Latest report reveals major trouble in Toronto that could have lasting impact

Gavin McKenna is masking a real problem brewing underneath Toronto's prospect pipeline, and it's one that could follow this franchise for years if it isn't addressed.

Daily Faceoff's Steven Ellis put it plainly.

"Once McKenna turns pro, Toronto's pipeline will go back to being mid-pack at best, but that's still a big step above what we had seen from them for most of the past decade."

That context matters. Before this year's draft, The Athletic ranked Toronto's system 29th overall in the league, one of the worst prospect pools in hockey. McKenna's arrival didn't fix that structurally. It just papered over it with one elite name.

Strip McKenna out of the equation, and the real issue Ellis is flagging becomes impossible to ignore.

"McKenna is a much better playmaker than a goal scorer, which then makes me wonder who is going to be capable of putting pucks in the net," Ellis said.

No one behind Matthews can consistently score

That concern isn't theoretical. It already shows up at the NHL level whenever the roster's best goal scorer is unavailable.

"The big club seems to struggle whenever Auston Matthews is not at full health," Ellis said. "I'm not sure there's anybody in the system here capable of putting up more than 15 goals a season max."

That's a genuinely alarming sentence for an organization banking on internal development to eventually replace an aging core. If Matthews' health becomes a recurring issue, and last season's injury-shortened campaign suggests it might, Toronto currently has no real answer waiting in the wings.

Ellis traced the root cause directly to organizational philosophy.

"That's to be expected when you don't pick high often and value trade deadline deals more than top 75 picks," he said. "Goal-scoring is the most important part of any team, and yet, it's the hardest thing to find."

That's the real long-term risk here. Years of prioritizing immediate roster help over accumulating high picks has left Toronto without a natural finisher anywhere in its pipeline, at exactly the moment its core scorers are aging into their thirties.

McKenna's playmaking brilliance won't solve that gap on its own. Elite passers need someone to actually finish their work, and right now, Toronto doesn't have an obvious name to fill that role once this current wave of prospects graduates.

There is a real silver lining worth acknowledging. Toronto is currently slated to pick three times across the first two rounds in 2027, thanks to Colorado's first rounder and Columbus's second, acquired through the Bobby McMann trade with Seattle.

That extra draft capital gives the front office a genuine chance to correct course, provided ownership actually prioritizes finding a scorer over continuing the pattern of trading picks for immediate help.

Toronto still compares favorably within its own division for now, with Florida, Tampa Bay, Ottawa, and Buffalo all further behind on prospect talent. But comparing well to a weak group doesn't erase the specific hole in this pipeline.

If Matthews' health ever becomes a real long-term issue, and this organization still has nobody internally capable of consistently scoring goals, that's the kind of structural problem that doesn't resolve itself. It only gets fixed by deliberately changing how Toronto drafts, starting now.