Beating adversity will be asset in new life
with Leafs
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| Gavin McKenna, centre, dons a Leafs jersey. (Photo by Natalie Shaver/CHL) |
In the year leading up to being the first overall selection
in the NHL Entry Draft, Gavin McKenna traveled a path no else has ever travelled.
Last Friday, McKenna was picked first overall by the Toronto
Maple Leafs in the NHL Entry Draft held at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New
York. Pop superstar Justin Bieber, who is from London, Ontario, put on a WWE
style promo in making the first overall pick for the Leafs, and in the process
he drew huge amounts of loud boos from the partisan Buffalo fans adding to the
entertainment spectacle of the event.
From that moment, McKenna, who is from Whitehorse in the
Yukon Territory, has had a love in with the Leafs organization, their fans and
Toronto as a city. The honeymoon phase of McKenna’s arrival in Toronto is
definitely on.
The 18-year-old left-winger ultimately ended up where he was
supposed to be after navigating a 2025-26 campaign with the Penn State
University Nittany Lions that contained various twists and turns. During that
campaign, McKenna dealt with criticisms coming from a slow first half of the
season to dealing with legal matters that came up early in the second half of
the campaign.
The adversity McKenna faced might make him ready for the
adversity he will eventually encounter playing in the fishbowl setting the Leafs
deal with in Toronto that is unlike any other market in the NHL.
Back in June of 2025, McKenna was targeted to be the
consensus first overall selection in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. He had just come
off a sensational 17-year-old season in the WHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers in
2024-25.
In 56 regular season games, McKenna, who stands 6-feet and
weighs 170 pounds, piled up 129 points coming off 41 goals and 88 assists to go
with a plus-60 rating in the plus-minus department. He helped the Tigers finish
second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 47-17-3-1 record.
McKenna proceeded to help the Tigers win their sixth WHL
title in team history posting a 16-2 mark in the 2025 WHL Playoffs. He played
in 16 games in the WHL Playoffs recording nine goals and 29 assists for 38
points to go with a plus-14 rating.
The Tigers proceeded to advance to the Memorial Cup
tournament that crowns a CHL champion. At that year’s tournament played in
Rimouski, Quebec, Medicine Hat topped the preliminary round standings with a
3-0 mark to make the event’s championship game. In the Memorial Cup title
clash, the Tigers fell 4-1 to the London Knights, who are a storied powerhouse
in the OHL.
In the four games the Tigers played at the Memorial Cup
tournament, McKenna had three goals and three assists and a plus-two rating.
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| Gavin McKenna in action in the 2025 WHL final. |
He piled up the trophy case with all sorts of individual
honours that season. The honours that came McKenna’s way included being named
the recipient of the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy as WHL player of the year and
being named the CHL player of the year. I even had one or two hockey observers
tell me they thought McKenna was more NHL ready than phenom centre Connor
Bedard was when he joined the Chicago Blackhawks as an 18-year-old.
Due to the fact McKenna didn’t turn 18 until December 20,
2025, he wasn’t eligible for the 2025 NHL Entry Draft that was held June 27 to
28 of that year in Los Angeles, California. Had McKenna been eligible for that
draft, he would have been selected first overall.
Back when the Tigers selected McKenna first overall in the
2022 WHL Prospects Draft, they were expecting to have him for his 18-year-old
season due to his December birth date. That all changed on November 7, 2024
when the NCAA Division I Council voted to abolish old rules that classified CHL
players as professional.
Starting on August 1, 2025, players from the CHL’s three
major junior circuits in the WHL, OHL and QMJHL were eligible to play for NCAA
Division I teams. Basically, CHL players will maintain NCAA eligibility as long
as they have not signed an entry-level contract with an NHL team.
Since 2021, the NCAA’s guidelines regarding name, image and
likeness (NIL) changed, and athletes were now able to make money through NIL
deals. With McKenna being viewed in June 2025 as the consensus first overall
selection for the 2026 NHL Entry Draft, the writing was on the wall that NCAA
teams were in a recruiting battle to bring him to the United States.
