Canada's Gavin McKenna #9 during Preliminary Round - Group A action against Latvia at 2025 IIHF World Junior Championship at Canadian Tire Centre on December 27, 2024 in Kanata, Ontario, Canada.
photo: © International Ice Hockey Federation / Andre Ringuette
Gavin McKenna turned 17 only last December but is in his third year in the WHL with the Medicine Hat Tigers in the WHL. A member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, he has been playing so well that scouts unanimously put him as the first overall selection in a year and a half, even though, of course, he is likely to get better and better between now and then.
McKenna is an anomaly in many ways. For starters, he was born in Whitehorse, the capital city of Yukon in Canada’s North and the hosts of next year’s Arctic Winter Games. Only three NHLers have come from the city previously—Byron Baltimore, Peter Sturgeon, and Dylan Cozens.
McKenna left Whitehorse in 2021 at age 14 to play prep hockey in the CSSHL (Canadian Sport School Hockey League), first in British Columbia and then Alberta. After nearly two years of dominant play, he made his WHL debut with the Tigers late in the 2022-23 regular season, recording four points in his WHL debut. He has been with the team ever since. His numbers over the last two full years have been eye-popping. In his first final season of junior, as a 15/16-year-old, he averaged a point and a half a game on the left wing and was named WHL rookie of the year.
Additionally, McKenna was also named winner of the 2024 APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) Bryan Trottier Most Valuable Player Award. The APTN launched in 1999 as the first national Indigenous broadcaster in the world. The award is given to an Indigenous hockey player who “demonstrates on-ice excellence and contributes to the Indigenous community.”
“It’s a super cool feeling, you know, being Indigenous and getting that recognition,” McKenna said of the honour. “I’m super proud of who I am and my background. It’s an award that is pretty big, and it’s something that you don’t just get because of your hockey talent; it’s also stuff within the community. When I go home, I try and help my community as much as I can.”
This year, as a 16/17-year-old, McKenna is currently riding a 39-game point streak and is averaging better than two points a game. In a draft-minus-one season, he is in elite company.
In Sidney Crosby’s penultimate junior season, he had 135 points in 59 games, an average of 2.3 points a game. John Tavares had 118 points also in 59 games, an average of exactly two a game. Connor Bedard had 100 points in 62 games and Mitch Marner 126 in 63. McKenna currently has 129 points in 56 games, an average of 2.3 a game.
Internationally, McKenna dominated the 2024 Men’s U18 World Championship, recording a tournament-best ten goals and 20 points en route to a gold medal despite being the youngest player on the team. Perhaps the most telling game was that final one for the top of the podium. It was Canada versus the United States, McKenna going head-to-head with James Hagens, who led the tournament with a record 22 points. Hagens was held without a point in the gold-medal game, however, while McKenna notched a hat trick and an assist in a 6-4 Canada win. That summer, McKenna helped Canada to victory at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton.
Just a couple of months ago, McKenna played at the World Juniors, one of the youngest players ever to represent Canada at the event. Although he had but one goal in five games, he got more and more dangerous as the tournament went on and proved to be one of the team’s most effective players inside the blue line.
This year in the “W,” McKenna seems to have gotten better every game. Some numbers stand out as testament. In addition to his 39-game point streak, which started on November 6, 2024, he has had at least one point in 53 of 56 games. More incredibly, he has more three-point games (13) and two-point games (20), than he has one-point games (12). His top output was just a couple of weeks ago, seven points against Red Deer. When he recorded his 200th career WHL point in January, it came in only his 118th game, third fastest in WHL history after Connor Bedard (107 games) and Pavel Brendl (96).
Most top scorers are centremen. There is more ice in the middle, and the centre can play with both wingers and get more easily to the net. Mckenna is a left winger, though, and although a gifted scorer perhaps his greater skill is not just as a playmaker but actually opening the ice for his linemates. He has 41 goals, a great number, to be sure, but he also has 88 assists, thanks largely to his intimidating speed, his ability to move east-west with agility, and his confidence going to the goal. He has decent size (6’, 165 lbs./180cm, 75 kg.), but clearly he is a young man who will still grow a bit and fill out a lot before getting to the NHL.
