Buffalo, June 26, 2026. The Toronto Maple Leafs are on the clock with the first pick in the NHL draft, in the same building where they took Auston Matthews first ten years earlier. They call Gavin McKenna's name. He is 18, from Whitehorse, Yukon, and he gets to hug his family on the way to the stage.
"This is my dream come true, to hug my family and walk up on the stage, see Justin Bieber," he said. It was only the third time the Leafs had ever picked first: Wendel Clark in 1985, Matthews in 2016, and now him.
"Pressure is a privilege."
Gavin McKenna, after the Maple Leafs drafted him first overall, June 2026, to The Canadian Press
To get there, he had to come a long way, starting from a sheet of ice behind his parents' house.
The backyard
Winters in Whitehorse get cold enough that a puck can feel like a stone. Willy McKenna built his son a rink in the backyard every winter anyway, and the boy was out there shooting pucks at thirty below, more than 100 a day. Whitehorse sits in the Yukon, far up in Canada's northwest, a place known for wilderness, not hockey players.
Gavin was born there on December 20, 2007. He grew up outdoors: camping, dirt biking, snowmobiling, fishing. He dressed his little sister Kasey in goalie pads so he would have someone to shoot at in the driveway. Years later, one of the things Penn State offered to win him over was a fly fishing class.
Eighteen flights
There was not enough ice time in the Yukon to get a kid like that noticed. So from about the age of eight his family started flying south for camps and tournaments, at least a dozen times a year. Whitehorse pitched in: residents and local businesses helped them raise the money with raffle tickets, Christmas trees and collected pop cans. One season they flew out of the territory 18 times for hockey.
At 12, he left home. He moved to Kelowna, British Columbia, to live with a family his parents trusted, and to play at an academy with ice every day. At 14 the Medicine Hat Tigers took him first overall in the WHL draft. No player from the Yukon had ever gone first in the Dub. "It's just a surreal feeling," he told the CBC.
"I kind of knew that I was bound to accomplish something," he said from his family's home that spring.
Medicine Hat
He spent three seasons with the Tigers. In the last one he put up 129 points, 41 goals and 88 assists, in 56 games. He was the WHL's player of the year, and he led Medicine Hat to the league title and into the Memorial Cup final. In what was widely seen as a bid to keep him in junior, the league scheduled Tigers preseason games in Whitehorse.
He went to Penn State instead, after a campus visit, on what he called a gut feeling. The Nittany Lions had just been to the Frozen Four. "I wanted to come to a winning team and I thought this was the spot," he said.
"I've almost got to be perfect at all times."
Gavin McKenna, to ESPN, 2026
The hard winter
College hockey did not come easy. Less time and space, older and stronger players, and the points came slower than people expected. By December he had four goals. "Pucks haven't been going in for me, haven't been getting bounces," he said. He knew the noise. "People have been waiting for me to fail … it fires me up."
Then it turned. He helped Canada win bronze at the World Juniors in January. On January 23, in Madison, he scored his first college hat trick as Penn State beat No. 5 Wisconsin 7-2.
A week later, on January 31, Penn State played Michigan State outdoors at Beaver Stadium in front of more than 74,000 fans and lost 5-4 in overtime. That night, in downtown State College, police alleged that McKenna struck a 21-year-old man during an altercation, and the man suffered a broken jaw. Police charged McKenna with felony aggravated assault and lesser offenses.
On February 6, after reviewing video, the Centre County district attorney withdrew the felony. He said the video did not support a conclusion that McKenna intended to cause serious bodily injury. A misdemeanor simple assault charge remained, along with summary counts of harassment and disorderly conduct. McKenna waived his preliminary hearing, which had been set for March 11. As of early October the case was still open: a judge had granted a third continuance, and his attorney said the defense was still in negotiations with the district attorney's office. McKenna has not publicly given his side of what happened.
He finished his only college season with 51 points, 15 goals and 36 assists in 35 games. Then came Buffalo, and the Leafs.
The grind
He spent his summer on the ice beside Macklin Celebrini, the San Jose star who had gone first overall two years before him. "He's a pretty intense guy when it comes to his off-ice and on-ice stuff," McKenna said. "To be in that environment and get into a routine, it felt good. I had a lot of fun, and I felt like I got better."
Before the draft, on an ESPN panel, former NHL goalie Kevin Weekes said he saw "shades of a [Nikita] Kucherov, shades of a Mitch Marner, shades of [a] Patrick Kane" in him. He still talks about being proud to be from Whitehorse. He is 18, the first pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and by his own account he feels he has to be close to perfect. The kid who shot pucks at thirty below has never been short on work.
GAMECHANGER™Reporting draws on CBC News (2022), The Canadian Press, the Associated Press, NHL.com, theScore, Penn State Athletics, WPSU, StateCollege.com, Onward State, WJAC-TV, ESPN, CNN, ClutchPoints and Hockey Canada.
Sources (16)
The Canadian Press via Castanet: 'My dream come true': Maple Leafs select Gavin McKenna first overall · Fox News: Toronto Maple Leafs select Penn State star Gavin McKenna first overall · CBC News via WHL: The teen phenom who went from a backyard Yukon rink to the top WHL draft pick · CBC News: 14-year-old Yukoner goes 1st overall in WHL draft · The Canadian Press via Castanet: Gavin McKenna looking forward to his Penn State debut · ESPN: 'I've almost got to be perfect at all times': Gavin McKenna's path to expected No. 1 pick · The Canadian Press via Castanet: 'People have been waiting for me to fail' · Penn State Athletics: McKenna earns bronze medal with Team Canada at World Junior Championship · Penn State Athletics: Dowiak, McKenna register hat tricks as No. 8 Penn State defeats No. 5 Wisconsin 7-2 · WPSU: Penn State men's hockey hits record-breaking attendance in first-ever Beaver Stadium game · StateCollege.com: DA withdraws felony assault charge against Gavin McKenna · Onward State: McKenna waives preliminary hearing for assault case · WJAC-TV: Judge grants third continuance in assault case against Gavin McKenna · theScore: McKenna 'I got better' after training with Celebrini · ClutchPoints: Gavin McKenna draws Mitch Marner, Patrick Kane comps · NHL.com: Gavin McKenna has learned a lot practicing with Macklin Celebrini this offseason