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| A Gavin McKenna card. |
In recent years, the WHL has had the good fortune of cycling through a special generation of players talent wise that you have to get out and see. Many of those are currently in the 19-year-old age group that includes Riley Heidt of the Prince George Cougars, Brayden Yager of the Moose Jaw Warriors, Tanner Molendyk of the Saskatoon Blades, Gracyn Sawchyn of the Edmonton Oil Kings, Lukas Dragicevic of the Prince Albert Raiders and Andrew Cristall and Caden Price of the Kelowna Rockets.
McKenna, who is the superstar left-winger of the Medicine Hat Tigers, is the leader of younger class of elite players in the WHL. He leads the league in scoring with 48 points coming off 15 goals and 33 assists to go with a plus-20 rating appearing in all the Tigers 25 regular season games.
In 102 career regular season games, McKenna, who stands 6-feet and weighs 165 pounds, has recorded 53 goals, 110 assists and a plus-23 rating. Those statistics are incredibly impressive when you realize McKenna won’t turn 17-years-old until December 20.
Thanks to his late in the year birthday, McKenna won’t be eligible for the NHL Entry Draft until 2026. That means the Tigers will get to have McKenna for his 18-year-old season.
For folks on the WHL circuit, you still have about two thirds of the current regular season and the post-season plus the entire 2025-26 campaign to see McKenna. When the 2026 NHL Entry Draft comes around, there is a high probability that McKenna will be selected first overall and his time in junior hockey will come to an end.
McKenna’s rise was an unexpected one as he was born and raised in Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory. With the support of his parents Willy and Krystal, Gavin started traveling to hockey camps and tournaments at age eight. The parents knew that their son needed to be challenged and the competition in Whitehorse was limited.
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| Gavin McKenna recorded 97 points last season for the Tigers. |
He was selected first overall in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft by the Tigers. In his 15-year-old campaign in 2022-23, McKenna suited up for the South Alberta Hockey Academy Under-18 Prep Team located in Dunmore, Alta., which neighbours the southeast border of Medicine Hat.
In 26 games with the SAHA squad, McKenna recorded 37 goals and 38 assists for 75 points. He was named the most valuable player of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League’s under-18 circuit.
McKenna also played in 16 regular season games with the Tigers in 2022-23, and he recorded four goals and 14 assists in those outings. In the 2023 WHL Playoffs, he recorded one goal playing in all four of the Tigers games as they were swept by the Winnipeg Ice in a best-of-seven first round series.
As a full-time rookie last season, McKenna finished 12th in WHL regular season scoring with 97 points coming off 34 goals and 63 assists. He set a new Tigers record for most points by a 16-year-old breaking the old mark of 95 points set by Al Conroy way back in the 1982-83 campaign.
McKenna captured the Jim Piggott Trophy as the WHL’s rookie of the year, and he was named CHL rookie of year too. This past August, McKenna helped Canada win gold at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup under-18 tournament piling up 10 goals and 10 assists in seven games. That sent him into the current campaign with the Tigers riding a sizable amount of momentum.
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| Gavin McKenna has 163 points in 102 career regular season games. |
If McKenna could reach the all-around levels Bedard did as a major junior player, it would be outstanding. With that said, I would never put that type of pressure on McKenna.
McKenna has to write his own story and make his own path in major junior hockey. Right now, he is doing just fine.
Hockey community morns passing of Hasenfratz
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| Mike Hasenfratz, left, officiates a WHL game on March 25, 2000. |
Hasenfratz, who was 58-years-old, was raised in Regina. While working in the WHL, he was selected to represent the league working the 1995 Memorial Cup in Kamloops, B.C., and the 1998 Memorial Cup in Spokane, Wash.
He claimed the Allen Paradice Memorial Trophy as the WHL’s Official of the Year in his final campaign on the circuit in 1999-2000.
Hasenfratz started working in the NHL the next season making his debut on October 21, 2000 working a game between the New York Islanders and the host Washington Capitals. He would work 705 career regular season games through the end of the 2013-14 campaign.
