The Toronto Maple Leafs have the No. 1 draft pick, but Adam Proteau wonders whether they should follow a legendary Vancouver Canucks strategy by acquiring another very high pick in the same draft.
The Toronto Maple Leafs hit the jackpot Tuesday, winning the first pick in the 2026 NHL draft.
While it's great for Leafs Nation to see their team guaranteed to pick the best player available, why shouldn't they think bigger than that and take a bigger swing at the plate at the draft?
They don't have to look further than what one of their former GMs did.
In 1999, the Vancouver Canucks entered the draft with the third overall pick. But Canucks GM Brian Burke was not satisfied with having the No. 3 pick. Instead, he engineered trades that ultimately gave Vancouver the second and third pick that year. That led to the drafting of star brothers Henrik and Daniel Sedin, who led the way in a prosperous new era for the franchise.
With that in mind, Maple Leafs GM John Chayka and senior executive advisor Mats Sundin should at least ponder the possibility of doing something similar and trading their way into adding the second or fourth overall pick to have two picks in the top five.
A new era would officially start off well if the Leafs could acquire consensus No. 1 pick Gavin McKenna and then add a promising young defenseman with the second or fourth pick. It would likely take a blockbuster trade and a change of the core to make it happen, but it could help the team bounce back better in the long term.
McKenna is still only 18, but there's a good chance of him using his elite playmaking abilities to help captain Auston Matthews become a 'Rocket' Richard Trophy contender again and boost the team's scoring up front.
The Maple Leafs' defensemen have also contributed little offense in recent years, and with Chris Tanev injured for most of this season, they didn't quite make up for it in the defensive zone.
They could get someone to address both areas in the draft if they added another high first-rounder.
TSN's Jeff O'Neill said earlier this week he heard a similar idea.
"I've heard all the theories, Brian (Hayes), and I've heard like, now it's time to just start accumulating assets because you lucked out and got the No. 1 pick," O'Neill said on Overdrive. "So it's like wheel and deal. Try to get the No. 2 pick from San Jose, get a defenseman, get another prospect and do that with other players, and then maybe you have something to move forward with."
Of course, the Leafs would take a hit with the price they'd have to pay to acquire a second top pick in the draft.
Star right winger William Nylander has surfaced in trade rumors and speculation since the time making the playoffs this year no longer looked like a reality. Although he has a no-move clause, his name has still been discussed in media and fan trade speculation.
We're not suggesting a Nylander trade is imminent or will happen at all, but if there is a possibility that he gets moved, getting a top-five pick is the ideal scenario.
Of course, when you trade away a perennial 40-goal scorer, your team will take a hit on offense.
But in this case, if the Leafs dealt Nylander, they'd be replacing some of his offense with the offense generated by McKenna.
And while Sundin and Chayka would have to sell this type of move to Toronto star center and captain Auston Matthews, the selling point is this: what the Leafs lose with a Nylander trade, they gain by drafting a top young defenseman to play for them for the next decade-and-a-half.
By and large, the only way to acquire that kind of top defenseman is through the draft. So while losing Nylander would hurt, acquiring a young blueliner to rejuvenate the defense corps would give the Leafs a better-balanced team that finally has an elite young defenseman as a foundational component on the back end. And a better-balanced team is what Matthews should want to be part of.
And Nylander could get a change of scenery and join a different team that's on the rise.
If the San Jose Sharks want to take that next step as a franchise, they need to acquire proven veteran help. So if the Leafs went to Sharks GM Mike Grier and offered him Nylander in exchange for a package that includes at least the No. 2 pick, a second-rounder and maybe more, that could help both squads.
If the Sharks don't want to trade the pick, and the Vancouver Canucks hang onto third overall, the Leafs could look to the Chicago Blackhawks. The Hawks would no doubt be intrigued by acquiring Nylander to be the right winger for superstar Connor Bedard, and the Leafs could take that fourth overall pick and use it on a top prospect defenseman like NCAA star Keaton Verhoeff, WHL star Carson Carels, Latvia's Alberts Smits or someone else.
A GM like Burke – an old-school gambler as a team-builder – saw the merits of making a massive splash at the draft more than a quarter-century ago. And he pulled off a transaction that paid off in spades. And there are definitely merits of Chayka and the Leafs doing the same sort of thing in the 2026 draft.
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