The atmosphere is about as low as it can get when it comes to the Toronto Maple Leafs right now. The first year without Mitch Marner would change the culture and lead to the other big boys taking control of the team for the better. Instead, it has been a shambles as the team has no identity, giving up goals and top-class chances left, right and centre, and now dealing with several injuries to key players.
While their 8-8-1 record doesn’t indicate such disarray, poor play lurks behind some of the results, and one Maple Leafs analyst is already tired of what he’s seen in seventeen games.
JD Bunkis said this on Leafs Talk after the 5-3 loss to Boston:
“I’m formally announcing that I’m just a member of Team Tank. Get down to the bottom five, try to get McKenna. We’re seventeen games in, I’m Team Tank, I’m Team Tank all the time. Go get the Yukon boy, go get the stallion, go get the chosen one.”
The 17-year-old McKenna is the number one prospect in the upcoming 2026 draft and currently plays college hockey for Penn State, where he has recorded 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in his first 12 games.
Fueling the Maple Leafs for Gavin McKenna is a risky play
Bottoming out to land McKenna or any of the other highly touted prospects in this year’s draft is not something Maple Leafs fans envisioned as part of their thought process in mid-November.
Toronto doesn’t have its own 2026 first-round pick thanks to last year’s trade deadline to acquire Brandon Carlo from the Boston Bruins. That is, unless they somehow end up in the top five, given their patronage status, which, even with their current struggles, seems far-fetched.
If the Leafs tank and then try to trade for a first-round pick, it would take a lot to get into a lottery position.
There’s also the possibility that they finish in the bottom five of the standings and fall out through the luck of the draft lottery, which is the worst-case scenario.
All the current struggles and negativity aside, the Maple Leafs have too much talent to tank, and we’ve seen that even the worst-case scenario pushes them to at least play .500 hockey. Things would really have to go off the rails for this group to actually find itself in the bottom five by the end of the season.
Next: Zadorov shares his take on the hit that injured Auston Matthews
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