BUFFALO, N.Y. — General manager John Chayka and the Toronto Maple Leafs are on the clock in having the No. 1 pick in the NHL draft on Friday night, and with Penn State forward Gavin McKenna regarded as the top prospect.
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For the newly hired Chayka, the selection provides him the next opportunity to help reshape one of the NHL’s marquee franchises, which suddenly is in transition following a last-place finish in the Atlantic Division. Chayka already has hired a new coach in Jim Hiller and last week acquired defenseman Darren Raddysh in a sign-and-trade deal with Tampa Bay .
Now it’s a matter of restocking the Maple Leafs’ youth in the same downtown Buffalo arena where Toronto selected star Auston Matthews with the first pick in the 2016 draft.
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McKenna is a prolific play-making right winger , who is from Whitehorse, Yukon. Among the other top prospects are Sweden left winger Ivar Stenberg, center Caleb Malhotra and a host of defensemen: Alberts Smits of Latvia, North Dakota’s Keaton Verhoeff and Chase Reid, the top-ranked U.S.-born prospect.
Barring trades, rounding out the top five selections are San Jose at No. 2, followed by Vancouver, Buffalo and the New York Rangers.
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