For the second year in a row, lady luck was not on the Bruins' side in the NHL draft lottery. Not only did Boston not get Toronto's first-round pick, but the Maple Leafs actually won the lottery and jumped up to the first overall pick, where they will almost certainly select Penn State winger Gavin McKenna.
The Leafs owe Boston a first-round pick as part of the 2025 trade that sent Brandon Carlo to Toronto and landed the Bruins Fraser Minten in addition to two draft picks. But that first-round pick was top-five protected, meaning the Leafs got to keep it as long as it stayed in the top five after they finished with the fifth-worst record this season.
Had the Leafs gotten leapfrogged in the lottery and slipped to sixth or seventh in the draft order, the pick would have transferred to the Bruins. There was a 58.2% chance of that happening, but the ping pong balls favored Toronto Tuesday night.
Last year, the Bruins entered the lottery in the fifth spot, but got jumped by two teams and actually slid to the seventh pick, where they still landed a blue-chip prospect in forward James Hagens.
Given the urgency to add more blue-chip talent while the likes of David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy and Jeremy Swayman are still in their primes, getting Toronto's pick could have been a massive boost to this retool-on-the-fly. It could have landed them a player who would be ready to contribute in a year or two.
Now, they may not get that first-round pick until 2028, because there are some semi-complicated conditions on the pick from here. Let's explain…
If Toronto's 2027 first-round pick ends up outside the top 10, it automatically goes to the Philadelphia Flyers as part of the Scott Laughton trade. That would bump the pick going to Boston to an unprotected 2028 first.
If Toronto's 2027 first-round pick ends up inside the top 10, the Maple Leafs have the choice to send it to Philadelphia or Boston, with the other then getting the unprotected 2028 first. It's worth noting that there was some reporting contradicting this condition on Tuesday, but as of now we'll stick with what the league said previously.
If it is in the top 10 and the Leafs get the choice, they most likely would not want to hand a top-10 pick to a division rival and would choose to give it to the Flyers instead. That could change if the Leafs end up really tearing things down and rebuilding, though, because that might create a situation where that unprotected 2028 pick could be seen as more valuable.
However, the chances of the Leafs completely tearing things down just decreased dramatically after winning the McKenna sweepstakes. He will likely play in the NHL next season and could greatly accelerate Toronto's own retool.
Regardless, none of this helps the Bruins as much in the short-term as a top-10 pick in 2026 would have. With the first-round pick from the Brad Marchand trade also now pushed to 2028, the Bruins could be looking at three first-round picks in 2028.
That's nice, but those picks are many years away from contributing at the NHL level. If general manager Don Sweeney aims to keep this retool on the fast track, he may very well explore trading a couple of those future picks for more immediate upgrades now. We'll see if that happens this offseason.
The Bruins will still have their own first-round pick in 2026, which will be either 21st, 22nd or 23rd, depending on the results of certain second-round playoff series.
