesn’t magically refill a pipeline that was allowed to dry up for a decade. The next few drafts and the development staff under Chayka and Sundin will decide whether this is the start of something sustainable or just another temporary patch.

There’s a Lot to Learn from How the Canadiens Built Their Roster

Montreal’s approach was the opposite. Their strategy was to protect the picks, endure the losing, and build from the bottom with cost-controlled young players who actually buy into the culture. Toronto is still playing catch-up on that front.

McKenna is a great start. The real test is whether the organization finally treats the draft like the foundation instead of a way to paper over short-term mistakes. We’ll see how this season goes, but at least Chayka and Sundin have made a start toward fixing what might be Toronto’s biggest problem of the past decade.

Related: NHL Trade Talk Recap: Oilers, Maple Leafs & Canadiens Confusion