Just past the middle of his NHL career, Hasenfratz missed two seasons as he recovered from life-threatening heart surgery. From 2011 to 2014, Hasenfratz wore number-two to signify his second chance and what he called doing the second best job in the world after playing.
Rod Pedersen, who is the former play-by-play voice of the WHL’s Regina Pats and Prince Albert Raiders, recalled some good character memories on his site. Those can be found by clicking right here.
Hasenfratz’s final season in the WHL was the first season I covered the circuit in 1999-2000. Being in my first season and still learning the ropes of the league, I didn’t talk to Hasenfratz, and that was my loss.
I was amazed at how well he handled games between the Regina Pats and Moose Jaw Warriors, who were heated archrivals. Back in Hasenfratz’s days, games between the Pats and Warriors included lots of extra-curricular activities and escalate to complete mayhem. He always had a good handle on those contests.
I got a photo of him talking to Brett Lysak of the Pats and Shawn Skolney of the Warriors after a skirmish during a WHL regular season game played on March 25, 2000 at the Pats home rink in the Agridome, which is now known as the Brandt Centre. When Hasenfratz went to the NHL for the 2000-01 campaign, I thought it was cool I had a picture of a referee who was in the NHL.
Rest easy Hasenfratz. You will be remembered fondly by many.
Dunne first queen of NCAA’s NIL game
The 22-year-old Louisiana State University Tigers gymnast has set the bar of what can be made in the NCAA’s guideline regarding name, image and likeness. Since 2021 when NIL guidelines changed, a piece run by the New York Post on September 13 reports Dunne has made an estimated US$9.5-million.
She gained extra notoriety last season when the Tigers won their first NCAA national team title in program history.
Dunne, who is in her “super senior” season fifth year with the Tigers, has over 5.4-million followers on Instagram and 8.1-million followers on TikTok. With her social medial following, she has become attractive to companies looking for endorsements of their products.
The Westwood, New Jersey, product has endorsement deals with Grubhub, Vuori, Bodyarmor and American Eagle Outfitters. In July of 2023, Dunne partnered with Bayou Traditions to launch The Livvy Fund, which is a program that will connect female student athletes at LSU with top brands to secure NIL endorsement deals.
Dunne also made the media outlets swoon in the United States by dating Paul Skenes, who is a star right-handed pitcher for the MLB’s Pittsburgh Pirates and is an alumnus of the LSU Tigers baseball team. Skenes was named the National League’s Rookie of the Year for the 2024 MLB campaign.
Thanks to what Dunne has been able to make through NIL for the short time it has been around, she has changed the overall sports world in North America. She is the NCAA’s first “Queen of NIL.”
As a ripple effect, the hockey world in North America is coming to grips with the changes in the NCAA’s NIL guidelines. Looking at social media, it appears a lot of people in the hockey world just look at the hockey world and don’t realize forces outside their sporting world can affect their world.
On November 7, 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 will be 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.
Under the old rules, the NCAA kept major junior hockey players out on the basis of getting a monthly stipend that has never hit $1,000 a month in Canadian dollars. That was how the NCAA classified CHL players as professional.
A class-action lawsuit was filed on August 13 in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, N.Y., challenging those bylaws. That lawsuit now becomes a mute thing.
The rules that had existed before really put undue pressure on young players mainly from Canada to make a decision if they would play for a major junior team or join the junior A ranks to keep their NCAA eligibility alive. As far as the development process goes, players will be able to make decisions more naturally and benefit from having more freedom with their path through the game in attempting to make the NHL.
Still, those rules are causing major shockwaves in hockey. Junior A teams in Canada banked on being able to get good players who still wanted to protect their NCAA eligibility by not playing major junior. Now, that is a non-factor.
Also, the British Columbia Hockey League elected to leave the junior A Canadian Junior Hockey League in 2021. It officially became an independent circuit going rogue on May 1, 2023 when the BCHL elected to not renew its agreement with Hockey Canada. As a result, anyone associated with BCHL teams lost their sanctioning by Hockey Canada.
