"We legitimately dropped ping pong balls," TSN host James Duthie said as the Toronto Maple Leafs won its mock draft lottery.
Finally, some good news for Toronto Maple Leafs fans.
With the 13th-place team in the Eastern Conference en route to missing the playoffs for the first time since 2016 — a post-season streak that is currently the longest in the NHL — all eyes in Toronto are going to be on the upcoming NHL draft.
Unfortunately for the Leafs, the team traded its first-round pick to the Boston Bruins a year ago in exchange for defenseman Brandon Carlo.
The only way that Toronto can keep its pick would be if the Leafs, which currently have the eighth-worst points percentage in the NHL, somehow move up to within the top five, because the pick is top-five protected.
There are two ways for the Leafs to achieve that goal: the first is to drop even further down in the standings, which shouldn't be difficult considering the Leafs are on a five-game losing streak. The other, much easier, way is to win the draft lottery.
In what could be read as a positive sign to come, that is exactly what happened when TSN did a mock draft lottery during its trade deadline coverage on Friday, and the Leafs ended up moving up to the No. 1 spot.
"Oh my goodness," said TSN host James Duthie, laughing. "I know what's going to happen now in every market in the country. We legitimately dropped ping pong balls… I know we did it right, but there is going to be allegations."
At their current spot in the standings, the Leafs had a six-percent chance of winning the draft lottery. The Chicago Blackhawks, which had an 8.5 percent chance of winning, ended up with the No. 2 pick. And the Vancouver Canucks, which had the best odds at 18.6 percent, ended up dropping to No. 3.
Toronto last had the No. 1 pick when they selected Auston Matthews in 2016. That pick, which ended a three-year playoff drought for the Leafs, coincided with the team's current nine-year playoff streak.
"Good news for the Toronto Maple Leafs because in a year with lots of good players, a high draft pick is luck shining its fortune on the Maple Leafs," said TSN director of scouting Craig Button, who suggested that the Leafs should select Penn State left winger Gavin McKenna.
TSN's mock draft (Screenshot)"I don't think there's any question," Button said of McKenna, who would probably help Matthews forget about Mitch Marner. "He's been phenomenal at Pen State. They get an elite, elite playmaking winger."
Button also had defenseman Keaton Verhoff going to Chicago, with Vancouver selecting Sweden left winger Ivar Stenberg.
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