NHL Draft Lottery luck doesn’t go Bruins’ way as Maple Leafs win first pick

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NHL Draft Lottery luck doesn’t go Bruins’ way as Maple Leafs win first pick

Matt Vautour · MassLive

Tue, May 5, 2026 ·

2 min read

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The Bruins will have to hope the Maple Leafs continue to struggle on the ice, because they won't get a first-round pick from Toronto until at least next year.

For more than a half century, the puck hasn't bounced Toronto's way very often, but on Tuesday, the Maple Leafs had more success with ping pong balls. They won the NHL Lottery and will pick first overall.

At the 2025 trade deadline, the Bruins sent Brandon Carlo to Toronto for Fraser Minten and a top-five protected first round pick.

The Maple Leafs, who went 1-7-1 in their final nine games and 5-14-5 after the Olympics, tumbled to finish with the fifth-worst record in the NHL.

Entering Tuesday's NHL lottery, there was a 58.2 percent chance that one of the 10 teams below the Leafs would win one of the two lottery draws and jump over Toronto, pushing the Leafs' pick to No. 6 (or No. 7 if two teams jumped over them), which would have transferred the pick to Boston .

But Toronto managed to not only dodge that, but they moved up instead.

Now, the Bruins have just one pick in 2026, their own at No. 23. They'll get a future Leafs' first-round pick, but determining when is a little complicated.

The wording from the trade is this (from Puckpedia):

" Top 5 protected, slides to 2027. The 2027 pick goes to Philadelphia (as part of Scott Laughton trade) if it is outside the top 10, which converts this pick to Boston to a 2028 unprotected 1st Round Pick. If this Pick slides to 2027 and is in the top 10, TOR can either transfer it to BOS to satisfy this trade and then give PHI the 2028 unprotected, or transfer it to PHI and give BOS the 2028 unprotected 1st Round Pick. "

It's possible that the pick Boston eventually gets is higher than No. 6 or 7 that would have come this time if Toronto continues to struggle. But a high pick in a good draft at the expense of a division rival was certainly a conclusion the Bruins would have been hoping for.

The draft begins on June 26.

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