Top Draft Prospect Sounds Exactly Like What the Maple Leafs Need

The Toronto Maple Leafs entered this season with Stanley Cup aspirations, or at the very least with hopes of another playoff run. Nobody expected to be talking about the top of the 2026 draft class, especially just 22 games in, yet with a 9-10-3 record alone at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, that’s where we find ourselves.

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Getting healthy and going on a mid-season run could easily put the Maple Leafs back into contention. Still, if things go the other way and they continue to fall the standings, Toronto could be looking at their highest draft pick since they took Auston Matthews first overall in 2016.

Gavin McKenna has long been viewed as the player to tank for in this class; however, defenseman Keaton Verhoeff has closed the gap of late, and his self-scouting report should have Maple Leafs fans extremely intrigued at potentially getting the chance to draft him.

Verhoeff said:

“Big two-way defenseman, I like defending, I take pride in my defensive zone, hard on guys in the d-zone. And then getting up the ice, I’m able to transition the puck pretty quickly, I think, and then using my size and my shot in the offensive zone to create me time and space and create some passing lanes and be able to wire the puck. So, that’s kind of my game, and I kind of pride myself in taking care of the d-zone, and then obviously jumping up into the rush and trying to create is just an added bonus,”

The 17-year-old has had a very strong start to his college hockey career at the University of North Dakota, producing eight points (four goals, four assists) in 12 games from the blue line while being a +4 rating.

How Could the Maple Leafs Land Keaton Verhoeff?

While most of Leafs Nation would prefer they get back on track and push for the playoffs, some have already started to lean towards the direction of taking a step back in 2025-26, and landing a premier player atop the draft.

Verhoeff would be just that, but we have to remember that the Boston Bruins own Toronto’s first-round pick as a result of the Brandon Carlo trade at last year’s deadline.

The caveat is, of course, that the pick is top-five protected, so the Maple Leafs would truly have to bottom out for any chance of bringing in an all-around young stud defenseman that seems like a perfect fit.

It’s a difficult tightrope to walk, though it’s best for the franchise to go hard one way or the other, because missing the playoffs and landing in the pick six through 16 range would be a disaster.

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