After nearly two months of speculation, of hand-wringing and prognosticating, the Toronto Maple Leafs made it official Friday night: with the first-overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft, the club selected Canadian winger Gavin McKenna, ushering in a new era for the blue-and-white.
It’s a banner moment for the 18-year-old, who’s seemed destined to hear his name called first on this Draft stage for the past half-decade. After a rollercoaster campaign in the college hockey ranks, some questions around whether another young talent might have surpassed him as this draft class’s best, McKenna will head to Toronto as the 2026 Draft’s top dog.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Maple Leafs’ newest phenom:
First Overall: Gavin McKenna
2025-26 Team: Penn State, NCAA
Stat Line: 15G-36A-51PTS in 35 games
Bukala’s breakdown:
Here’s what Sportsnet’s Jason Bukala, formerly the Florida Panthers’ director of amateur scouting, wrote about McKenna in his ranking of the Draft’s top 100 prospects:
McKenna’s season ended prematurely when Penn State were eliminated earlier than expected at the NCAA tournament. He used the extra time off to add more strength to his frame and the results were clearly on display at last week’s combine in Buffalo, where he tested very well. His results stood out in many categories, including pull-ups and leg power. His interview with our team at Sportsnet was also outstanding. McKenna identified how he needed to pay more attention to defensive responsibilities, especially off the puck, in addition to his offence.
McKenna is the most elite offensive talent in the draft class. He produced 15G-36A in his freshman season at Penn State, including 11G-22A in his final 18 games. McKenna isn’t likely to be deployed on the penalty kill at the pro level. It’s safe to assume all of his ice time will come at even strength and on the power play.
What you need to know about the player:
Like the last offensive dynamo drafted first overall by the Maple Leafs, McKenna’s path to the big leagues has been somewhat unconventional. But since leaving his hometown of Whitehorse, Yukon, for the RINK Hockey Academy in Kelowna, B.C., McKenna has seemed to be Canadian hockey’s heir apparent.
The winger’s all-world vision allowed him to dominate every level as he came up through the ranks — he stacked 65 points in 35 games at the RINK academy, 75 points in 26 games during his time at the South Alberta Hockey Academy, before bulldozing his way through the Western Hockey League with the Medicine Hat Tigers. Debuting as a 14-year-old, McKenna wasted little time proving he could hang in the WHL, collecting four points in his regular-season debut with the Tigers.
By the time he left the club, he’d amassed 244 points in 133 games, led Medicine Hat to a championship, and became the third-youngest prospect to be named CHL Player of the Year. The other two? Sidney Crosby, and McKenna’s new Maple Leafs teammate, John Tavares.
Then came the plot twist. In November 2024, the NCAA Division I Council ruled that CHL players were eligible to join the college hockey ranks. The recruitment frenzy began. McKenna chose Penn State.
The transition wasn’t easy — the jump to a league filled with older, stronger players briefly humbled the young winger. He started quietly, saw his game critiqued more than it had ever been. McKenna posted a respectable — though perhaps pedestrian, by his standards — 16 points through his first 16 games.
But over the latter half of his freshman campaign, the teenager found his dominant touch once again. The final 16 games of his season saw him put up 31 points, including an eight-point night against Ohio State in February that ranked as the highest single-game total seen in NCAA Division I hockey in nearly four decades.
The result of the NCAA rollercoaster in the end: a first-overall selection, and a ticket to Toronto.
Interesting fact:
In hearing his name called first Friday night, McKenna made history on the NHL Draft stage, becoming just the second Indigenous player ever to be selected first overall, and the first in nearly half a century.
A citizen of the Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in First Nation, McKenna enters the big leagues following in the footsteps of Dale McCourt, a citizen of the Kitigan Zibi Anishinābeg First Nation, who was tabbed with the No. 1 pick by Detroit back in 1977.
The future Maple Leaf has a tattoo on his forearm honouring his Indigenous roots, and his grandfather Joe Mason, a residential school survivor. The tattoo depicts a large wolf, representing his family’s clan, along with a moose, the Tombstone Mountains in Yukon, and the family’s cabin, built by Mason two decades ago.
“I like the thought that he can look at his arm and think of home,” his mother, Krystal, told APTN’s Sara Connors earlier this week. “There’s been quite a history with First Nations people. If we can try and have a small part in making Indigenous kids feel proud of where they come from, then I think that’s pretty fantastic.”