This past January, five teams formerly from the junior A Alberta Junior Hockey League joined the rogue BCHL in the Blackfalds Bulldogs, Brooks Bandits, Okotoks Oilers, Sherwood Park Crusaders and Spruce Grove Saints.
Now, there has been shake ups with players trying to get their Hockey Canada sanctioning back and return to Hockey Canada sanctioned leagues. The fate of the BCHL and the five Alberta teams that joined that circuit is up in the air.
Also, there are concerns U Sports men’s hockey will no longer get the CHL recruits it once did.
No one knows for sure how exactly hockey will shake out in North America.
With the money Dunne made from NIL, it was impossible to keep CHL players out of the NCAA.
Meta’s war with Canadian power holders is
ugly, other notes
Back on June 22, 2023, the Government of Canada passed The Online News Act (formerly Bill C-18) in order to get money from Meta, which is the parent company of social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, and Google for displaying active links from mainstream media outlets in Canada. To me, this still is a bizarre law, because you are trying to collect a tax from an entity that is providing a free service. The links on the Meta and Google platforms directed users to the sites of mainstream outlets.
This would be like a neighbour cuts you lawn and cleans your driveway of snow for free to be a good person, but now you want that neighbour to pay money for the privilege to cut your lawn and clean snow from your driveway. That is how I see this law.
Plus, this regulation appeared to not be targeted at the Platform-X (formerly Twitter) social media channel or other search engines like Yahoo or Webcrawler. There must have been a view on those fronts that you can draw blood from the stone. Again, that is how I see it.
Anyways, I saw an update story on this front produced by The Canadian Press last Friday. Since The Online New Act came into force, Meta has been blocking links to all mainstream media sites around the world on its platforms for Canadian users.
In Canada, users of Facebook and Instagram have used a workaround sharing screen shots of news articles, pictures of hard copies of news articles or copying text of articles in their posts from mainstream outlets.
The Canadian Press story stated, “The Liberal government maintains the company (Meta) could still fall under Online News Act, but that would be up to the CRTC to determine.”
Last month, CRTC granted Google an exemption from the act under an agreement that will see Google pay out $100-million to Canadian news outlets.
When I went through that story from The Canadian Press last Friday, my mind was transported back in time to classroom sessions during my days at what was then known as the University of Regina’s School of Journalism and Communications talking about late Canadian philosopher and communication theorist Marshall McLuhan.
McLuhan coined the phrase, “The medium is the message.”
That means if you control the medium you control the message.
From how I read The Canadian Press story from last Friday, the Government of Canada overseen by the Liberal Party and the CRTC have concerns over people sharing screenshots of stories or pictures of physical stories from mainstream outlets on Facebook and Instagram. Now, this has gone far beyond taxing links or putting charges on links.
To me, this is about the Government of Canada putting control of the Facebook and Instagram social media platforms in the hands of the CRTC. Since its formation in 1968 and morphing into its present form in 1976, the CRTC is known as not being user friendly and exerting its power in a forceful way. The CRTC has operated that way no matter which political party has formed the Government of Canada.
To me, the CRTC with its regulations stunted the growth of the broadcast industry in Canada during the best days of the mainstream media in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s with regulations all in the name of protecting Canadian culture.
I remember a friend once saying to me the CRTC operations like the Joseph Stalin era Soviet Union.
Looking at how the CRTC has operated in the past, Meta should fight every way it can when it comes to allowing the CRTC to have control of its social media platforms.
Once again, McLuhan was right, “The medium is the message.”
- Last Saturday , the Universite Laval Rouge et Or downed the Wilfrid Laurier University Golden Hawks 22-17 in the U Sports national football championship - the Vanier Cup. The contest was played before 9,500 spectators at Richardson Memorial Stadium in Kingston, Ontario. Rouge et Or kicker Felipe Forteza hit a Vanier Cup record six field goals for Laval in the win. The old record of five field goals was set on numerous occasions with Laval kicker Vincent Blanchard being the last to hit five field goals in 2022. Forteza hit 6-of-7 field goal attempts last Saturday as the Rouge et Or won without scoring a touchdown. The Rouge et Or have won 12 Vanier Cups since their formation in 1996, and they’ve won more Vanier Cups than any other team. Legendary Rouge et Or head coach Glen Constantin picked up his 220th career head coaching win in regular season and post-season play with the Vanier Cup victory. The all-time leader in career head coaching victories in U Sports football, Constantin has a 220-39 career record as the Rouge et Or head coach.