McKenna officially committed to joining the Nittany Lions on
July 8, 2025. In July, ESPN reported McKenna’s NIL money for attending Penn
State is “in the ballpark” of US$700,000.
It seemed like McKenna was poised to have a dream season
with Penn State before joining the NHL. Fairly or unfairly depending on your
view, the NIL payout to McKenna brought expectations to perform. He ended up
having the most roller-coaster season of his hockey career to date, which
inadvertently might prepare him for life with the Leafs.
During the first half of the 2025-26 campaign with the
Nittany Lions, McKenna came face to face with tonnes of criticism from media
that covers NCAA Division I men’s hockey for being underwhelming. He recorded
four goals, 14 assists and a minus-five rating in his first 16 games with Penn
State.
Observers that saw McKenna play in the NCAA during that time
said he has been outstanding skating on the power play or four-versus-four
situations when he has time and space on the ice. The NCAA league is filled
with players aged 18 to 23 with the majority being aged 20 to 23 and that
changed things for McKenna when it came to five-on-five play.
When it came to McKenna’s five-on-five play going against
players who are more physically developed because of their age, observers said
McKenna hadn’t been good. Observers noted McKenna has shown a lack of
engagement and been unwilling to compete in those situations. The word
“passenger” was used to describe McKenna’s effort when it came to five-on-five
play.
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| Gavin McKenna was the CHL player of the year in 2024-25. |
The criticisms of McKenna’s play intensified at World
Juniors, which were played from December 26, 2025 to this past January 5 in
Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota. The criticisms reached their height
after Canada fell 6-4 to Czechia in a semifinal contest on January 4 in Saint
Paul.
In that loss, McKenna had one assist and took some bad
penalties inside the last six minutes of the third period. On the eye test, he
didn’t look good during five-on-five play and made business decisions bowing
away from spots where he had to compete and battle for the puck. The fact
McKenna lost his cool after Czechia’s empty-net goal inside the final 30
seconds of that game where he got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and a
10-minute misconduct didn’t help things.
At that point, it was pretty definite McKenna was not a lock
to be selected first overall in the 2026 NHL Entry Draft. Skilled forward Ivar
Stenberg of Sweden, who played for that country’s Frolunda FC men’s team, and
Canadian defenceman Keaton Verhoeff, who is an alum of the WHL’s Victoria
Royals and was playing for the NCAA’s University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks,
entered the chat.
On the ice, the semifinal loss ended up being the turning
point of McKenna’s season. It seemed like he was hearing the noise at that
point.
In Canada’s 6-3 bronze medal win over Finland one night
later in Saint Paul, he looked a lot more dialed in when it came to playing a
strong game at both ends of the ice. He finished with one goal and three
assists to be named the game MVP for Canada.
In Canada’s seven overall games at World Juniors, McKenna
recorded four goals, 10 assists and a plus-seven rating.
During the second half of the Nittany Lions season, he
skated in 19 games recording 11 goals, 22 assists and a minus-two rating. On
the season in Penn State, McKenna finished with 51 points coming off 15 goals
and 36 assists in 35 games to go with a minus-seven rating. The Nittany Lions
made it to the round of 16 in the NCAA Division I championship tournament and
fell 3-1 to the University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs 3-1 at the MVP Arena in
Albany, New York on March 27.
Penn State finished the 2025-26 campaign with a 21-14-2
overall record. McKenna was Big Ten Conference Scoring Champion with 38 points
coming off 11 goals and 27 assists in 24 conference games. He was also named
the Big Ten Freshman of the Year and a Hobey Baker Memorial Award Top 10-
Finalist amongst the accolades he piled up for the season.
During the second half of the season, McKenna hit a big bump
off the ice on January 31 following his team’s 5-4 overtime loss against the
Michigan State University Spartans in an outdoor contest played at Beaver
Stadium before 74,575 spectators on the Penn State campus.
