'Special with the puck': Canadian phenom McKenna ready for liftoff at world juniors

Willie Desjardins has always cut an intense figure behind the bench.

Every so often when he was guiding the Vancouver Canucks from 2014 through 2017, the razor-focused head coach would crack a smile at something Henrik and Daniel Sedin — a pair of future Hall of Famers — had pulled from their bag of tricks.

Desjardins now experiences eerily similar moments watching Gavin McKenna from the same perch with the Western Hockey League's Medicine Hat Tigers.

And he expects Canadians will feel something along those lines when the baby-faced forward expected to go No. 1 at the 2026 NHL draft dons the red Maple Leaf at the world junior hockey championship.

"It was like, 'How do you do that stuff?'" Desjardins said of the Sedins. "You'll get that with Gavin … he'll make a play and you just have to laugh."

Set to turn 17 on Friday, the six-foot, 165-pound winger from Whitehorse leads the WHL in scoring with 19 goals and 41 assists for 60 points across 30 games. McKenna still holds an eight-point edge in the race despite having already missed four contests while away with the men's under-20 national team.

"The first thing that sticks out is just how hard he is to defend," Canadian centre and Winnipeg Jets prospect Brayden Yager said. "So quick and agile. Not the biggest guy, but super sneaky."

McKenna learned how to leverage his frame as a youngster against older players growing up in Yukon's capital as he searched for the best competition available.

"Knowing where to be at the right times," he explained of the benefits. "You have to play with a little bit of caution. Playing against those older, bigger guys at such a young age, it gets you ready for this."

The world juniors and thoughts of an NHL career were distant dreams when McKenna was first carving up his hometown's frigid outdoor rinks. But fellow Whitehorse product Dylan Cozens, who won 2020 gold with Canada and now plays for the Buffalo Sabres, showed what was possible.

"Grew the sport a lot," McKenna, a friend of Cozens' younger brother, said of the No. 7 pick at the 2019 NHL draft. "It's super motivating for all of us kids up in Whitehorse."

McKenna, however, would leave the north to continue his development at an even younger age than most, living with a billet family during the 2021-22 season after signing on at a hockey academy in Kelowna, B.C., at age 14.

"Definitely tough," he said. "But my parents came down quite a bit."

Desjardins first saw McKenna out west before travelling to Nashville for a showcase tournament.

"His vision was incredible," said Medicine Hat's coach/GM. "He'd make a play and you go, 'I can't believe that.'"

Selected first overall by the Tigers at the 2022 WHL Prospects Draft, McKenna registered 97 points over 61 games in 2023-24 — his first full season — to win Canadian Hockey League rookie of the year honours. He also helped his country capture gold at the under-18 world championship and the Hlinka Gretzky Cup.

McKenna is now been turning heads with teammates as they churn towards the world juniors, which run Dec. 26 through Jan. 5 in Ottawa.

"Special with the puck," said defenceman and Philadelphia Flyers first-round selection Oliver Bonk. "It's on a string."

Fellow blueliner Tanner Molendyk, a Nashville Predators prospect playing for the WHL's Saskatoon Blades, said the opposition is always aware of McKenna.

"Does stuff not many people can," Molendyk said. "I've probably been a victim of him walking me."

Porter Martone of the Ontario Hockey League's Erie Otters played with McKenna at the U18 level.

"It's the 'wow' factor he brings," said the forward expected to be among the top NHL picks in 2025. "Never really know what he's gonna do with the puck."

Hockey Canada's Peter Anholt, who runs the country's under-20 program looking to rebound off last year's disappointing fifth-place showing, has a pretty good idea.

"Gavin could, by the time it's all said and done, be our best player … he's that good," said Anholt, also GM of the WHL's Lethbridge Hurricanes. "We'll see if the bright lights affect him, but I put my bets on him."

McKenna is hoping to leave a stamp on the world juniors the same way Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini did as underage Canadian stars at the last two.

"Set the bar pretty high," said McKenna, a distant relative of Bedard by marriage. "To follow in their footsteps, hopefully, that would be pretty cool."

Hockey fans could be talking a lot about Gavin McKenna in the weeks ahead.

"He's really young," Desjardins cautioned. "But they'll see somebody that'll make plays tons of people can't. They'll see a guy that's always attacking. He's a pretty special player.

"It'll be really exciting to see him in this tournament."

The veteran coach might even sneak a smirk from his couch.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 19, 2024.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press