Leafs Land Top Draft Pick With Former Medicine Hat Star McKenna
The Whitehorse-born winger finished his freshman season at Penn State with 15 goals and 51 points across 35 games.
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The Toronto Maple Leafs selected 18-year-old Gavin McKenna with the first overall pick in the 2026 NHL Draft on Friday night in Buffalo, N.Y., with the announcement made by pop icon and Leafs fan Justin Bieber.
McKenna, a Whitehorse native, comes off a freshman season at Penn State where he posted 15 goals and 51 points across 35 NCAA games. He previously starred for the Western Hockey League's Medicine Hat Tigers, putting up 34 goals and 97 points in his first WHL season before leading the entire Canadian Hockey League with 129 points (41 goals and 88 assists) in 2024-25.
Toronto won the draft lottery despite entering with odds of just 8.5 per cent. The Maple Leafs endured a disastrous 2025-26 season that started with Stanley Cup aspirations and finished with a 28th-place record. The team now has a new head coach and general manager.
McKenna was the top-ranked North American skater according to NHL Central Scouting. He burst into prominence in 2022 at age 14 with a four-assist debut in the WHL. At five-foot-11 and 170 pounds, he chose the U.S. college route to face stiffer competition before turning professional. In February of this year, McKenna faced aggravated assault charges in Pennsylvania stemming from an altercation, but prosecutors dropped the most serious charge. He was not suspended by Penn State.
The Maple Leafs join an Original Six franchise with the NHL's longest Stanley Cup drought, dating to 1967. The team still has a talented forward group led by captain Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares, and Matthew Knies.