Gavin McKenna, The Top Prospect In The 2026 NHL Draft, Was Born To Be A Philadelphia Flyer
Sidney Crosby had 135 points in 59 games during his 17-year-old season playing for Rimouski in the QMJHL. Connor McDavid had 99 points in 56 games during his 17-year-old season playing for Erie in the OHL. Connor Bedard had 100 points in 62 games during his 17-year-old season playing for Regina in the WHL.
Gavin McKenna still has another full season of hockey to play before he's draft eligible in the NHL. As a 17-year-old, he currently has 106 points coming off of 32 goals and 74 assists in 51 games with the Medicine Hat Tigers in the WHL. The kid is currently riding a 35-game point streak. He has the numbers, the skill, and the skating abilities to put him up there with all the other generational prospects we've seen come up through the NHL Draft. But the one thing that sets Gavin McKenna apart from the rest?
Holy shit this kid has some jam. What a combo that was! Perfect hack to the hands. Typically most players would just end it at that, especially when their stick shatters in half and the blade goes flying across the ice. But Gavin McKenna is generational, so he's going to follow it up with a nice crosscheck to the back with his broken stick. Up 5-3 late in the 3rd period, this kid means business. He's not going to let opponents get away with any nonsense just because the game is almost over.
With so many of these elite skilled guys coming up in hockey, teams are constantly having to worry about how to protect them. You want to put them out on the ice with other skilled guys so they can create plays and do what they do best. But you also don't want to leave them exposed for opponents to take a run at. But when it comes to a kid like Gavin McKenna? Well he's from the Yukon Territory. Just a workhorse from Whitehorse. He has no problem with protecting himself out there, and inflicting a little damage of his own. Not many guys out there who have it in them to put up 2 points per game AND try to hack someone's arm off their body.
I don't think tanking necessarily exists in the NHL. These guys all care a little too much to go into every game trying to lose. But the 2025-26 NHL season is going to be filled with plenty of teams who aren't necessarily doing everything they can to put a great team out on the ice to help them pick up those 2 points in the standings every night. Maybe we can call it "soft tanking", and there's going to be a lot of it going on next year. And all we can hope for now is that somehow the Philadelphia Flyers manage to soft tank the best, because Gavin McKenna was born to play in Philly. He already looks great playing in Orange and Black, and he's got that Bobby Clarke mean streak in him.
But we all know how these things typically work out. So he'll either end up in Pittsburgh or Chicago.