NHL Draft Lottery 2026: Maple Leafs to select first overall
Penn State's Gavin McKenna is the strong favorite to be taken at No. 1.
It will be the Toronto Maple Leafs selecting first overall at the 2026 NHL Draft. Toronto won the draft lottery, performed live on ESPN, on Tuesday after a sequence of four ping-pong balls bounced their way. The winning sequence: 7, 2, 11, 12.
The Toronto Maple Leafs have officially secured the No. 1 overall selection in the 2026 NHL draft 👏 pic. twitter.
com/t21mGgm44k — ESPN (@espn) May 5, 2026 It will be the first time the Maple Leafs since 2016, when they selected captain Auston Matthews. They will certainly be hoping for similar success this this pick. They have selected first one other time in franchise history, taking Wendel Clark in 1985.
The good fortune comes one day after Toronto introduced its new leadership of general manager John Chayka and senior executive advisor of hockey operations Mats Sundin. It was a contentious news conference, to say the least, due to concerns about Chayka’s track record . The industry already has a pretty strong guess at the first pick.