BUFFALO, N.Y. — While giving John Chayka a tour of his hometown of Whitehorse, Yukon, last month, Gavin McKenna made sure to take the Toronto Maple Leafs general manager on a visit to a nearby mountain.
“I had fun,” McKenna said with a smile on Thursday. “And I hope he did.”
The 18-year-old top-rated NHL prospect and everyone else will find out Friday night as the draft gets underway in Buffalo, with the Maple Leafs holding the first pick.
The newly hired Chayka appreciates the figuratively steep climb he’s undertaking in trying to restoring luster to one of the NHL’s marquee franchises.
“You want to almost make it a bit painful to make sure you’re getting it right,” said Chayka, who added that the front office is unanimous on the selection without revealing who it will be. “And I think that’s what we did.”
For Toronto, the draft represents a familiar starting-over moment. It was in the same downtown Buffalo arena 10 years ago nearly to the day when the Maple Leafs selected center Auston Matthews with the first pick.
Though he remains in Toronto and has compiled multiple individual accolades, the Maple Leafs are in transition with a new front office, new coach and having to rebuild their core group after finishing last in the Atlantic Division. It was the first time they’ve missed the playoffs with Matthews.
McKenna, an undersized winger at 5-foot-11 but a prolific scorer, is the projected No. 1 pick. Yet he has company in a draft class that’s light at the top on centers and deep on defensemen, leaving many NHL executives unsure of the top five picks.
They include San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier, whose team is scheduled to pick second and ninth.
“It’s definitely a year where I don’t think anyone really knows how it’s going to go, so it could go off the rails a little bit,” Grier said. “Everyone’s board is going to be drastically different.”
Among the top prospects are Swedish left winger Ivar Stenberg, Canadian center Caleb Malhotra, and a host of defensemen: Latvia’s Alberts Smits, North Dakota’s Keaton Verhoeff, and Michigan native Chase Reid, the top-ranked U.S.-born prospect.
There’s intrigue with the Vancouver Canucks picking third and the prospect of Malhotra being selected by the team, which hired his father, Manny Malhotra, as their new head coach at the start of this month.
“Our family, we have a great relationship. We’re pretty open about it,” Caleb said, noting the Canucks have kept his father out of the draft loop. “He’s just going to come and be my dad.”
The hometown Sabres have the fourth pick, followed by the New York Rangers.
There’s even more unpredictability with the possibility of trades shaking up the order.
Buffalo has already done so, acquiring the fourth pick by dealing defenseman Bo Byram to the Chicago Blackhawks this week. The No. 9 pick has already changed hands three times within the past week, with the Florida Panthers trading it to the Ottawa Senators before the Sharks acquired it.
Grier hasn’t ruled out trading the No. 2 pick and said he has received “a couple of legitimate offers.” Chayka said he has made a push to land another top-five selection.
“I can’t remember the last time that much activity has happened with picks that high,” said Chris McFarland, the former Colorado Avalanche executive who was recently hired as general manager of the Nashville Predators.
McFarland’s memory is fuzzy because there’s not much to recall: Top-five selections don’t often change hands. It has happened just four times since the NHL lockout wiped away the 2004-05 season, and only one of those trades were made after the order of selection was revealed.
“It’s exciting,” McKenna said. “There’s been a lot of big moves. And just watching it as a fan right now, it’s been fun.”
The trades represent an amusing distraction for someone determined to prove worthy of being pegged as his age group’s top player two years ago. After a prolific two-plus-year stint with Medicine Hat in the Western Hockey League, McKenna made the jump to Penn State University to face older and more physical competition.
He ended his freshman season with a flourish, scoring 32 points in his final 17 outings. His 51 points finished tied for fourth in the nation.
“Amazing story,” Chayka said of McKenna. “Never had a skills coach until he was 13. Didn’t have a skating coach until he was 13. He’s not at the gym until he was 15.”
McKenna has visited Toronto, including attending a World Cup game with his family this week.
“Obviously, I’ve thought about it,” McKenna said of being selected first by the Leafs, before saying the decision is out of his hands.
“I’m very grateful for where I’m at today. There’s been a lot of ups and downs through it all,” he added. “But if I was a young kid telling myself this is where I’d be, talking in front of you guys at the NHL draft, I’d be pumped.”