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Auston Matthews looked at the clock in his hotel room in Helsinki. Yup, 4 a.m. But the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in this June's draft didn’t mind waiting up to hear the results of the draft lottery. After all, it was a process that will have a profound impact not just on the Toronto Maple Leafs, who ended up with the first overall pick, but on Matthews and his family, assuming the Leafs call Matthews’ name at the draft in Buffalo on June 24. "It was actually a little nerve-wracking," Matthews, 18, said over the phone from Helsinki. But exciting too. "It’s nice to have that little bit of clarity," he said. “But at the same time nothing’s set in stone.” It has been an interesting season for the boy from Arizona who was born a couple of days too late to be part of the 2015 draft class that included generational stars Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel. The gifted center signed a contract to play under former NHL and Stanley Cup-winning coach Marc Crawford in Zurich in the Swiss elite league. Matthews battled injuries but still ended up with 46 points in 36 games for the Lions, who were surprisingly upended in the first round of the playoffs. Matthews was second in team scoring and finished second in voting for the league’s MVP award. As well as learning to play in a professional league, the season in Switzerland also allowed him to be somewhat removed from the predraft lottery hoopla that enveloped Eichel and McDavid a year ago, when the Edmonton Oilers ended up with the first overall pick and the Buffalo Sabres ended up with the second pick. “I really enjoyed the experience over there,” he said. “I think I learned a lot.” As for which teams were in the best position to earn the first overall pick as the season went along, Matthews said he tried not to focus on that too much, although as Saturday’s draft lottery approached there was a certain amount of anxiety wondering how the balls would finally fall. The play of Finnish prospects Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi has created a kind of group of three along with Matthews at the top of the 2016 draft class that is not dissimilar to the Eichel-McDavid separation of a year ago. Still, given that the Leafs are hungry for a franchise center, it would be a major surprise if they did not go with Matthews as the top pick as they continue to rebuild. Matthews has played against William Nylander, one of the team’s top young prospects, and recently saw another top Leaf prospect, Mitch Marner, play in the OHL playoffs for the London Knights. “They definitely have a lot of young talent,” Matthews said. That he would be an ideal fit with the young potential the Leafs have stockpiled seems a no-brainer. In the coming days, Matthews will be part of a very young American squad at the World Championships and then he will work out and prepare for life as an NHL player a life that will officially begin at the draft. And you can forgive him if he occasionally thinks about what it will be like that moment in Buffalo. “Of course, I think you always dream of being drafted and hearing your name called,” Matthews said. That and getting some sleep, too.
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