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The Toronto Maple Leafs have been here before, although not all that often.
The Leafs won the NHL Draft lottery on Tuesday night to earn the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft. It'll be the third time they have the first pick in the draft.
Both of the first two instances worked out quite nicely, so the Leafs will be hoping that's the case again.
The expectation is that Gavin McKenna will be the favorite for that slot, but the pre-draft process could always shift that by the time the Maple Leafs are officially on the clock.
This is a quick look at how that slot has worked out for them before.
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Maple Leafs history with No. 1 overall pick
The Maple Leafs have had the first overall pick twice before.
The first time was in 1985, when they took the winger Wendel Clark from the WHL's Saskatoon Blades.
Clark went on to play 13 of his 15 NHL seasons for the Maple Leafs.
He scored 260 of his 330 goals and had 181 of his 234 assists with the Leafs while also spending short stints with Tampa Bay, Quebec, Chicago, Detroit and the Islanders.
Then in 2016, they took the American center Auston Matthews with the first overall pick.
Matthews remains with Toronto, 10 seasons into his NHL career. He has scored 428 goals and dished out 352 assists (780 points) in 689 games with the Maple Leafs.
Now, assuming that the Leafs don't move Matthews this summer, he'll get a chance to play with the franchise's next top pick and try to turn things around from a rough 2025-26 season.
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