Gavin McKenna is an 18-year-old forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs, taken first overall in the 2026 NHL Draft on 26 June and signed to a three-year entry-level contract. McKenna arrived from Penn State, where he scored 51 points in 35 games in his only college season, and before that from the Medicine Hat Tigers, where he won a WHL championship and the league’s Player of the Year award. Here is everything you need to know about him.
Will Gavin McKenna make the Maple Leafs roster this season?
That is the open question of Toronto’s training camp, and it has not been settled. The Maple Leafs have not said where Gavin McKenna starts the season, and McKenna himself said in late July that even his place in the club’s early-September rookie games in Gatineau was “up in the air”. Toronto opens the preseason on 19 September against Montreal and its regular season on 29 September. A top-six role has been floated by people around the club, but nothing has been announced. This page is updated as camp resolves it.
Where is Gavin McKenna from?
Gavin McKenna was born on 20 December 2007 in Whitehorse, Yukon. Both of McKenna’s parents, Krystal and Willy, played hockey, and his father built an outdoor rink for him to skate on as a child. McKenna is Indigenous and a member of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation, and he is the first player from Yukon ever selected first overall in the WHL Draft. His younger sister Kasey, born in 2010, plays hockey in Yukon.
How did Gavin McKenna do at Penn State?
Gavin McKenna scored 51 points — 15 goals and 36 assists — in 35 games for Penn State in 2025-26, his only college season. That was 1.46 points per game, second-best in the country. Within Big Ten play McKenna took the conference scoring title with 38 points in 24 games, the first Penn State player ever to win it.
According to Penn State Athletics, McKenna was also named Big Ten Freshman of the Year, a unanimous All-Freshman Team selection, an All-Big Ten Second Team pick, a CCM/AHCA Second-Team All-American and a top-10 finalist for the Hobey Baker Award. On 20 February 2026 he set two Penn State single-game records at once, with eight points and seven assists in an 11-4 win over Ohio State.
What did Gavin McKenna do in the WHL?
Gavin McKenna played three seasons for the Medicine Hat Tigers, debuting at 14 years old after being granted exceptional player status by BC Hockey and Hockey Alberta — the third player to receive it, after Connor Bedard and Matthew Savoie. He was the first overall pick in the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft and recorded four points in his first game.
| Season | Team | League | GP | G | A | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 16 | 4 | 14 | 18 |
| 2023-24 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 61 | 34 | 63 | 97 |
| 2024-25 | Medicine Hat Tigers | WHL | 56 | 41 | 88 | 129 |
| WHL total | 133 | 79 | 165 | 244 | ||
| 2025-26 | Penn State | NCAA | 35 | 15 | 36 | 51 |
The career WHL totals are the CHL’s own. Put the two halves together and Gavin McKenna scored 295 points in 168 games across the three seasons before he turned professional — a figure nobody publishes, because his junior and college careers are always counted separately.
McKenna’s 2024-25 season is the one that settled the draft. He scored 129 points in 56 regular-season games, led Medicine Hat to a WHL championship, and won both the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy as WHL Player of the Year and the David Branch Award as CHL Player of the Year. His point streak reached 54 games counting the playoffs, the longest single-season streak in the CHL since 2000. The season before, he had been WHL and CHL Rookie of the Year, leading all league rookies with 63 assists.
His scoring rate dropped as he moved up, from 2.30 points per game in his last WHL season to 1.46 at Penn State — and he still finished second in the country.
Is Gavin McKenna related to Connor Bedard?
Yes, by marriage. Gavin McKenna and Connor Bedard are cousins through marriage rather than by blood, and the pair are also the first and third players ever granted exceptional player status in the CHL’s western leagues.
How tall is Gavin McKenna?
Gavin McKenna stands 6 feet (183 cm) and was listed at 170 lbs (77 kg) by Penn State during the 2025-26 season.
What happened with Gavin McKenna’s assault charge?
Gavin McKenna was charged after an altercation in State College, Pennsylvania, in January 2026. On 6 February 2026 the Centre County District Attorney withdrew the felony aggravated assault charge, having concluded that video of the incident did not support it and that the injuries were less severe than first reported. Lesser charges remained at that point and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for 11 February. This page reports only what the district attorney’s office has confirmed, and will be updated when the case is formally resolved.
Where to follow Gavin McKenna
McKenna is on Instagram as gavin_mckenna27. The Hockey Beast tracks every story about him on our Gavin McKenna page.
He is from Whitehorse, Yukon — a territory of roughly 42,000 people. His father built and maintained a backyard rink that took 40 to 50 hours of upkeep a year, and required Gavin to match those hours skating on it. He left home at 12 to attend hockey academy in Kelowna, British Columbia.
Yes. He is a citizen of the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation through his grandfather, Joe Mason, a residential school survivor. McKenna has a tattoo of his grandfather’s Yukon cabin with its coordinates, alongside a wolf — his clan animal — and a moose.
He wears 92 for the Maple Leafs. He was initially assigned 72 but gave it up when Sergei Bobrovsky joined the team.
He left the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2025 for Penn State under the NCAA rule change that opened college hockey to major junior players, reportedly on an NIL deal worth around $700,000. He was one of the highest-profile players to make the move, and it reshaped the development path for elite prospects.
He recorded points in 54 consecutive games from November 6, 2024 through the WHL Finals — a modern WHL record, passing marks held by Connor Bedard and Logan Stankoven.
He signed a three-year entry-level contract with Toronto on July 3, 2026. Reported figures vary on the exact cap hit; the deal is heavily bonus-loaded.
His father is Willy McKenna and his mother is Krystal McKenna. He has two sisters, Madison and Kasey.
