Gavin McKenna Scouting Report
#72 LW, Gavin McKenna
Team: Penn State
Height/Weight: 6’0″ 170 lbs. 6’0″ 155 lbs last year.
Shoots: Left
DOB: December 20, 2007.
Overview: Gavin McKenna was drafted first overall in the 2022 WHL Bantam Draft by the Medicine Hat Tigers. The cousin of Connor Bedard, the Chicago Blackhawks first overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft, McKenna was the first 14-year-old drafted into the CHL. Most players do not enter the CHL until they turn 16, with exceptional status players entering the CHL a year early. Gavin McKenna went from 18 points as a rookie in 2022-2023 to posting 34 goals, 63 assists, and 97 points in his first full WHL season after getting a limited amount of games in 2023-2024. McKenna improved on that even more with 41 goals, 88 assists, 129 points, and a +60 +/- ratio in his final, 2024-2025 WHL season with the Medicine Hat Tigers. McKenna posted 9 goals, 29 assists, and 38 points in 19 games, averaging two points per game, in the 2025 WHL Playoffs. He is the third youngest player to win CHL Player of the Year, trailing John Tavares, the first player that got exceptional status in the CHL and a former number one pick in 2009, and Sidney Crosby, the first overall pick in the 2005 NHL Draft that has been the face of the Pittsburgh Penguins for two decades and won three Stanley Cups in that timespan. McKenna led the Medicine Hat Tigers to a WHL Championship in 2024-2025 and is enrolled at Penn State this fall to play college hockey.
Player Projection: First line left winger. McKenna has the floor of a first line left winger and the ceiling of a NHL team captain that makes the NHL All Star game on a yearly basis. Outside of Sidney Crosby and Connor McDavid, I cannot think of very many rookies that enter the NHL as a top 10 player in the league at their position at age 18. Alexander Ovechkin, Jason Robertson, Kyle Connor, Kirill Kaprizov, and Brady Tkachuk are currently the top five left wingers in the NHL. McKenna models his game after former Chicago Blackhawks right winger Patrick Kane. He is a plug and play forward at any of the three forward roles. Like McDavid and Crosby, he will be a top 10 left winger at age 18 and he has a chance to be a top 5 player at his position in the NHL at age 19 just like Crosby and McDavid, as both Crosby and McDavid became the best player at their position in the NHL by the time they turned 20. I feel Gavin McKenna has that ability as well. However, he will face competition since Jason Robertson, Kirill Kaprizov, Kyle Conner, and Brady Tkachuk are all still in their prime. The thing is, Gavin McKenna has a higher ceiling than every other left winger I mentioned outside of Ovechkin, which is why I would not bet against him becoming the top left winger in the entire NHL by the time he is 20 or 21 years old. He is the first line left winger on Penn State’s college hockey team as a true freshman who will not turn 18 until December. I love McKenna just as much as the next guy, but I’m not sure he has the longevity Ovechkin has had the past two decades in Washington.
Strengths:
Versatility: Gavin McKenna has the versatility to play any kind or role as a skater whether it is as a left winger, center, right winger, or a defenseman, as Gavin McKenna lined up as a defenseman as a fourth forward when Penn State was on the power play against Arizona State. His main position is at left winger. He has lined up to take faceoffs for the Medicine Hat Tigers at center. He also models his game after former Blackhawks right winger Patrick Kane, as stated earlier. He can be used as a fourth forward that lines up as a defenseman on faceoffs. He does everything at a high level in terms of the effort he gives. McKenna can play any forward role on your top line and that will make him extremely difficult to game plan against since his head coach can move him anywhere on the line to exploit a weakness in the opposing defense.
Hockey IQ: Gavin McKenna processes information so fast. He is constantly in the right place at the right time. He knows when to shoot and when to pass to teammates if he is being defended effectively. Being able to react the right way in certain situations is so critical regardless of what sport you are playing. Gavin McKenna is basically Peyton Manning with a hockey stick and skates instead of a football. That is probably the best and simplest way to describe Gavin McKenna in terms of his hockey IQ and intelligence. He saw only one defender in the Penn State season opener on the power play for Penn State, sees his teammate wide open, passes him the puck and gets his first career college assist during the first period of the Penn State season opener. It essentially took him a millisecond to find an open teammate for his second assist with Penn State in the first period.
Weaknesses:
Puck Skill: His puck skill could become more consistent. This is an area of improvement more than a weakness. Gavin McKenna is exceptional at deking and stick handling. Sometimes he is not as consistent as you would like him to be in terms of accuracy. His passes and shots could be more accurate. However, McKenna has been so consistent it is hard to say that puck skill is a weakness.
Defense: Gavin McKenna could improve as a defender. Again, like puck skill, this feels like an area of improvement more than a weakness. You would like to see McKenna play with more physicality and hit more. His +60 +/- ratio with the Medicine Hat Tigers and the fact that he gained 15 lbs of muscle this summer tells me his defense will not be a liability at the next level, but it still feels like an area of improvement as he develops.
Skater Ratings:
Skating: 9
Puck Skill: 6
Scoring Ability: 8
Playmaking Ability: 9
Hockey Sense/IQ: 10
Character: 9
Physicality: 7
Defensive Play: 5