Toronto Maple Leafs News: Gavin McKenna Pulls On No. 92 and the Post-Collapse Era Officially Begins

The most important Toronto Maple Leafs news this week didn't involve a trade call or a contract fax. It involved a teenager skating around Ford Performance Centre in full Leafs gear for the first time, wearing a number nobody expected. Gavin McKenna, the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, took the ice on Wednesday in blue and white — and in the slow-motion days of early August, that image did more to turn the page on Toronto's miserable 2025-26 season than anything else could. The Leafs missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade, fired up a full organizational reset, won the draft lottery anyway, and now the reward is visible, on skates, in Etobicoke.

McKenna's first skate, a new number and new gear

Start with the cosmetics, because even the cosmetics tell a story. McKenna has worn No. 72 for most of his hockey life, but he skated Wednesday in No. 92 — a switch made to accommodate newly signed goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who has worn 72 for nearly two decades. When the two-time Vezina winner your GM just handed the crease to wants his number, the 18-year-old finds a new one. McKenna also showed up in Bauer equipment, having left the CCM gear from his Penn State days behind as part of his move into the pro ranks.

The more substantive note from the week: McKenna spent his summer training alongside San Jose Sharks star Macklin Celebrini, which is about as good a workout partner as a franchise rookie can find. And he sounds like a kid who has already thought hard about what playing in this market means. "I just try not to think about it, try to block out all the noise and play the game I love playing," he said of Toronto's media pressure. Easier said than done here, but it's the right answer.

The rookie sets his own bar

McKenna also did some talking this week, and none of it was shy. In comments published Saturday, he pointed out how unusual his landing spot is: "It's pretty common that players who get drafted first overall go to a team who's tanking and it's not the case for me. I know I've gotten lucky." He's not wrong — the Leafs' lottery win, coming after a playoff miss rather than a bottoming-out, drew grumbling across the league. McKenna, who signed his three-year entry-level deal earlier this summer, says he wants to help Toronto get back into the playoff picture and has his eye on the Calder Trophy while he's at it.

Meanwhile, the December question is already circulating: veteran hockey writer Joshua Clipperton spent part of the week making the case that McKenna is ready for the World Juniors, which would require the Leafs to make him available in-season. File that one away — it will become a full-blown talk-radio segment by November if McKenna is producing in the NHL.

All eyes on Matthews — and who plays beside him

The other recurring theme in Maple Leafs news this week was less fun for the incumbent star. Multiple pieces in the Toronto press hammered the same point: Auston Matthews faces enormous pressure to be great again in 2026-27, with one offseason review flatly declaring that another 30-goal campaign is just not good enough. It's a fair line. The Leafs did not bottom out last season because of their fourth line.

The flip side is that Matthews is being cast as exactly the mentor McKenna needs — with no less than Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman publicly endorsing him for the role this week. Assistant GM Ryan Hardy has floated the idea of McKenna eventually riding shotgun with Matthews, praising the rookie's line-rush game and playmaking in possession. And there's the William Nylander option: during Jim Hiller's earlier stint on Toronto's coaching staff, Matthews and Nylander logged more than 1,300 five-on-five minutes together and outscored opponents 76-47, per Maple Leafs Hotstove. Now that Hiller is running the whole bench, reuniting his best two forwards — roughly $25 million in combined cap hit — is very much on the table.

A roster rebuilt on the fly

It's worth stepping back at the season's quietest point to tally what new GM John Chayka actually did, because the roster that reports to camp in September will look dramatically different from the one that allowed 3.60 goals per game last season, second-worst in the NHL.

• Darren Raddysh, acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a June 19 sign-and-trade for just a 2026 fifth-round pick, then signed for eight years and $68 million. Raddysh is coming off a 70-point, 22-goal breakout in which he led the league with 10 power-play goals by a defenseman. "It's an aggressive move, it's not without risk of course," Chayka admitted, "but we just felt given the stage we are at and what he brings to the table, we felt it was worth pursuing."
• Sergei Bobrovsky, signed for three years at a reported $7 million per season. He reunites with Anthony Stolarz, his old Florida crease partner from the Panthers' 2024 Cup run, in what projects as Toronto's tandem.
• Nick Paul, acquired from Tampa Bay for goaltender Dennis Hildeby, a 2027 fourth-rounder and a 2028 third-rounder. Paul was limited by injury to 15 points in 51 games last season, but the Leafs value that he can actually play center.
• Jack Roslovic, signed for two years at $4 million annually — a versatile middle-six forward who happens to be one of Matthews' closest friends.
• Going the other way: Joseph Woll and Simon Benoit went to Philadelphia for Samuel Ersson, Emil Andrae and a third-round pick; Brandon Carlo was dealt to the St. Louis Blues for two 2026 third-rounders; and Nick Robertson was moved to Pittsburgh, reuniting him with Kyle Dubas.

Not everyone loves it. The Hockey Writers listed Toronto among the teams that regressed this offseason, and Clipperton pegged the Leafs' playoff odds at "50-50 or less" in a Thursday column. The skeptics' case: this is now one of the oldest rosters in the league, the Paul trade cost real assets for an injured player, and Bobrovsky turns 38 on the heels of an .871 save percentage. The optimists' case is simpler — the defense and goaltending couldn't be worse than last year, and the best prospect in a decade just showed up.

Front office keeps churning

The one piece of hard transactional news in the window came Wednesday, when Toronto hired Dan Palango as director of amateur scouting and expanded the scouting staff around him. It continues a wholesale rebuild of hockey operations under Chayka, who was hired after what the organization described as deep due diligence and who installed Hiller as the 41st head coach in franchise history on June 25. Development camp came and went in early July with 53 players on the ice — 23 of them Leafs draft picks, including McKenna and the rest of the 2026 class — under the watch of assistant GM Hayley Wickenheiser's development staff. One sobering note from the week: a month into free agency, seven former Leafs remain unsigned around the league, a reminder of how thoroughly this roster has turned over.

What's next and key dates

The calendar now runs downhill toward camp. Key dates for the 84-game 2026-27 schedule:

• Sept. 29: Season opener at home vs. Montreal — the seventh straight year these rivals have met on opening night.
• Nov. 27: Black Friday matinee in Boston.
• Dec. 26: Boxing Day in Montreal.
• March 6: Bobrovsky's return to Florida.

Training camp will answer the questions this week only sharpened: where McKenna slots on opening night, whether Matthews and Nylander reunite, and how Hiller divides the crease. For now, the lasting image from this stretch of Toronto Maple Leafs news is a rookie at the practice facility wearing an unfamiliar number, insisting the noise won't get to him. In this town, that's the boldest claim of all — and in about eight weeks, he gets to start backing it up.