HIGHLIGHTS
- Nylander and Knies found out about the Leafs lottery win at a Marlies game
- Nylander’s vlog caught the whole reaction from both stars
- Watch the video below
William Nylander thought it was a troll.
Nylander and Matthew Knies were at the Coca-Cola Coliseum on May 5 watching Will’s brother Alex play for the Marlies in their AHL playoff series. Then their phones started buzzing. The Maple Leafs had just jumped from fifth to first in the draft lottery.
Nylander dropped the footage in his vlog this week. Watch the clip below:
“We won the draft lottery. Are you f***ing kidding me?” Knies stares at his phone like he’s being pranked. Nylander asks for the time, convinced the lottery should have already happened. Then it hits him: “Oh my god. That’s crazy. That’s insane. That’s so cool.”
This is exactly how every Leafs fan felt that night. After a 32-36-14 season that missed the playoffs and an offseason full of Auston Matthews trade rumors, Leafs Nation needed a win. They got it.
The setting is what makes it. Two of the highest-paid players in the league are standing on the concourse at a Marlies game, finding out their team won the lottery in real time. There’s no PR team coaching them through it, just two guys getting blindsided by good news for the first time in years.
The reward is Gavin McKenna or Ivar Stenberg at first overall, two generational prospects who would walk into a hole on the Leafs roster on day one. The pick also gives John Chayka a massive trade chip if he decides to flip it for help on a roster that suddenly has more holes than expected.
This is the Leafs’ third lottery win ever, after Wendel Clark in 1985 and Auston Matthews in 2016. The first one revived the franchise. The second one is still working on it. The third one might finally push it over the line.
Even Nylander, signed to one of the bigger contracts in hockey, looked like a regular guy at a sports bar when the news hit. Now Chayka has the first pick and a massive trade chip. The fun is just getting started.
