Friday's FTB: The things you need to know now

First up, the draft lottery is May 5. When the NHL releases their full set of rules for this year's lottery, I'll put up a longer explainer. Until then, go play:

Tankathon | 2026 NHL Draft Order & Lottery Simulator

2026 NHL Draft order tracker updated after every game. NHL lottery simulator to determine the top overall pick. View traded picks and playoff matchups.

Tankathon

This Reddit thread digs into it, and I'm not qualified to judge the person's take, also I got bored halfway through and quit reading. The future comes when it comes.

The NHL playoffs begin on Saturday and we are not playoff central here, we aren't "covering" the playoff rounds or anything, but anyone who is watching is welcome to talk about it. I usually tune back in by the final round.

The Sceptres have three more games and sit two points out of a playoff spot, tied with New York. Their next game is Sunday afternoon. Their Pride game is Tuesday, April 21.

If you're an undrafted prospect watcher, the IIHF U18 begins on Wednesday of next week.

Men's Worlds starts on May 15 this year, and John Tavares will play, and Morgan Rielly indicated he's always willing. Other names will come to light in the next few weeks.

Until the Leafs make their first hire, nothing at all is certain, and there's no way of knowing what they will do with RFAs, UFAs or any other player. No decisions have to be made before mid-June, though. The Leafs don't have any drafted prospects whose rights expire before August this year.

We'll turn our focus to the draft after the lottery and on into June.

In the interim, I plan to turn my attention to some interesting things from the HALO conference, which ties in with the Leafs hiring process.

And as of this weekend, we're going back to one FTB on the weekend. And we'll have a bit of an overall news lull, I would expect, until the draft lottery.

But some news broke last night:

Chase your dream, Sunny. That's the way to play the game.