The Florida Panthers just did their next playoff opponent a favour.
By defeating the No. 1-seed Boston Bruins in stunning fashion Sunday, the Panthers prevented the Bruins from reaching the conference final and thus locked in Boston’s 2023 draft slot at No. 28 overall.
The Toronto Maple Leafs own Boston’s first-round draft pick, which they acquired from the Washington Capitals on Feb. 28 in the Rasmus Sandin trade. (Washington previously earned the Bruins’ pick by renting out defenceman Dmitry Orlov and forward Garnet Hathaway to Boston.)
Had the Presidents’ Trophy–winning Bruins captured the Stanley Cup, the Maple Leafs would’ve selected 32nd. Had they been runner-up, 31st. If the Bruins reached the Eastern Conference Final, 30th.
In short, 28th overall was the best possible outcome for the Maple Leafs’ first-round draft selection in Nashville on June 28.
“We just felt the draft capital coming back was going to be something that we could use to either add a higher-end prospect to our system in Nashville or survey what the market is going to be as we get into June in terms of trade,” Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas said. “With the Rasmus deal, it was to get the first-round pick and then get a secondary piece.”
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That would be rental defenceman Erik Gustafsson, who contributed in Toronto’s Game 6 series-clinching victory in Tampa on Saturday.
The Maple Leafs already traded their own 2023 first-round pick to St. Louis as part of the Ryan O’Reilly and Noel Acciari blockbuster.
The slot of that pick has yet to be determined. The further the Maple Leafs go, the later the Blues’ pick.
Dubas has a penchant for trading down when holding a late first-round pick on the draft floor.
In 2022, he packaged the 25th-overall pick (Sam Rinzel) to shed injury-prone goaltender Petr Mrazek to Chicago and received the Blackhawks’ 38th-overall choice (Fraser Minten) in return.
Toronto’s draft position has been locked in this year, but there is no guarantee it will actually make the pick.
Dubas will surely be open to moving the 28th-overall selection.
Game 1 of the Panthers-Leafs series begins at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Scotiabank Arena.
Watch the game on Sportsnet or Sportsnet NOW.
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