10 Years After Leading The Draft, The Maple Leafs And Jets Must Lose Again

What a difference a year made for the Winnipeg Jets and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Last season, the Jets finished first in the NHL standings, and the Maple Leafs topped the Atlantic Division.

Now, the Jets and Maple Leafs have been two of the biggest underachieving teams in the league. Toronto sits 14th in the Eastern Conference, while Winnipeg sits 12th in the West.

But there's another thing the Leafs and Jets have in common. And if they play their cards right, they could share yet another similarity.

Ten years ago, they sat at the bottom of their divisions. The Jets had made the playoffs the year before, while the Leafs hadn't made it since the lockout-affected 2012-13 season.

The Jets won a draft lottery draw and moved to second overall, while the Leafs retained the first selection. That draft gave a huge boost to both franchises in different ways.

Toronto drafted Auston Matthews first overall, and he became a superstar goal-scorer for them as they made the playoffs every year since before now.

Winnipeg selected Patrik Laine, who recorded three seasons of 30 goals or better to kick off his career, helped the team reach the Western Conference final in 2017-18 and was one of their top forwards. They then traded him in 2021 for Pierre-Luc Dubois, who recorded two 60-point seasons. Dubois then turned into Gabriel Vilardi, who has 56 points in 67 games this season, and Alex Iafallo, who has 25 points, among other assets.

The 2016 NHL draft helped make the Maple Leafs and Jets perennial playoff teams and, at times, strong Stanley Cup contenders.

So when the Maple Leafs and Jets picked up five points in a three-game stretch this past week, they're simply hurting their chances of getting another top prospect. It's not time to be in mushy middle territory, after all.

Each squad has a golden opportunity to acquire a high-end young talent who can be part of their lineup for the next decade-and-a-half. That means they should lose as many games as they can the rest of this season to climb the draft order.

Sure, Winnipeg has Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor, Josh Morrissey and Connor Hellebuyck, and Toronto has Matthews, Matthew Knies and William Nylander. They're expected to bounce back next season.

But if you're going to thrive in hockey's best league, you need a steady stream of top talent coming from the draft, especially players near the top of the order.

You can understand why many teams have been where the Jets and Leafs are at and chose to embrace the tank, get a high draft pick and improve the big picture.

The Boston Bruins were three points out of a playoff spot when they traded Brad Marchand, Charlie Coyle and Brandon Carlo at last year's trade deadline. They finished second-last in the Eastern Conference and got James Hagens at the draft, and they are currently back in a playoff spot.

The Nashville Predators massively disappointed in the standings last season but decided to sell and got Brady Martin fifth overall at the 2025 draft. And the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks, which hoped to bounce back this season after missing the playoffs last year, traded veterans and are near the bottom of the NHL and the top of the draft order.

If the Maple Leafs or Jets are lucky, they could even end up like the 2024-25 New York Islanders, which finished the season 3-5-2 in their last 10 games and won the draft lottery with the 10th-best odds, selecting Matthew Schaefer first overall.

Yes, there are some anomalies when it comes to building a top team. But if you can handle a stretch of pain in the win/loss column, you have a better shot at being rewarded for it by the hockey gods in the draft. That's the way the NHL system works. 

And remember, the Leafs' first-round pick goes to the Bruins unless it ends up in the top five. Even if they finish with the fourth- or fifth-best lottery odds, if two teams with worse odds win the two draws, they could end up sixth or seventh in the order and transfer their pick to Boston. That happened to the Philadelphia Flyers and Bruins last year, when the Isles and Utah Mammoth won both draws despite being far down the odds list.

For that reason, the Maple Leafs need the league's third-worst record this year or worse to guarantee keeping their first-rounder this year. That leaves them precious-little room for more wins the rest of this year, since they're eight points ahead of third-last.

They and the Jets, which are five points out of third-last, need to give youngsters ice time, play the stars less and give their fans some fun hockey while still losing as much as possible.

All the disappointment the Jets and Leafs have created this year would be quickly forgotten if they came away from it with either Gavin McKenna, Ivar Stenberg Tynan Lawrence or another top-five talent at the top of the draft.

That should provide every motivation for Toronto and Winnipeg to take their lumps for the remainder of this season and earn a top-three pick.

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