Wednesday FTB: Gavin McKenna and Ivar Stenberg highlights

The Toronto Maple Leafs, to everyone's surprise, WON the 2026 NHL Draft Lottery and will be picking first overall in the upcoming draft!

Mats Sundin was live on air to witness the results, and c'mon, that smile is worth a million bucks.

Chaykdin/Sunayka got on video to share their reaction with the Leafs youtube channel.

10/10 faces from Mats last night.

There is currently a fight between Philadelphia and Boston over who gets the Leafs first round pick from 2027. Brad Treliving's wording in his trade has given Philly a case to get the pick in 2027 and not see it pushed back to 2028. Boston was initially understood to either be getting the 2026 pick (no longer) or the 2027 pick.

Further to this: It sounds like there's a good chance the NHL would rule in Philadelphia's favor if this scenario plays out.

Meaning, if Toronto retains its 2026 1st after tonight's lottery, expect 2027 1st to go to Flyers and 2028 1st to Bruins ... both unprotected. https://t.co/Iyq5Fq0CM5
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) May 5, 2026

I say let them fight because either way we're losing those two and no matter what the 2026 first overall pick is ours! And I'm just going to repeat that, the Leafs own their 2026 first round pick, no one else has a claim. We can do what we want with it – meaning either taking Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg or trading it (but honestly don't do that).

And that's a great segue to lead into the main topic for today! Here's video and highlights of these two prospects so everyone can actually watch something of these potential Leafs before deciding to trade them for Kyrou and Thomas.

First up, Gavin McKenna from Whitehorse, Yukon. Left winger.

McKenna has won gold at the U18s, bronze at the WJC, won the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup. In his D-2 he was the WHL and CHL rookie of the year and made various all-star teams. In his D-1 he won the WHL championship and lost to Easton Cowan in the Memorial Cup. He also won the WHL and CHL player of the year award, among other all-star awards. And in his draft year in the NCAA, he was a Hobey Baker finalist, won rookie of the year, was the scoring champion of the Big 10 conference (yes, he scored more than Porter Martone who's ripping it up in Philly).

And the challenger, Ivar Stenberg from Stenungsund, SWE. Also a left winger. McKenna being Canadian simply means there's more videos of him published. Please don't get mad at me in the comments about biased coverage.

Stenberg is the reigning World Junior Championship gold medalist, as well as the Champions Hockey League Champions (basically the hockey equivalent of football's champion's league). He also had the most assists and points by a junior player in the SHL. In his D-1 season, Stenberg won bronze at the Hlinka-Gretzky cup and bagged the most goals in the tournament. He lost to McKenna's team in the final at the U18's and made that tournament's all-star team. He also had the most goals and points in his J20 swedish hockey league conference. Stenberg played in the SHL last season, finishing 4th on his team in points as Frolunda finished 2nd in the league. Stenberg was 2nd in SHL scoring among U21 players, more than Chicago's 3rd overall pick from last year Anton Frondell.

So, who's going to be first overall?

In other news, after falling from first overall down to third overall because of the draft lottery, Vancouver Canucks president Jim Rutherford says he'll be transitioning to an advisor role after the draft. Rutherford has a strong reputation of being quite controlling as the Canucks have spiraled out of control. I don't have much in trust that he will in fact give up the reigns.

Jim Rutherford says that he will transition to an advisor role with the #Canucks after the draft
— Harman Dayal (@harmandayal2) May 6, 2026

The Marlies and Rocket are going to a deciding Game 5 on Saturday afternoon in Laval. The Marlies lost Game 4 last night. This is a best-of-five series so winner takes all. The game time was changed to not conflict with the Habs game, according to Insider Species.

UPDATE: Marlies @ Rocket game #5 in Laval has been moved from Friday to Saturday at 3 p.m..
— Pension Plan Puppets (@PPPLeafs) May 6, 2026

I think the Avalanche are going to beat the Wild. As of the time of writing this, they are up 3-1 midway through the third period. Nic Roy scored for the Avs while Nathan MacKinnon continues to give us points in my wife's work hockey pool.

Pagnotta dropped this weird bombshell on an Oilers podcast that the Oilers almost traded Darnell Nurse for Nic Roy. Holy Boston Pizza, Treliving, this could've been so bad. I'm so much happier with that 2027 first round pick. That would've been nothing short of a return to the Dion Phaneuf era.