TORONTO — They earned this the hard way.
That is how Toronto Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan put it after winning the NHL Draft Lottery on Saturday night. For a last-place team that has missed the playoffs in 10 of the last 11 years, and won a league-worst 29 games this season, it was an accurate statement.
The team might have technically won the right to draft franchise centre Auston Matthews with the No. 1 pick. But it took tanking towards the bottom of the standings to get it done.
“Our Leafs fans have been so supportive of what we set out and told them we were going to do,” said Shanahan.