- On Wednesday, the CHL announced Kelowna, B.C., was chosen to be host of the 2026 Memorial Cup tournament that determines a CHL champion. The event will be the 106th edition of the Memorial Cup. The Rockets last hosted the Memorial Cup in 2004, when they won the tournament as the host team after falling in seven games in the WHL’s Western Conference Championship Series. Kelowna was to host the 2020 Memorial Cup tournament that was cancelled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The CHL’s release can be found by clicking right here.
- The Medicine Hat Tigers, Brandon Wheat Kings, Lethbridge Hurricanes and Spokane Chiefs all submitted bids to host the 2026 Memorial Cup that was awarded to the Kelowna Rockets. Myself and lots of observers felt the Tigers had the best roster to be able to host that event in 2026. James Tubb of the Medicine Hat News provided the Medicine Hat reaction to not getting the 2026 Memorial Cup, and his piece can be found by clicking right here.
- On Wednesday, the Moose Jaw Warriors traded 18-year-old netminder Dimitri Fortin to the Prince Albert Raiders for a sixth round selection in the 2028 WHL Prospects Draft. Fortin has a 1-2 record, a 5.26 goals against average and a .863 save percentage in five appearances for the Warriors this season.
- On Wednesday, the Everett Silvertips dealt Julien Maze to the Regina Pats for Cole Temple in an exchange of 2007-born forwards. Maze posted six goals, 13 assists and a plus-16 rating in 21 games with the Silvertips this season. Temple posted four goals, eight assists and a minus-five rating in 22 games with the Pats this season.
- Is it me or does it seem like every third commercial during the broadcast of a sporting event in Canada is an electric car commercial? That includes when Canadian broadcasters are able to override the commercials on sporting broadcasts on United States networks like broadcasts of NFL games.
- The one time recently I got to see the United States commercials for the broadcast of an NFL game on a United States network I noticed there were no electric car commercials. There was a commercial for a hybrid car and the commercial showed someone filling the hybrid with gasoline on three different occasions. A voice over at the end said that model of vehicle was available as an electric car.
- Marshall McLuhan – “The medium is the message.”
- The difference in car commercials I saw between Canadian and United States sports broadcasts can be attributed to the fact activist Steven Guilbeault is one of the most powerful ministers in the Governement of Canada as the Minister of Environment and Climate Change. Before being elected to the Federal Government in 2019, Guilbeault built a career working for Greenpeace and likeminded environmental organizations similar to Greenpeace. With Greenpeace, Guilbeault was convicted of mischief in 2001 for climbing the CN Tower in Toronto and unfurling a banner. In 2002 while working with Greenpeace, Guilbeault and Greenpeace members went to the home of then Alberta Premier Ralph Klein and his wife Coleen to put up a banner and install a solar panel. Coleen was home alone and got terrified fearing she face a home invasion and grabbed a broom for defence. The Kleins didn’t press charges but did get a restraining order. Don Braid of the Calgary Herald wrote a column of Guilbeault’s past antics, which can be found by clicking right here.
- For the record in the political realm, I am not a fan of either United States president-elect Donald Trump or Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at this point in time. I am sure saying that would put me in the “asshole” category of many and open the door to be buried by both extreme right and left wingers. There was a time I thought having Trudeau become the Prime Minister of Canada was a good thing. That changed when Guilbeault was elected as a Liberal MP in 2019.
- I hate writing about politics. I hate it when it becomes a sizable piece in my sports posts as I am a sportswriter and photographer by trade. Since 2020, politics has affected my line of work at a more increasing rate, so some of my rants will come out every now and then.
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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