The Toronto Maple Leafs organization has drafted and developed a number of youngsters currently playing in the NHL (Auston Matthews, William Nylander, Morgan Rielly, Matthew Knies), but the club under former GM’s Kyle Dubas and Brad Treliving, and new GM John Chayka have had different ideas of what kind of prospects they wanted to populate the organization with.
This story is powered by Betalytics — the intelligent platform for sports betting — and by Rude Hockey apparel.
As we’ve done on a yearly basis, we will be ranking the club’s top prospects over the upcoming weeks based on their progress in either the NCAA, CHL, Europe, ECHL, or AHL, and their potential to make the Leafs roster and make a contribution in the future.
Players are eligible for the list if they have not played more than 82 NHL games and are 25 years old or younger:
Leafs Prospect List
- #50 – Blake Smith – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #49 – Henrik Rybinski – F (Hershey – AHL)
- #48 – Sawyer Boulton – F (Reading – ECHL, Lehigh Valley – AHL)
- #47 – Cole McWard – D (Bridgeport – AHL, NY Islanders – NHL)
- #46 – Rylan Fellinger – D (Flint – OHL)
- #45 – Sam Stevens – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
- #44 – Brody Pepoy – F (Saginaw – OHL)
- #43 – Matt Lahey – D (Michigan State – NCAA)
- #42 – Yaroslav Fedoseyev – D (Chelyabinsk Clemet – VHL, Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
- #41 – Cade Webber – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #40 – Matthew Hlacar – F (Kitchener – OHL)
- #39 – Will Belle – RW (US Nat’l Development Program)
- #38 – Cooper Williams – C (Saskatoon – WHL)
- #37 – Patriks Plumins – G (Zemgale – Latvia)
- #36 – Chas Sharpe – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #35 – Hayes Hundley – D (St. Thomas – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
- #34 – Hudson Malinoski – C (Providence – NCAA)
- #33 – Joe Miller – C (Harvard – NCAA)
- #32 – Juuso Ainasto – G (Jokerit Jr. – Finland)
- #31 – Semyon Der-Argushintsev – C (Chelyabinsk Traktor – KHL)
- #30 – Mans Gudmundsson – D (Farjestads Jr. – Sweden)
- #29 – Landon Sim – RW (Toronto – AHL)
- #28 – Ryan Kirwan – F (Cincinnati – ECHL, Toronto – AHL)
- #27 – Sam McCue – LW (Brantford/Ottawa – OHL)
- #26 – Samuel Hlavaj – G (Iowa Wild – AHL)
- #25 – Topi Niemela – D (Malmo – SHL)
- #24 – Brandon Buhr – F (Union – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
- #23 – Borya Valis – RW (Toronto – AHL)
- #22 – Vinny Borgesi – D (Northeastern – NCAA, Toronto – AHL)
- #21 – Ryan Tverberg – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
- #20 – Zac Olsen – F (Saskatoon – WHL)
- #19 – Alexander Plesovskikh – LW (MHK Spartak Moskva – MHL, Moscow Spartak – KHL)
- #18 – Roni Hirvonen – C (Karpat – SM-Liiga)
- #17 – Timofei Obvintsev – G (Gornyak-UGMK – VHL)
- #16 – Ethan MacKenzie – D (Edmonton – WHL)
- #15 – Harry Nansi – C (Owen Sound – OHL)
- #14 – Nick Moldenhauer – C (Michigan – NCAA)
- #13 – Tyler Hopkins – C (Kingston/Guelph – OHL)
- #12 – Noah Chadwick – D (Toronto – AHL)
- #11 – Alexander Bilecki – D (Kitchener – OHL)
- #10 – Luke Haymes – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
- #9 – Jacob Quillan – C (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
- #8 – Miroslav Holinka – C (Edmonton – WHL, Toronto – AHL)
- #7 – William Villeneuve – D (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
- #6 – Victor Johansson – D (Leksands Jr., Oskarshamn IK – Sweden)
- #5 – Tinus-Luc Koblar – C (Leksands IF Jr. – Sweden)
- #4 – Artur Akhtyamov – G (Toronto – AHL, Toronto – NHL)
- #3 – Ben Danford – D (Oshawa/Brantford – OHL, Toronto – AHL)
- #2 – Easton Cowan – F (Toronto – AHL, Toronto -NHL)
#1 – Gavin McKenna – F (Penn State – NCAA)
The final and top prospect of our series of the Leafs Top 50 should not come as any surprise, as 18-year-old Gavin McKenna is the most highly regarded youngster to enter the organization since Auston Matthews was selected first overall in Buffalo 10 years ago. The native of Whitehorse has been the presumptive top overall pick in the 2026 Draft for two years.
McKenna joined the WHL’s Medicine Hat Tigers at 16, without exceptional status, and posted 18 points (4 goals, 14 assists) in 16 games at the end of the 2022-23 season. In his first full WHL season, he finished with 97 points (34 goals, 63 assists), earned WHL and CHL Rookie of the Year honors, and scored 20 points in seven games at the Under-18s.
In 2024-25, he exploded offensively with 129 points (41 goals, 88 assists) in 56 games, advancing to the Memorial Cup Final before losing to Cowan’s London Knights. Instead of returning to the WHL for another season as a 17-year-old, McKenna opted to head to the NCAA to play for Penn State University against older, stronger competition. After a slow start, he finished his freshman year with 51 points (15 goals, 36 assists) in 35 games and also led Team Canada at the 2026 World Junior with 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) in seven games.
There was little doubt after the Leafs fortuitously won the Draft Lottery that they would be selecting McKenna, in spite of some chatter that they were considering picking Ivar Stenberg. The 18-year-old has had some impressive moments in the preseason and the first two games of his NHL career, but it is understandably going to take some time for him to get up to speed.
TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS (1-1-0 – 2 POINTS) vs. OTTAWA SENATORS (0-0-0 – 0 POINTS)
October 3, 2026 ▪ 7:00 PM EST ▪ SCOTIABANK ARENA (TORONTO, ON)
MAPLE LEAFS HISTORY vs. SENATORS
| All-Time Record: | 69-66-3-13 (151 Games) |
| All-Time Home Record: | 38-28-2-8 (76 Games) |
| 2025-26: | 1-3-0 |
| Last Five: | 1-4-0 |
| Last 10: | 2-8-0 |
| First Matchup Between Clubs: | October 20, 1992 (Toronto 5 vs. Ottawa 3) |
| All-Time Record: | 69-66-3-13 (151 Games) |
| All-Time Home Record: | 38-28-2-8 (76 Games) |
| All-Time Road Record: | 31-38-1-5 (75 Games) |
| Last Home Win vs. Opponent: | December 27, 2025 (Toronto 7 vs. Ottawa 5) |
| OTTAWA | TORONTO | |
| Goals For Per Game: | 3.35 (8th) | 3.07 (16th) |
| Goals Against Per Game: | 2.99 (13th-T) | 3.60 (31st) |
| Power Play %: | 24.0% (8th) | 21.3 (15th) |
| Penalty Kill %: | 75.7 (29th) | 81.2 (8th) |
| Shots For Per Game: | 28.9 (6th) | 26.3 (18th-T) |
| Shots Against Per Game: | 24.4 (2nd) | 32.4 (32nd) |
| Faceoff %: | 54.5 (2nd) | 54.2 (3rd) |
Home › Forums › Leafs Top 50 Prospects – Gavin McKenna
Tagged: nhl, Toronto Maple Leafs