Following an alleged physical altercation on the evening of
January 31 in downtown State College, McKenna was charged with felony aggravated
assault, misdemeanour simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment.
According to the Onward State media outlet, the incident occurred at 8:45 p.m.
in front of the Pugh Street Parking Garage and McKenna and his group were
coming from Doggie’s Pub. He was arraigned on February 4 and released on
$20,000 unsecure bail.
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| Gavin McKenna has faced adversity since leaving the Tigers. |
On February 6 after reviewing a video of the altercation,
Centre County District Attorney and State College Police decided that the video
showed there was no evidence that McKenna had acted with the intent to cause
serious bodily injury and the aggravated assault charge was dropped.
On April 21, Forbes reported McKenna waived his formal
arraignment in Pennsylvania court, which is a procedural step that moves his
criminal case forward without requiring him to appear in person for that
hearing. Basically at that point, the defendant’s lawyer confirmed receipt of
the charges and a not guilty plea is generally entered automatically. The
Forbes piece said that move is largely for procedural efficiency allowing the
case to proceed without an additional court date that rarely changes the
direction of the matter.
McKenna’s case has been advanced into the pretrial phase of
the criminal process. At this stage, both sides engage in work to see if the
matter can be resolved without a trial. Alternative resolutions are also
explored at this point.
The Forbes article goes on to say McKenna will raise the
self-defence argument as he is facing only misdemeanour charges, and his
defence counsel is also likely telling prosecutors that no jury will convict
McKenna given the claim that he was acting to protect his mother, Krystal,
while also being harassed by the victim along with the fact he is a first time
offender.
After that development, Krystal was charged on April 29 with
two misdemeanour counts of furnishing alcohol to minors for an alleged incident
occurring on the evening of January 31 inside Doggies Pub.
From what I can tell, these legal matters are still ongoing.
In the time since Gavin’s initial arrest, I had a couple of folks message me
that live in the United States to tell me it is common in that country for
people to antagonize celebrities into getting the celebrity to attack them in
order to get a big payout in civil court with a lawsuit over physical damages.
Looking at how the case is playing out with the McKenna
family, I believe and speculate this whole situation stinks of the victim
potentially trying to get a payout from Gavin or law enforcement officers
trying to make up for missteps in doing their jobs. Still, I have learned from
court reporters over the years to never be certain about the outcomes a court
system will give to a case. The McKenna family legal situation has the
potential to not go away any time soon and continue to be a pain in the butt
dealing with the lesser charges.
In another smaller adversity that came up, Gavin McKenna did
take on criticism for deciding against playing for Canada at the International
Ice Hockey Federation’s Men’s World Championship held this past May 15 to 31 in
Zurich and Fribourg, Switzerland, to better prepare for the NHL Draft Combine.
The Combine was held in the KeyBank Center in Buffalo from June 1 to 6, and
McKenna finished in the top 10 of five of the fitness tests.
With having to deal with all these adversities in the last
12 months, McKenna might be the most prepared prospect to ever play for the
Leafs and the fishbowl that goes with playing in Toronto. He has also traveled
a path no other first overall NHL Entry Draft selection has ever had to travel.
McKenna is also a
Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation
citizen, and he became the second Indigenous player to go
first overall in the NHL Entry Draft with centre Dale McCourt going to the
Detroit Red Wings in 1977. If McKenna flourishes into NHL stardom with the
Leafs, he could make a major societal impact in being a major positive
influence in Indigenous communities.
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| Gavin McKenna (#72) celebrates scoring a goal in the 2025 WHL Playoffs. |
Due to the fact he is going to play in Toronto, it is not naïve
to say more adversities are coming McKenna’s way. Those adversities would be
hard pressed to be more challenging than the ones he has come across over the
past 12 months.
If you have any
comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them
to stankssports@gmail.com.
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