Opinion: What If The Maple Leafs Tried To Add Another Top-Five Pick?
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.
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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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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 6:27 PM.