Maple Leafs Select Gavin McKenna First Overall at 2026 NHL Draft

TORONTO — Gavin McKenna is taking his blue-and-white colours to one of hockey’s biggest stages.

The Toronto Maple Leafs selected the Whitehorse-born winger with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday night in Buffalo, giving the Original Six franchise a new cornerstone talent after a difficult season and major front-office changes.

Justin Bieber announces Toronto’s top pick

The selection was announced by Canadian pop star and longtime Maple Leafs fan Justin Bieber, adding a celebrity moment to the start of the draft at KeyBank Center. Sportsnet reported that Bieber made the announcement with help from Leafs captain Auston Matthews.

McKenna, 18, enters the NHL as one of the most closely watched Canadian prospects in years. He is coming off a freshman season at Penn State where he recorded 15 goals and 36 assists for 51 points in 35 NCAA games after two dominant seasons with the Western Hockey League’s Medicine Hat Tigers.

McKenna also represented Canada at the world junior championship, registering 14 points in seven games for the bronze-medal-winning team.

Leafs get lottery boost after disappointing season

Toronto’s selection of McKenna comes after a 2025-26 season that fell well short of expectations.

The Maple Leafs finished one spot out of last place in the Eastern Conference with 78 points, then won the draft lottery despite entering with odds of 8.5 per cent, according to Sportsnet and Reuters.

The team has also undergone major changes. The Leafs’ new hockey leadership includes general manager John Chayka, senior adviser Mats Sundin and head coach Jim Hiller.

Another No. 1 pick joins Matthews in Toronto

McKenna joins a roster still led by Matthews, who was selected first overall by Toronto in 2016. Matthews welcomed McKenna in a video message after the pick.

“Obviously, he’s a special player,” McKenna said of Matthews, according to Reuters. “It would mean the world to play with him, learn from him.”

The Maple Leafs also still feature William Nylander, John Tavares and Matthew Knies, giving McKenna a chance to develop alongside established NHL talent as Toronto tries to reset quickly rather than launch a full rebuild.

McKenna’s northern hockey story will resonate in Northwestern Ontario

McKenna’s rise from Whitehorse to the top of the NHL Draft will carry meaning across northern hockey communities, including Thunder Bay and Northwestern Ontario.

Players from smaller and northern centres often face longer travel, higher costs and fewer elite development opportunities than those in major hockey markets. McKenna’s path through the WHL, NCAA and Team Canada system is a reminder that elite talent can come from outside traditional southern Canadian hockey centres.

For young players in Thunder Bay, Fort Frances, Dryden, Kenora, Sioux Lookout and northern First Nations, McKenna’s selection offers another example of a northern-born player reaching the highest level of the sport.

Draft night begins a new chapter for Toronto

Toronto made McKenna the franchise’s third-ever No. 1 overall pick, following Wendel Clark in 1985 and Matthews in 2016.

The pressure will be immediate. The Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup since 1967, and McKenna arrives in a market that treats every high-profile move as a referendum on the franchise’s direction.

But for one night, Toronto’s focus was simple: secure the most dynamic player available and begin a new era around another top Canadian talent.