It’s the day of the 2025 NHL Draft, meaning that to most, it’s the official start of the offseason. The Cup was taken home over a week ago and there have been some trades and extensions in that time, but the draft marks the occasion where you’ve got 32 NHL GMs all looking to improve their team in the same room, which feels more like an official date.

The Toronto Maple Leafs are without a first-round pick, having traded their 2025 pick in a package for Jake McCabe back in 2023, but they will close out the second round with their first pick of the draft at 64th overall. In Daily Faceoff’s latest mock draft, Steven Ellis, who is a shared draft guru between The Leafs Nation and Daily Faceoff, has the Maple Leafs selecting forward Tyler Hopkins from the OHL’s Kingston Frontenacs.

Hopkins is a 6-foot-1, 181-pound centre who had 20 goals and 51 points in 67 games for the Fronts this season. He’s known more for his two-way game and his aggressiveness on the forecheck, but the offence in his game has been sneaky good this year. His makeup is a lot like that of former Leafs prospect Fraser Minten, who was traded to the Boston Bruins at this year’s trade deadline in a package for defenceman Brandon Carlo. Ellis compared Minten and Hopkins in his reasoning for the (mock) pick.

The Maple Leafs have six picks in this draft, including a second, a third, two fifths, a sixth, and a seventh. It will be the first draft under new Director of Amateur Scouting Mark Leach, who was hired this year after a lengthy stint with the Dallas Stars. Leach said on Thursday that the team would be eyeing a ‘best player available’ approach.

“Personally, you take the best available player talent-wise at that pick,” Leach said. “When you get down to No. 64 and that area, these players take a little longer to develop. It’s not a straight line from point A to B. Most of them are 3-5 years away.”

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