You can never enough quality goaltending in the National Hockey League and while it’s a position of relative strength for the Toronto Maple Leafs, there’s an opportunity to augment their pool in the 2026 NHL Draft. Toronto is widely expected to select Penn State forward Gavin McKenna with the first overall pick. From there onwards, the draft calculus becomes more complex.

Brady Knowling is widely considered the best goaltender in this year’s draft and should be within the Leafs’ range where the team holds the No. 60 pick in this year’s draft. Knowling is a 6-foot-5, 208-pound goaltender with superior athleticism. Here’s what Daily Faceoff prospect expert Steven Ellis wrote about Knowling in his May draft rankings:

Toronto should be looking ahead to the future, where it can round out its once-barren under-25 prospect pool with a core featuring McKenna, Matthew Knies, Easton Cowan and Ben Danford. It’s becoming easier to envision a pathway where Dennis Hildeby and Artur Akhtyamov seize the goal from Joseph Woll and Anthony Stolarz during a transitory 2026-27 campaign. Knowling would be provided ample time to develop, in an organization that has become adept at graduating goaltenders to the NHL. He will head to Boston University for the 2027-28 campaign, a great environment for him to continue to work on his game. And the case could be stated more simply: if Toronto is presented with a chance to get the best goaltender in the class at No. 60, it should rush to the podium.

There are concerns about Knowling’s glove hand and an over-reliance on his physical traits, but few goalie prospects are perfect. The 18-year-old posted a .886 save percentage in 15 games with the U.S. National Development Team, which speaks to the idea that he may have underperformed relative to his talent level. Knowling’s raw physical traits are alluring, and scouts consider him to be relatively unflappable, even when he allows sub-standard goals.

Maple Leafs general manager John Chayka should be bold during his first draft. If he can walk away with the best forward and the best goaltender in this year’s event with his first two picks, it would constitute a home run for a franchise that is currently trying to navigate two timelines, while looking to add to a shallow prospect pool. The case for Knowling almost writes itself.