McKenna is great today, but every day he gets just a bit better. Imagine what the next 16 months will do for his development.
McKenna is an anomaly in many ways. For starters, he was born in Whitehorse, the capital city of Yukon in Canada’s North and the hosts of next year’s Arctic Winter Games. Only three NHLers have come from the city previously—Byron Baltimore, Peter Sturgeon, and Dylan Cozens.
McKenna left Whitehorse in 2021 at age 14 to play prep hockey in the CSSHL (Canadian Sport School Hockey League), first in British Columbia and then Alberta. After nearly two years of dominant play, he made his WHL debut with the Tigers late in the 2022-23 regular season, recording four points in his WHL debut. He has been with the team ever since. His numbers over the last two full years have been eye-popping. In his first final season of junior, as a 15/16-year-old, he averaged a point and a half a game on the left wing and was named WHL rookie of the year.
Additionally, McKenna was also named winner of the 2024 APTN (Aboriginal Peoples Television Network) Bryan Trottier Most Valuable Player Award. The APTN launched in 1999 as the first national Indigenous broadcaster in the world. The award is given to an Indigenous hockey player who “demonstrates on-ice excellence and contributes to the Indigenous community.”
“It’s a super cool feeling, you know, being Indigenous and getting that recognition,” McKenna said of the honour. “I’m super proud of who I am and my background. It’s an award that is pretty big, and it’s something that you don’t just get because of your hockey talent; it’s also stuff within the community. When I go home, I try and help my community as much as I can.”
This year, as a 16/17-year-old, McKenna is currently riding a 39-game point streak and is averaging better than two points a game. In a draft-minus-one season, he is in elite company.
In Sidney Crosby’s penultimate junior season, he had 135 points in 59 games, an average of 2.3 points a game. John Tavares had 118 points also in 59 games, an average of exactly two a game. Connor Bedard had 100 points in 62 games and Mitch Marner 126 in 63. McKenna currently has 129 points in 56 games, an average of 2.3 a game.
Internationally, McKenna dominated the 2024 Men’s U18 World Championship, recording a tournament-best ten goals and 20 points en route to a gold medal despite being the youngest player on the team. Perhaps the most telling game was that final one for the top of the podium. It was Canada versus the United States, McKenna going head-to-head with James Hagens, who led the tournament with a record 22 points. Hagens was held without a point in the gold-medal game, however, while McKenna notched a hat trick and an assist in a 6-4 Canada win. That summer, McKenna helped Canada to victory at the Hlinka Gretzky Cup in Edmonton.
Just a couple of months ago, McKenna played at the World Juniors, one of the youngest players ever to represent Canada at the event. Although he had but one goal in five games, he got more and more dangerous as the tournament went on and proved to be one of the team’s most effective players inside the blue line.
This year in the “W,” McKenna seems to have gotten better every game. Some numbers stand out as testament. In addition to his 39-game point streak, which started on November 6, 2024, he has had at least one point in 53 of 56 games. More incredibly, he has more three-point games (13) and two-point games (20), than he has one-point games (12). His top output was just a couple of weeks ago, seven points against Red Deer. When he recorded his 200th career WHL point in January, it came in only his 118th game, third fastest in WHL history after Connor Bedard (107 games) and Pavel Brendl (96).
Most top scorers are centremen. There is more ice in the middle, and the centre can play with both wingers and get more easily to the net. Mckenna is a left winger, though, and although a gifted scorer perhaps his greater skill is not just as a playmaker but actually opening the ice for his linemates. He has 41 goals, a great number, to be sure, but he also has 88 assists, thanks largely to his intimidating speed, his ability to move east-west with agility, and his confidence going to the goal. He has decent size (6’, 165 lbs./180cm, 75 kg.), but clearly he is a young man who will still grow a bit and fill out a lot before getting to the NHL.
McKenna is great today, but every day he gets just a bit better. Imagine what the next 16 months will do for his development.