Maple Leafs Learn Their First Round Draft Fate Following Another Early Playoff Exit

While the Toronto Maple Leafs clearly had the Stanley Cup in their sights in 2025, it wasn't meant to be as they were eliminated in Game 7 by the defending Stanley Cup Champions and their bitter rivals, the Florida Panthers.

That is going to have plenty of implications on their off-season as well, as questions will be raised over President Brendan Shanahan as well as the future of both John Tavares and Mitch Marner, but that's not all.

As a result of Game 7, the team now know the fate of the 2025 first-round pick that they once owned, as it will now officially be No. 25, owned by the Chicago Blackhawks.

If they had of won on Sunday night, the pick would have been in the 29-32 range, but as a result of the deal that saw them land Jake McCabe from Chicago, they will now see the Blackhawks use their pick.

What that means for Toronto is that their first draft pick in the 2025 NHL Draft will come in late in the second round at No. 61 overall, meaning that after their disappointment in 2024/25, they won't have the chance to land a top name in the draft.

To get superstars you sometimes need to make big trades, but in this case it definitely seems like an overpay looking back at the deal to get McCabe, as the team would have loved the No. 25 pick in the 2025 draft, but as a result of Kyle Dubas' final few months in Toronto, they won't have a pick until deep into the second round after another playoff failure.