We’re 24 hours away from the Toronto Maple Leafs adding a franchise player to their organization with the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, a sentence that nobody would have believed we’d say about the Leafs a couple of months ago.

While the Maple Leafs are keeping quiet about who they plan to use the top pick on, general manager John Chayka confirmed to reporters on Thursday afternoon that the team has decided who will be picked first overall.

“We’ve got a decision. Tomorrow at 7-whatever, we’ll share it.” Chayka said after a reporter jokingly asked if he cared to share who the pick would be.

While the Leafs have been rumoured to like a couple of different prospects at the top, the first overall pick is widely expected to be Penn State forward Gavin McKenna, who has been the consensus number-1 for quite some time.

“At the end of the day, there’s a lot of conviction. I’d say it’s unanimous. I think through the process we want to make sure that we thought about it in all the different ways possible…at the end of the day it was straight forward.”

While numerous insiders have been floating the idea that the Leafs may be exploring a trade involving forward Matthew Knies, Chayka has remained consistent on his stance, reaffirming that he won’t be trading Knies unless it’s for an incredibly lopsided return.”

“Matthew is an elite power forward in the prime of his career, at a number that we think allows us to build a great team around him,” Chayka said. “That all sounds pretty good to me. Ultimately, my job is to make the team better, but all the things I just said make that incredibly difficult to do so. Like every player, we’ll have discussions and we’ll evaluate things, but there’s nothing as I stand here today that makes us a better team.”

Morgan Rielly’s name has been floated in recent days as well, following reports that he’s submitted a list of preferred destinations to Chayka. Despite this, the Maple Leafs’ general manager says that things haven’t really moved past the discussion stage on that front.

“As you said, Morgan is the longest-tenured Leaf, I’ve got tons of respect and so does Mats,” Chayka said. “No different than any player, we’re constantly having discussions about what’s the best fit for the player, what’s the best fit for the team, how do we put the best team on the ice and having conversations around that.”

Chayka was then asked if he expects a trade to happen there.

“I don’t think so, as I stand here. But again, those are discussions we continue to have.”

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